Oh how I love the exploring books. My regular readers know I'm a bit of a polar geek and there are new books on northern (and extreme southern) exploration out every year. I'm amazed by the interest arctic exploration continues to garner but then again I really shouldn't be - I'm half addicted to it myself. I do like other exploring books though, although this year has been light on my second fav exploring topic: 19th century ladies seeing the world in long dresses and gloves. (They just all flat out amaze me.) Still, some very good stuff to share on the subject - here's a few of special note:
The Frozen Ship: Histories and Tales of Polar Exploration by Sarah Moss. This is one of those very cool titles that perfectly walks the fine line between academic analysis and pop culture consideration. Moss is intrigued by how the written accounts of so many trips (Scott's, Amundsen's Franklin's etc.) have wormed their way into out collective consciouness. We are fascinated by these men, and Moss find it all a bit odd - just as she should. Everything from Frankenstein to cannibalism is here and wonderfully well written. I'll have a long review up in Jan at Eclectica.
The Lure of the Labrador Wild by Dillon Wallace - also to be reviewed in January this is a reprint of a 1905 edition about a doomed expedition into the Labrador wilderness. Dillon Wallace accompanied his friend Leonidas Hubbard, a young writer who hoped to gain experience and thus a leg up on the outdoor field. They joined up with a local man as a guide and went into the unmapped interior Labrador region. And then bad decisions were made and bad things happened and well, these things never seem to end well. I found Wallace's voice to be quite honest and appealing and the whole thing tragic but - well - you kinda knew this was going to go bad. It's a great book and reads very easily - not the slightest bit dated. I'm looking forward to reading more in The Lyons Press reprint series and seeing what other expeditions I've missed out on. (This story was apparently quite the cause celebre when it happened but has been sadly overlooked in the last century.)
The Ice Museum by Joanna Kavenna. A great combination of travel/memoir/history/cultural analysis by an author who goes all over the north looking for the mythical land of Thule. Loved this - loved it! I reviewed it first for Booklist and then expanded big time over at Eclectica last summer. So elegant and smart and fascinating. Not a gripping exploration, but a meditation on those who explored before (and why they did). Just a great book.
The Lost Men: The Harrowing Saga of Shackleton's Ross Sea Party by Kelly Tyler-Lewis. I first heard about this book through the author's posts on the Powells Books blog and was so intrigued by a part of Shackleton's expedition that seemed to have been grossly overlooked by history. Well Tyler-Lewis has done a great job of research - and she shows just how unprepared this group (the whole group) was. It is a miracle they accomplished what they did but I kept wondering just why in the hell they had to make everything so hard - even before they left Australia they were already pretty much screwed. It's just unreal. This is another one for the January review.
Voyage of the Narwhal by Andrea Barrett - One of my all time favorite books, this novel about about a polar explorer and the family he left behind never fails to grip me from beginning to end. I especially liked that Barrett looked at the lives of the women who waited for their men to return - something that has always made me curious when researching polar history. Barrett also has a fantastic story of a mountain climber in the Himalayas in her collection Servants of the Map (it's the title story). She may be writing fiction but the historical accuracy is above reproach. I love her work and so will anyone who likes a good tale of explorers.
