Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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Rock Star: How Ursula Marvin Mapped Moon Rocks and Meteorites by Sandra Neil Wallace and Nancy Carpenter

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Ursula Marvin didn’t have rocks in the head, but she had rocks on the brain! And meteorites and all sorts of neat science things. She was a girl who was told “learn to cook.” And instead, she decided to cook up some good trouble by finding moon rocks, meteorites and more in the harsh Antarctic landscape. This picture book biography, Rock Star: How Ursula Marvin Mapped Moon Rocks and Meteorites by Sandra Neil Wallace and illustrator Nancy Carpenter is a fun introduction to a woman […]

“The human factor is three-quarters of any expedition.”

Madhouse at the End of the Earth: The Belgica's Journey into the Dark Antarctic Night by Julian Sancton

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I’m apparently not normally a reader of books about polar exploration. I cannot find a single one in my 12 years of book reviews. I know it’s an area that I watch documentaries about, but apparently not one I read (although I do occasionally read books about Mt. Everest). However, over the past few months I’ve added several to my to-read list. I’m not sure why, maybe it was my pleasant reading experience of Ghost Ship last summer that put books about exploration by boat […]

The greatest true-life adventure story ever told, now with more photos

The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition by Caroline Alexander, with photos by Frank Hurley

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CBR 14 BINGO: Bodies, because the men on this ship were pushed physically beyond all reasonable limits, and also because one member of the expedition team lost all the toes on one foot. Also, it involves crossing bodies of water. BINGO: Snake, Shadow, Cold, Rec’d, Bodies In 2019, I read Alfred Lansing’s Endurance about Ernest Shackleton’s ill-fated 1914 Antarctic expedition, and it became one of my favorite books of the year. Shortly after, this book by Caroline Alexander, a companion piece to a 1999 exhibition […]

For The Good of Mankind

Whiteout by Adriana Anders

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Here’s how my brain works: I was still swooning over Giulio and Zahra’s Italian lessons in The Hitman and I suddenly flashed to Jerusha and Karl’s sex lessons in Daddy Crush, so obviously I had to reread that. I realized on rereading that I hadn’t given Adriana Anders enough credit for the joyful way Jerusha discovers her own body and sharing experiences with Karl. I also hadn’t realized that the forehead press could be as sexy as a doorway lean. I bend down, tangle my fingers […]

There’s having a stiff upper lip, and keeping calm and carrying on, and then there’s. . . this. One of the best True Life Adventure Tales ever.

Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing

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Sir Edward Shackleton sets off in 1914 on a quest to cross the continent of Antarctica.  Half of his group will land on one side and plant supply catches half way across.  He and his men will land on the other side, and using these supplies, will cross the continent.  Except, no.   The other side (presumably) accomplished their task.  But he and his 28 men never got to Antarctica itself.  Instead, less than two weeks later, their ship, the Endurance, was trapped in ice […]

The key to doing the impossible is to have no other choice

Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing

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CBR11bingo: Travel BINGO: Pajiba, The Collection, Travel, Illustrated, Science On December 5, 1914, Ernest Shackleton and 27 other men sailed from South Georgia in the South Atlantic Ocean on the ship Endurance for what was to be known as the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition. Shackleton’s plan was to sail Endurance across the Weddell Sea and land on the Northwestern edge of Antarctica, at Vahsel Bay. From there, 6 men and 69 dogs would travel on foot the 1,800 miles to the Ross Sea, where another ship […]



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