Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Two if by Sea: Two Reviews, One Recommendation

In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex by Nathaniel Philbrick

The Eventful History of the Mutiny and Piratical Seizure of the HMS Bounty by Sir John Barrow

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Ahoy, mateys! I bring you two tales of adventure from the sea. I’ve had In the Heart of the Sea on my list for quite awhile due to its Moby Dick connection, and I decided to follow that up with another classic true tale: The Eventful History of the Mutiny and Piratical Seizure of the HMS Bounty. Was I pushing my luck by reading two non-fiction seafaring adventures in a row? Perhaps. In the Heart of the Sea By the time Moby Dick was published […]

Lord of the Flies with Adults

The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder by David Grann

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CBR16 BINGO: Fiasco, because this mission to capture Spanish treasure was a fiasco from the get-go I’ve been putting off writing this review because, while The Wager seems to have been well researched and the writing is engaging, it left me feeling a bit tepid. Nautical history isn’t my usual jam, but I do love a good survival story (see Endurance for my favorite nautical tale and one of my all-time favorite non-fiction books). In the mid-18th century, Britain and Spain were engaged in the […]

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 […]

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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