May 2020 Theme: Explorers

In 14 hundred and 92.... Any type exploration, be it physical, scientific, or mental merely. Enjoy!

http://www.librarything.com/tag/explorers

I am looking forward to this one! I am planning on reading The Moor's Account by Laila Lalami which is novel about an ill-fated Spanish expedition to the area destined to be Florida. The story is told through the point of view of a black Moroccan slave.

Oh seeing Boorstins book brings back memories; discovered that book at the library and could not put it down. Ended up losing it and had to pay which was tight at the time, but later I got my own copy . Read his other books later, learned a ton of history

Tony Horwitz wrote a book about the explorers of the new world A Voyage Long and Strange Well written account of the explorers that came to the new world between Colombus and Jamestown that blasts some of our most cherished myths about our history.

>1 majkia: I'll second "Endurance"! There are a few others I could recommend, as well, when I have a bit of time to look closer. And, I'm sure I'll have a few to choose from.

The only book waiting on my TBR that fits is one on Lewis and Clark. It's been there since 2013 so this is a great time to read it.

talking about should be extremely happy in your company? Excellent read

I might go with the mental and the sci-fi with Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth that has been on my shelf since 2013. If that doesn't float my boat, I do have a The Worst Journey in the World Antarctic 1910-1913 by Cherry-Garrard.

I have unearthed something from my shelves that I think will work, The Remarkable World of Frances Barkley, 1769-1845.

I'm going to try this one:
Alone: The Classic Polar Adventure / Richard E. Byrd

And I knew there was another I wanted to recommend:
In the Kingdom of Ice / Hampton Sides

I read Journey to the Center of the Earth, a classic that I should have read some time ago, but never had . I'm not a sci-fi fan. so I kept putting off this read. All in all, this was a good read. The characters, while no backstory, are well developed within the story line. The journey was alternately exciting and boring. Exciting when we see human-guarding mastodons, but incredibly boring when it takes 120 pages or so to describe the various genus of prehistoric mammals. The ending was a bit abrupt. Verne definitely has a way with words and vocabulary, even in the sci-fi genre. The words are beautiful, varied, and well-placed/used. This was the free Kindle version from 2016. 232 pages 3 stars

Planning on a reread of a book I haven't read in well over fifty years, The Travels of Marco Polo, possibly along with a first-read of Laurence Bergreen's Marco Polo: From Venice to Xanadu, which I've had around the house for a while now. If I have time, I may also do The Sagas of Icelanders, and I've got several other eligible reads sitting around too.

I first read Travels in Jr Hi and think it was the book that started me on the love of travel narratives. I also read Bergreens look at the historic journey thruogh the silk road. I remember liking it but I had some problems with his conclusions. Will be interested in your take on it.

There is also a HF called The Journeyer which covers the parts of the story that Polo skipped over as well as some interesting what if ideas. Well written.

There was another traveler about the same time period Ibn Battutah was a Berber on his way to Mecca in 1325. 30 years later he returned to Tanger after traveling through the know world. His exploits can be easily found in Travels of a Tangerine that looks at his travels in the context of the history of that time. Very well written; he has other books that take you to other parts of his travels

>13 cindydavid4: I have several books around the house on the Silk Road too. Maybe I'll try getting to one or more of them too.

Alone / Richard E. Byrd
4 stars

In 1934, the author headed to Antarctica to spend a few months on his own inland (while people he was working with were a ways away, and they were in radio contact on specific days/times), while taking weather readings at various times throughout the days. They had built him an underground shelter to live in. In June, as it got colder outside, things started to get dicey for the author. This book includes his memories, as well as some excerpts from his diary while there.

It took a little bit to get going, as I wasn’t as interested in the technology in how they built his shelter and such, but once it was built and the rest of the crew left Byrd alone, it got much more interesting. The cold, oh, the cold! Described very well. (Of course, it’s relative when anywhere from 0 to -30F was “warm”! The coldest day was -83F) He was there over winter, so between April and October (this book covers April through August when he was on his own). It read in kind of a conversational tone, which I liked.

Just finished a reread (after a half-century) of The Travels of Marco Polo. Reluctantly, 4**** based on its historical importance, but as a quality-of-read more like 3*** or 3½***. I have the Heritage Society edition (nice boxed volume I picked up some while back at a used book store) and I wish it had had a map included.

I’ve just finished this, my third book by Hampton Sides, and he hasn’t disappointed me yet. In the Kingdom of Ice is the story of the USS Jeanette, a sturdy, well-equipped ship with a stalwart captain and crew. She left on a mission of exploration to the North Pole in 1879, when little was known about the region, and all kinds of cockamamie ideas were taken as fact although no scientific data backed up the claims. Maps were often inaccurate, as well. The whole era is captured perfectly.

I appreciated the included photos, drawings and maps. Another unforgettable 5-star read from Mr. Sides. Thank you, LibraryCin for recommending it for this theme.

>17 marell: You're welcome! So glad you enjoyed it Now, it remains the only book I've read by Sides. What else have you read by him that you'd recommend? Thank you!

Ghost Soldiers: The Epic Account of World War II's Greatest Rescue Mission and

On Desperate Ground: The Marines at The Reservoir, the Korean War's Greatest Battle.

>19 marell: Thank you!

I have completed my read (listen) to The Moor's Account by Laila Lalami. I thought this was an excellently written story but it was an unfortunate choice that I decided to listen to an audio version as the narrator's voice irritated me. The author took the fact that one of the survivors of this 1527 expedition to the Gulf Coast of America was a Moroccan slave. She then delivered a colorful story about this Moroccan's life and his account of the expedition.

Just finished Bergreen's Marco Polo: From Venice to Xanadu 4****. I really found it a useful read (>13 cindydavid4:) after finishing my reread of Polo's original. It put the original Travels into context of Polo's own life, including the years after his return to Venice; and I really found helpful Bergreen's discussion of the original manuscripts, copied in so many different hand-written versions prior to the European printing press, which helps explain the sometimes confusing narrative thread of Polo's original.

Oh Im so glad you liked it!

Frances Wood, The Silk Road 2½**. Quite lavishly illustrated in the Folio Society edition (which I stumbled across in real nice condition at a reasonable price in a used book store some while back). Unfortunately, the text itself doesn't carry much strength, too hunt-and-peck topical with a lot of quotations from other writers. It does, though, provide some interesting ideas for further reading and the pictures really are interesting. But I have to be careful of the author because (according to Wikipedia) she has limited professional expertise and she's questioned the authenticiy of Marco Polo's Travels in a way that's brought chuckles from professional historians.

I have finished The invention of nature which describes the travels of Alexander von Humboldt in South America and Russia and the tremendous influence his books had on the way we see nature. The author also includes chapters on Darwin, Ernst Haeckel and John Muir and what they owed to Humboldt.

Not many books are written about female explorers, particularly in the time period that Frances Barkley lived. She married the captain of a vessel and went to see with him. Together they travelled much of the world from Europe to the Americas and China and many points in between, including the coast of British Columbia. In some cases, she was the first white woman to have landed in the area.

The Remarkable World of Frances Barkley 1769–1845 drew together various sketchy accounts of the voyages to come up with an interesting account although the Barkleys didn’t make their fortune through their efforts.

Douglas Preston, The Lost City of the Monkey God 3***. I just finished this one in the wee hours this morning but I started it back in May and had to put it down since then due to a couple unpleasant hospitalizations. Really a bit overrated, I think, and I give it 3*** as "just average." I may have wound up knocking off ½* out of a distaste for the author's giving a political build-up to Honduran politicians whom I personally consider right-wing coup-meisters – but that's just me.

oops