Polar Regions Books

In this series of essays on one woman's relationship with wilderness and the world, Bledsoe explores fear, exhilaration and will as she bikes mountain tracks seeking mountain lions, encounters wolves in Alaska, wrestles with the lure of summits buried in unexpected snow.

Seeking a healing solitude she backpacks alone into the wilderness and finds the scariest animal of all - hunters with whiskey. She explores an intimate, harrowing fear in the Mojave, terrorized by mysterious lights. And faces her fear of water on a working/sailing vacation with her longtime lover.

While Bledsoe's evocation of nature and solitude is vivid and intense, the most involving essays are those exploring human conflict. Moments of high comedy run up against fear-born anger in Bledsoe's sailing tale. Expecting sun-drenched days on deck, she and Pat arrive to find the boat damaged by a storm, its gaff lashed to the deck. " `That's the gaff?' Surely a part that size was not optional." Island-hopping visions dissolve into days of backbreaking work and belly-clenching fear as storms batter the crippled craft.

The best essay - and the longest - is Bledsoe's account of her first trip to Antarctica. Curious and untutored, she has many narrow escapes, inspiring a friend to design a plaque reading "'No, Lucy, no!'" But she gets to see penguins and seals, spends a night in a self-built ice shelter and learns to love a place so inhospitable to humans death is just one small misstep away. (As she has since been back a couple of times since, readers will hope she is planning a longer book on Antarctica).

This is an honest - at times wrenchingly so - exploration of a personal relationship with wilderness, adrenaline and endorphins. Bledsoe combines adventure and physical effort with soul-searching and makes a sympathetic connection with the reader. This is a book for anyone who has wondered what people get out of extreme sport and for those who like a bit of human uncertainty with their armchair adventuring.

-- Portsmouth Herald

Possibly the only book published that is dedicated to this region. The text describes travel in this spectacular area and Craig Potton's photos really do it justice. There are plenty of photos in this book of 128 pages and they are crystal clear and well composed. My only criticism is that I don't personally like the way a few of the photos are presented in pairs over double pages, with each shot being a slight variation of the other - probably quite artistic but I would prefer each shot to be unique. This may not bother most people and I would have otherwise given it 5 stars.
Overall, the book is very impressive and highly recommended - try the website craigpotton.co.nz if Amazon do not sell new copies. Craig Potton Publishing deals with many good photographic books on New Zealand.

people feel the urge to risk their lives in endeavors like this one! I had to wonder about the incredible amount of money that must go to re-enact such a dangerous voyage, too. But the story makes fascinating reading. A first-person account of sailing some of the most treacherous seas in the world really brings out the dangers faced--involuntarily--by Ernest Shackleton and his men.
One change I wish for the book: a detailed map comparing Fuchs' journey with Shackleton's. Fuchs mentions several options Shackleton might have taken, but without a map, I can't see them for myself. Otherwise, this is a very readable (though I did have trouble with nautical terms, not being a sailor myself) and interesting addition to the literature of polar adventure.

This is a relatively good book dealing with alternative ways of life. It includes, among other things, chapters on living in Antarctica, on living in a boat, on living as a nomad, on living in a ghost town--etc. Although it's rather brief in its treatment of each subject, it does include a short bibliography at the end of each chapter for those who would like to look into each option further, and it provides a pretty good overview of the subject.

Scott reached the South Pole....and found a Norwegian flag planted on it. He had arrived just weeks late. The mechanical `beasts' he had brought with him, tread driven sledges, have broken down. Soon Scotts party is starving and unable to walk, and eventually they die, having reached the South Pole but not been able to return to their homeland. This book chronicles the disaster of Scotts expedition, the success and dramatic failures it encountered. The author then explores the hitherto unknown part of Scotts accomplishment: the aftermath. Such interesting aspects are looked at as the memorial designs for Scott and the many memorials in London's Newspapers. Also the author looks at the `imperialism' of Scotts enterprise and the way in which Scott and his `martyrdom' have been remembered. An interesting book, with much to offer.

i had already picked up the LP guide to the antarctic and i saw this and just couldn't resist. (and this is a guy who *freezes* when it gets below 60 degrees!)

overall, the book seems great, though of course i can't speak from experience. just as an introduction to the arctic it's not bad at all. you get lots of long sections on all sorts of stuff -- the flora and fauna, the history of arctic exploration, the indigenous peoples, past and current arctic research programs, even arctic literature, plus of course all the introductory stuff covering history more generally, geography, climate, "environment and ecology", and national parks. you also get short (usually one-to-four page) insets on a particular subject (alcoholism among the Inuit, Fridtjof Nansen, the Sea Ice, SAD == Seasonal Affective Disorder" [seasonal depression from lack of light], "Arctic Phenomena" == the Northern Lights and other such things). etc. etc.

in general i've had good luck with the lonely planet guides -- they give you detailed info about all the basics (getting there, visas, getting around, potential health problems, religion, basic phrases in the most important languages, etc.) and they seem well-organized and to-the-point when it comes to telling you what are the interesting things to see, as well as making it possible for you to make your own choices based on what *you* find interesting.

be aware that this is a first edition so it may have some bugs in it that will get ironed out in later editions.

This is a very helpful book for understanding the way the Arctic has developed! It describes the history of the Arctic and the inception of polar cooperation and goes on to explain the way cooperation on the Arctic has developed since the 1970s. Most of all, it explains how major figures in cooperation have acted and their motivations! I strongly recommend it!

A book I found hard to put down once started. Interesting historical information as well as a good true story. In this day and age of high tech, three ordinary men make an extra-ordinary trip through one of the most hostile marine environments anywhere. They did it in a boat one of them built in his back yard and proved you don't have to be a millionaire to have high adventure.

They did it without any icebreaker support.

The story gives the reader some very good historical information that even non-boaters will find useful and not generally available.

The techniques used by these three who lived together in such a tiny space for five months without so much as even an argument are amazing.

Overall a jolly good read.

I'm not so sure that amazon has the latest edition of this book. Check http://www.nunavuthandbook.com/index.html for more information. They have a 2004 edition and the information on this page says 1998. Possibly the edition here is updated but the page is not.

I love Hess's Safari Animals. This book is similar, but not nearly as visually interesting to me. FYI... this version does not have the poems -- just the names of the animal. The front and back pages have panoramic views of the arctic, with the animals interspersed throughout. My advice: buy Safari Animals (Animal Verse) first.