Gail Pool's Blog, page 7
October 11, 2017
Scott Expedition to the South Pole: New Information?
After all that has been written about the Scott expedition to the South Pole, can there really be new information? Maybe so. Those who, like me, continue to be fascinated by the question of what really happened, might want to look at this article from the Daily Mail.
September 29, 2017
Walking, by Henry David Thoreau
Longitude Books: Recommended Reading for Travelers recommends Walking, Henry David Thoreau's "meditations on the spiritual benefits of this most civilized form of travel."
September 21, 2017
Review: White Sands: Experiences from the Outside World
White Sands: Experiences from the Outside World. By Geoff Dyer. Pantheon Books, 2016, 233 pp. The stories in White Sands find Geoff Dyer on journeys in various parts of the world: on a book tour in China, researching Gaugin in Tahiti, reflecting on �The Lightning Field� in New Mexico, making a pilgrimage to Theodore Adorno�s house and contemplating the Watts Towers in Los Angeles. Each piece is preceded by a brief prologue relating to the author�s past that provides an associative context for...
August 30, 2017
Review: The Lost City of the Monkey God
The Lost City of the Monkey God: A True Story By Douglas Preston. Grand Central Publishing, 2017, 326 pp. For centuries a legend flourished about a lost city located somewhere in the Mosquitia region of Honduras: Ciudad Blanca�the White City�or the City of the Monkey God. Although the dense rain forest made exploration a challenge, various artifacts discovered in the area seemed to reveal a culture unknown to researchers. Adding to the mystery, indigenous people believed that the city was cu...
August 19, 2017
Longitude Books Newsletter
New reading suggestions in August Newsletter of Longitude Books: Recommended Reading for Travelers
August 9, 2017
Review: Oaxaca Journal
Oaxaca Journal By Oliver Sacks. Drawings by Dick Rauh. National Geographic Literary Travel Series, 159 pp. It�s hardly surprising that Oliver Sacks kept journals on his journeys. How else would he keep track of his many observations, clarify his many thoughts, or create his many stories? Oaxaca Journal is the diary (somewhat embellished) of the 9-day fern-tour he took with the American Fern Society to Oaxaca, Mexico, in 2000. Although the tour was organized by professional botanists, many mem...
July 17, 2017
Review: Turn Right at Machu Picchu: Rediscovering the Lost City One Step at a Time
Turn Right at Machu Picchu: Rediscovering the Lost City One Step at a Time By Mark Adams. Penguin, Plume, 2012, 333 pp. Between 1911 and 1915, Hiram Bingham, Yale professor and swashbuckling explorer, made three trips to Peru, where he came upon the ruins of the Inca empire, then largely unknown to the outside world. A century later, explorers and archeologists are still trying to understand these sites, constructed to align with the sun, stars, and one another, and to comprehend something ab...
June 22, 2017
Review: Throwim Way Leg: Tree Kangaroos, Possums and Penis Gourds--On the Track of Unknown Mammals in Wildest New Guinea
Throwim Way Leg: Tree-Kangaroos, Possums and Penis Gourds�On the Track of Unknown Mammals in Wildest New Guinea By Tim Flannery. Grove Press, 1998, 326 pp. New Guinea is a wonderland of fauna and flora found nowhere else on earth, a paradise for an ornithologist, an entomologist, a botanist, or a zoologist like Tim Flannery. But to explore the country�s riches, the researcher has to deal with a seriously rugged terrain: dense bush, steep mountains and slippery descents, slimy logs bridging fl...
June 6, 2017
Book Review: In the Land of White Death: An Epic Story of Survival in the Siberian Arctic
In the Land of White Death: An Epic Story of Survival in the Siberian Arctic By Valerian Albanov. Preface by Jon Krakauer. Introduction by David Roberts. Alison Anderson, Translator. With Additional Material from William Barr�s Translation from the Russian. Modern Library, Random House, 2000, 205 pp. For some of us, the stories of polar exploration remain forever fascinating. They take place in an otherworldly world. Like novels, they grip us with their unpredictable challenges and turns and...
May 16, 2017
Travel Books for Youngsters
Longitude Books newsletter offers a selection of new children's books that aim to empower kids to be global citizens. (Scroll down to item #6--but there are other interesting travel books recommended along the way.)
