Lost City of Z

[Jennifer]

What do you think so far?

[Suzanne]

I really was taken with this book. It is a history, adventure and good story all rolled into one.

[Jennifer]

Okay, I finally finished this. It took a little while for me to get started, but once I got into it I really loved it. I got a minor in anthropology in the 90's, so I had studied the Yanomamo and had a basic idea of what the Amazon peoples were like, but I was blown away by the stuff in this book. The past decade-or even 5 years- has totally changed the way we see this area, and I had no idea things had changed so much. Plus, I'm sure this is just the beginning- there is so much we still don't know (and with the consuming nature of the forest, we may never know), and I wouldn't be surprised if a whole new legion of scientists aren't packing their mosquito nets and machetes.

So here's some questions I was considering while reading the book. Please give us your answers, whether or not you've read it, and feel free to bring up anything else!

How does this book change the way you think about the Amazon?

Would you be up for a quest like this, either Fawcett's or Grann's? Also, do you think this is a man thing? Suzanne and I were discussing his obsession, and the first thing we both said was that you'd never see a woman doing that. Do you think that's true?

Do you think there's room for this kind of individualist explorer in our world anymore? Should there be?

[Suzanne]

I think there might be that rare woman-- the kind with a lot of testosterone, who might be up for this sort of thing, otherwise it's definitely a male venture. I was really interested in the book at first but got bogged down in the hundreds of descriptions of mud, hunger, pain, etc.. I wanted the *story* to move forward and I kept feeling that I was stuck in the Amazon-- not in a good way.

[Dan]

Hey, I liked all the different threads in the book. Especially the school for explorers that Fawcett attended. Plus all the people that tried to find Fawcett and ended up in trouble of their own. Besides the main story (what happened to Fawcett and his team) doesn't really have a clear resolution. They disappeared and the rest is speculation. Or maybe the main story is whether the Lost City of Z really existed. And that's also unclear. And why is it called the Lost City of Z anyway?
I'm not sure that this type of exploration is just a man thing. Nowadays people do similar things for fun or adventure or for a challenge. Maybe Elizabeth Gilbert will head down the Amazon next. There was a British man who recently finished walking the length of the Amazon River. It took him 2 1/2 years.

[Jennifer]

Dan wrote: "Hey, I liked all the different threads in the book. Especially the school for explorers that Fawcett attended. Plus all the people that tried to find Fawcett and ended up in trouble of their own. B..."

Elizabeth Gilbert in the Amazon... is that Love, Pray, Get Eaten?

[Britt, Book Habitue]

Jennifer wrote:"Elizabeth Gilbert in the Amazon... is that Love, Pray, Get Eaten?"

LOL!! I love it!

I just started City of Z... I'm a whopping 30 pages in.

[[deleted user]]

I just picked up City of Z. I can't wait to get started!

[Stephanie]

I'm about halfway through. I love books about true adventure like this, but would MUCH rather read about the horrific conditions in the Amazon than live them. Maggots crawling around under your skin? Seriously? Yikes! I also like the shift back and forth from the description of Fawcett's journeys and the author's.

[Britt, Book Habitue]

I liked it! Cured me of ever wanting to go there, though! YUCK!!!!

It took me a bit to get used to the shifting back and forth, but once I got comfortable I really enjoyed the book.

[Jennifer]

I just saw on EarlyWord (which is awesome, by the way) that Brad Pitt signed to be in the movie of this book. Interesting...

http://www.earlyword.com/books-to-mov...