Tag: february

Fine and Bitter Snow

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Stabenow, Dana. A fine and Bitter Snow.  New York: St. Martin’s Minotaur, 2002.

Reason read: to continue the sequel started in January in honor of the month Alaska became a state.

Kate is back. It’s been awhile since we last caught up with the feisty private investigating crime solver. In A Cold-Blooded Business she and single dad, Jack, were hot and heavy. Now several books later Jack is dead and Kate is sort of looking after his son from a previous marriage. As an FYI – Kate’s grandmother has also passed. In time, this detail will become important to the plot. For now, Kate needs a distraction from the grief these dual deaths have caused and, oddly enough, it comes in the form of oil drilling in southeast Alaska. Drilling in general has been a sensitive subject to all involved but when longtime friend and park ranger, Dan O’Brien, is deemed too environmentally friendly and is forced into early retirement, it becomes Kate’s mission to save his job. It becomes even more personal when a good friend of her grandmother’s is found murdered just days after agreeing to help Dan keep his job. Is the drilling in the wildlife preserve connected to this most recent death? State trooper, Jim Chopin, is on the case and he asks Kate to help…in more ways than one.

Confessional – I that this was the perfect pairing with Barbara Kingsolver’s Flight Behavior which is also an environmental drama.

Like I liked, “The moose might kick your ass and the grizzly might rip it off and the wolf might eat it, but they wouldn’t talk you to deal while they got on with the job” (p 232). This is Dana’s way of saying yeah, I know the woman is holding shotgun to Kate’s face and talking way too much, but I need to explain some motives here before she pulls the trigger.

Author fact: Stabenow also writes science fiction.

Book trivia: A Fine and Bitter Snow is Stabenow’s twelfth story.

Nancy said: nothing specific about A Fine and Bitter Snow.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter “I Love a Mystery” (p 117).

How to be a Patient

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Goldberg, Sana. How to be a Patient: the Essential Guide to Navigating the World of Modern Medicine. New York: Harper Wave, 2019.

Reason read: as part of the Early Review Program for LibraryThing, this is the selection for the month of December.

The highest compliment I can pay any uncorrected proof is the desire to buy the book when it is finally published. I will be buying How To be a Patient in March. Despite the myriad of typos and less than stellar editing, the rest of the book is a worthwhile read even without the index and graphics. The very first thing Dr. Goldberg wrote that struck a chord with me is the fact no one is taught how to be a patient. You take classes to learn a skill, but no one ever walks you through how to be when you are sitting in the examination room of any medical facility. It’s eye-opening to think here is a medical professional who wants you to get it right the first time you meet anyone in health care. Hell, she wants you to have the right health care professional to begin with. Be warned though, her advice isn’t always practical. In theory it would be great to bring a “health advocate” like a friend or family member to every appointment, but who has time for that?
Goldberg’s language is approachable (to the point where she writes the word “dude” and uses profanity ). She doesn’t talk medical speak where every sentence is laden with technical jargon. Her advice is so down to earth I’m reminded of the commercial when a woman is urging herself to speak up, to tell her provider about the pain she is really feeling instead of downplaying or ignoring certain symptoms.

Disclaimer: like any medical advice, this book should not be seen as the end all, be all bible of personal health management. I am not a doctor, nor do I play one on television. I am just a woman urging you to take Goldberg’s information with a grain of salt, a healthy amount of skepticism, or whatever it takes for you to think rationally about taking care of yourself.

Author fact: once I read that Dr. Goldberg liaises between academia and clinical practice, her stance on teaching someone how to navigate the medical world made sense. I have yet to see her Tedx Talk.

Book trivia: my uncorrected proof indicated there would be an index. This is slated to be published in March 2019.

Take This Man

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Busch, Frederick. Take This Man. New York: Ballantine Books, 1983.

Reason read: February is Busch’s death month. Read in his memory.

This is a love story in its purest form. Simple plot: Ellen LaRue Spencer is on her way to California to see her soldier fiance who hasn’t shipped out to war yet. Her car breaks down in a barren midwest town where she meets hapless Tony Prioleau. Despite his unsuccessful business ventures and his thing for television (he wants to harness the power of television to assist in the war effort), Ellen is attracted to him and ends up in his bed..but she still leaves him for her fiance. Ten years later, a son shows up on Tony’s doorstep and the love Tony buried all those years ago comes bubbling back up. He accepts the boy as his own, no questions asked.
I don’t think it is a spoiler alert to say that Ellen herself comes back to Tony. But not without complications. She is still married and still confused about the depth of her attraction to Tony.
Confessional: the last twenty pages are heartbreaking.

Vivid lines, “…poured an unfresh breath into Prioleau’s face to say…” (p 46). I just love that image.
Other lines I liked, “And you cook like a mass murderer” (p 55). I don’t know what that would taste like. I’m guessing not good. And. And! And, “Twenty years later, and she was still in transit, collecting men at the edge of the sea (p 156) and “…but he was frightened as he stepped up onto the side porch to get hugged home” (p 192).

Author fact: Take This Man is Busch’s eighth book.

Book trivia: The cover of Take This Man is intriguing. Two people are adrift in a rowboat. In my mind it symbolized Tony and Ellen’s relationship. It was never solidified or tethered to reality.

Nancy said: absolutely nothing.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Frederick Busch: Too Good To Miss” (p 48).

Beyond Euphrates

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Stark, Freya. Beyond Euphrates: autobiography 1928 – 1933. London: John Murray, 1951.

Reason read: Stark was born in January. Reading Beyond Euphrates to continue the series.

When we left Freya at the end of Traveller’s Prelude Freya had just gained her independence as an adult and the travel bug had bitten hard. She takes her first journey in 1928 to Damascus. As a woman, traveling without an escort was unheard of in 1928. To make matters worse, because Freya could speak several different languages, she was believed to be a Russian spy when she reached Baghdad. The more Freya travels, the more her independent spirit grows. She scoffs at using escorts and chaperones. At one point she fears being tied to a job because it might keep her rooted in one place and yet she needed to earn a living in order to keep traveling. It was at this point that she started writing articles and her first book, Baghdad Sketches was published. Stark ends Beyond Euphrates in hopes of traveling to Yemen next. Amusingly enough, in her last letter to her mother she rejoices to find a good face cream.

Quotes to quote. An example of bravery: “I don’t mind the chance at being shot at, but did not want to be held up by police and kept all night in one of their solitary little towers for safety…” (p 270). An example of humor: “Darling B, I am busy with prostitutes” (p 267).

Author fact: Stark had a sense of humor. Case in point: “Captain Holt told me I had better go home from North Persia by way of Moscow (where he is to be): and I had to remind him that I am a Bolshevic spy” (p 127).

Book trivia: Beyond Euphrates also has great photographs. Not as many of Freya, though. Second book trivia – I am reading a first edition of Beyond Euphrates.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Lady Travellers” (p 142).

Full Steam Ahead

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Blumberg, Rhoda. Full Steam Ahead: the Race to Build a Transcontinental Railroad. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic, 1996.

Reason read: February is Train Month.

The greed of gold brought out the best and worst in businessmen. Entrepreneurs saw an opportunity to cash in on the craze. For Theodore Judah he saw the need for a transcontinental railroad, not to transport passengers but supplies to the miners and merchants who supported them. Abraham Lincoln climbed aboard the idea of a transcontinental railroad because he envisioned the transportation of troops and supplies. Central Pacific Railroad started laying tracks west. Union Pacific starting laying tracks west. And the race was on.
Blumberg paints the historical picture of the birth of the transcontinental railroad in broad strokes. Written for young adults, she steamrolls through the Chinese labor used to build the railroad, the blasting of the mountains that stood in their way, conquering the arid desert, the conflict with the “wild” Indians, even the slaughter of buffalo, until she reaches the grand conclusion of the last spike celebration.

Author fact: Blumberg has written several books on historical events, but Full Steam Ahead is the only one I am reading.

Book trivia: Full Steam Ahead is meant for young adults so there are plenty of amazing photographs and illustrations. I appreciated the portraits and the political cartoon.

Nancy said: Pearl said a great way to learn about most things is to “read a really great children’s book on the subject” (p 200) and she listed Blumberg for learning about the transcontinental railroad.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Riding the Rails: Railroad History” (p 200).

Color of Money

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Tevis, Walter. The Color of Money. New York: Thunder’s Mouth Press, 1984.

Reason read: Tevis was born in February. Read in his honor.

“Fast” Eddie Felson was a pool shark twenty years ago. He dominated the underground pool circuit as a hustler for big bucks. Now he is playing exhibition competitions against his former rival Minnesota Fats in shopping malls for cheap prizes. His future looks bleak as he sips his Manhattans. Thanks to a failed marriage Eddie has lost his pool hall business and he has no other real world skills to make a living. He has never had a 9 to 5 job that he liked. All he can do is what he has known since high school, shooting pool, playing the shark. He needs to reenter the world of competitive pool for money. But, how? He is an old man playing a young man’s game. The rules have changed along with the style of play. He has a lot to learn and Minnesota Fats can only take him so far.

As an aside, when The Color of Money was made into a movie I didn’t care for it. I had this opinion that Tom Cruise only starred in movies where the protagonist had to lose something big in order to shape up and fly straight (think Risky Business, Top Gun & Cocktail). This was one of those plots.

Author fact: Tevis was known for his short stories. He often wrote for Playboy magazine.

Book trivia: The Color of Money is the last novel Tevis wrote. Second book trivia – I did not know the Hustler should have been read first. “Fast” Eddie Felson is the protagonist in both stories. Once again, I have read them backwards. Sigh.

Nancy said: Nothing about The Color of Money.

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Child Prodigies” (p 43). For the sake of argument I must say I don’t think The Color of Money belongs in this chapter. No one in this book is a child or a prodigy.

City of Falling Angels

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Berendt, John. The City of Falling Angels. Read by Holter Graham. New York: RandomHouse Audio, 2005.

Reason read: Read in honor of Venice Carnivale, which takes place in February.

Author fact: You might recognize John’s name as the author of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil which was a best seller and made into a movie.

When one thinks of Venice, the imagery of gondolas and waterways and brightly colored carnival masks usually come to mind. Venice itself is a complicated city and lends itself to an air of old world intrigue. John Berendt fell in love with the city the first time he visited. Upon a subsequent visit, Berendt arrived three days after a devastating fire has ravaged the grand a historic La Fenice Opera House. Rumors of arson swirl among the community prompting Berendt to put on his investigative persona and dig in the ashes of history. Eventually, through meeting a cast of colorful characters, he uncovers the truths and fictions surrounding La Fenice Opera House and Venice.
Special note: if you want to read City of Falling Angels, do yourself a favor and listen to it on CD and make sure to get the version with Berendt’s interview at the end. His explanation for the title of the book is eyeopening.

Narrator trivia: Holter Graham is also an actor for the big screen but I haven’t seen any of his movies.

Book trivia: The first thing that Berendt tells you about City of Falling Angels is that it is true. None of the names have been changed. It is truly a work of nonfiction.

Nancy said: Berendt’s book “explores contemporary Venice” and that he makes the city sound beautiful “despite its bureaucratic nightmares and dangers” (p 241). She even includes a quote she found especially evocative.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Veni, Vedi, Venice” (p 240).

Almond Picker

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Hornby, Simonetta Agnello. The Almond Picker. Translated by Alastair McEwan. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2002.

Reason read: There is a festival is Sicily in February called the Almond Blossom festival.

Maria Rosalia Inzerillo, otherwise known as Mennulara, is a mystery. Born into poverty in Western Sicily, she grew up picking almonds with her farming family. As soon as she was of age, Mennulara became the maid for the rich and powerful Alfallipe family. Over time, she became an indispensable administrator of all their affairs, financial and even personal. She had a talent for investments and became a shrewd businesswoman. Rumors surrounded Mennulara: her wealth, her position in the Alfallipe family, even her rumored connections with the mafia. In life, Mennulara was described as outspoken, brash, brave, rude, unique, bad tempered, devoted, dignified, diffident, distant, unpleasant, imperious, ugly, beautiful, complex, secretive, a tyrant. When she dies at a relatively young age the entire community clamors for answers. Who was this woman? How odd that a seemingly common servant’s death would reverberate through the Italian community and no group is more obsessed than the Alfallipe family. Convinced she owes them her inheritance and then-some, they scheme and squabble to find it. The final outcome is brilliant.
Starting on Monday, September 23rd, 1963 The Almond Picker documents a month in time. The accounts are daily (skipping Saturday, September 28th, 1963)until October 1st, 1963 with a final entry on October 23rd of that same year.

Author fact: Hornby is a rock star. Not only is she a fantastic author but she is a champion for victims of domestic abuse. Which explains the abuse scenes in The Almond Picker.

Book trivia: The Almond Picker is Hornby’s first novel. Second book trivia – Hornby dedicated The Almond Picker to British Airways.

Nancy said: Nancy just pointed out The Almond Picker takes place in Sicily.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter simply called “Sicily” (p 209).

Backup Men

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Thomas, Ross. The Backup Men.New York: William Morrow & Company, 1971.

Reason read: Thomas was born in the month of February. Read in his honor.

Mac McCorkle and Mike Padillo are “saloon” keepers in Washington D.C. They came to Washington after their place of the same name in Bonn on the banks of the Rein had been blown up. Oddly enough, despite their reputations, their Washington D.C. establishment has yet to be assaulted. Despite the fact they are trying to put their pasts behind them and keep their noses clean, through various mishaps they find themselves with a new job, to protect a young man from assassination. Peter Paul Kassim is on the brink of becoming King of Llaquah, a country that has recently discovered it sits on nearly 100 billion barrels of oil reserves. Kassim stands in the way of political enemies who are extremely interested in getting Kassim out of the way.
The Backup Men is a fast paced suspense novel, but what really hold the story together is McCorkle and Padillo’s relationship. Their characters and conversations are witty, humorous and at times, utterly astonishing.

As an aside: From everything I have read, The Backup Men is not a continuation of a series, but rather has some of the same characters from previous novels. From what I could tell, it was not necessary to read the previous stories in order to understand The Backup Men.

Edited to add the only quote that I liked, “That type of revenge was based on rage which, if heated to the right temperature, can make any action, no matter how foolish, seem coldly logical and completely justified… (p 154). I won’t quote the whole sentence because it involves the word “baby” and the verb “slam.”

Author fact: Thomas wrote a ton of books. I have 24 of them on my list.

Book trivia: Many of Thomas’s books have reoccurring characters. The Backup Men is the third book to include Mac and Mike (Mac McCorkle and Mike Padillo). Both characters were first introduced in The Cold War Swap (also on my list).

Nancy said: Absolutely nothing.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Ross Thomas: Too Good To Miss” (p 234).

Captivated

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Roberts, Nora. Captivated: Donovan Legacy, Book One. New York: Harper Collins, 2011.

Reason read: Nora Roberts writes romances. Valentine’s Day is supposed to be full of candy hearts, flowers and…love.

In the interest of getting through as many books as possible for the Challenge, I have to say I love this kind of read. It’s fast and easy and painless. I read Captivated in four days.
Book One of the Donovan Legacy is Captivated. Morgana Donovan is a beautiful woman with one of those trendy New Age shops in Monterey, California. She is content to be a single, thirty-something, business owner who lives with a dog and a cat and practices magic in her spare time. She is proud of her legacy as she comes from a long line of witches from Ireland. Nash Kirkland is a successful screenwriter, known for his horror films. He is on the prowl for information on his next topic of terror, witches. He comes to Morgana’s shop in the hopes of interviewing a real live witch…only he doesn’t believe in such a thing for real. What follows is Morgana’s attempt to convince him her powers are real and Nash’s struggle to not fall in love with what he doesn’t believe. From there, it’s a pretty cut and dried love story.

Author fact: Roberts has written a whole slew of romance novels. I am reading the Donovan Legacy series, the Dream series and the Sisters series. Ten books total.

Book trivia: Captivated is Book One in the Donovan Legacy, followed by Entranced, Charmed, and Enchanted.

Nancy said: Nancy called the Donovan Legacy a “great historical” (p 207). I didn’t really get that in Captivated. Morgana does go to Ireland to be with her parents and they talked family history…maybe there is something in a later book that is more related to history.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Romance Novels: Our Love is Here To Stay” (p 207). Confessional: I have a complaint about this. Nancy only mentions The Donovan Legacy as the title, never mentioning that it is comprised of four separate novels. So, the individual titles are not indexed in Book Lust. Oddly enough, she does spell out the individual titles in the Three sisters Island trilogy.

Dead Room Farce

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Brett, Simon. Dead Room Farce.New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1997.

Reason read: February is Theater Month.

Charles Paris is at it again. This time he is starring in the satire theater production, Not On Your Wife! and on the side he is recording books with old friend and former BBS producer, Mark Lear. Things get a little hairy when Charles’s drinking spins out of control and he finds himself “pants-down” with two different women. To make matters worse, old pal Mark is discovered apparently murdered and Charles really can’t remember who said what the last time they were together. Did Charles do something in a drunken stupor? Everyone seems to think so. Charles needs to clear his name before the police think of him as a viable suspect, too.

Author fact: I have read two other Brett mysteries for the Challenge (Star Trap and A Reconstructed Corpse. This is my last Brett book.

Book trivia:  This is the seventeenth Charles Paris mystery.

Nancy said: Nancy said Dead Room Farce is one of Simon Brett’s best theater mysteries.

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “All The World’s a Stage” (p 8).

 

Traveller’s Prelude

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Stark, Freya. Traveller’s Prelude. London: John Murray, 1950.

Reason read: Freya Stark was born in January. Read in her honor.

This is first of Stark’s autobiographies (followed by Beyond the Euphrates and Coast of Incense.) Traveller’s Prelude starts at the very beginning with Stark’s grandparents (all with the surname Stark) in 1893. Stark’s parents were first cousins. From the very beginning Freya’s life was filled with adventure. At the age of two and a half. Freya’s parents took her and her sister over the Dolomites. Freya began “running away” when she was only four years old. Her mother recalls losing Freya on a train only to find the child in the smoky third class car, sitting on the knee of a sailor (p 34). As a young woman she volunteered medical services in the First Would War. After the war she bought a farm and made her own wine. While lonely for marriage, Freya didn’t while away her time pining for a man. She had friends and mountaineered often; she believed she was the first woman to climb the Rocca Provenzale. Traveller’s Prelude ends with the death of Freya’s sister, Vera and the very beginnings of Freya’s interest in the middle east.

Do you know that question, what famous person, living or dead, with whom you would most like to have dinner? My answers were always Natalie Merchant (living) or Edgar Allan Poe (deceased). After reading Traveller’s Prelude I change my second answer to Freya Stark. Sorry, Ed!

Favorite lines, “Running away is the wrong word for such adventures, that go notto escape but to seek” (p 37-38), “They might look like railway trains, streaking with swift bodies of lighted carriages and smoke, but I remember making myself think that they were dragons, and dragons to all intents there were” (p 48).

Author fact: Freya almost died when her hair got caught in some factory machinery when she was a teenager.

Book trivia: Traveller’s Prelude has the coolest photographs of Freya as a young child, beginning when she was only one year old. They are not clumped together in the center of the book, but interspersed throughout the narrative which makes the reading delightful. One of my favorites is of Freya, at age one, standing with a man I can only assume is her father, grasping his tie in her little hand. But, the one of her reading is delightful, too.

Nancy said: Freya Stark wrote “insightfully” about the Middle East (p 143).

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Lady Travellers” (p 142).

Song of the Dodo

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Quammen, David. Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinctions. New York: Scribner, 1996.

Reason read: February is David Quammen’s birth month. Reading Song of the Dodo in his honor.

I had never fully understood the word “biogeography” until reading Quammen’s Song of the Dodo. According to Quammen on page 17 of Dodo, “Biogeography is the study of the facts and the patterns of species distribution.” More importantly, the distribution of specific species on islands does much to argue the point of origin and “survival of the fittest” and adversely, extinction.

Song of the Dodo is a scientific adventure. It will prompt you to ask questions. Here’s an example: I was particularly struck by the obvious/not-so-obvious Noah’s Ark conundrum: exactly how big was this vessel if every single species was welcomed aboard two by two? As Quammen pointed out, “Noah’s ark was getting too full” (p 34).
What about this question – who was responsible for the theory of natural selection? Quammen delves into the controversy surrounding the competition between Alfred Wallace and Charles Darwin. Again, to quote Quammen “Was Darwin guilty of scummy behavior, or wasn’t he?” (p 109).
All in all, the subject matter for Song of the Dodo could be considered dry but the writing is most definitely entertaining. Where else can you find such a scientific topic interspersed with words like crazybig, godawful, helluva, whonks, and my personal favorite, badass?

Quote I liked, “But the hapless iguana wasn’t dealing with some idle yahoo, some sadistic schoolboy with a short attention span; it was dealing with Charles Darwin” (p 232).

Author fact: Quammen has written for Rolling Stone but his two of his books, Monsters of God and The Soul of Viktor Tronko are on my list.

Book trivia: maps are by Kris Ellingsen. Also, I have to admit Quammen invoked the Saint Helena earwig so many times I had to look it up. Can’t say I’m glad I did.

Nancy said: “well written and always fascinating” (p 70).

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the long chapter called “Dewey Deconstructed: 500s” (p 70).

Fall of Hyperion

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Simmons, Dan. The Fall of Hyperion. New York: Bantam Books, 1991.

Reason read: to continue the series started in January in honor of science fiction month.

The Fall of Hyperion is a sequel to Hyperion. We return to the world of Hyperion where seven pilgrims and an infant are seeking an audience with the Shrike, a creature rumored to grant only one wish. In Hyperion the pilgrims and their life stories are laid out, allowing for the plot in The Fall of Hyperion to concentrate on the politics (the Time Tombs are opening; there is a war going on). Taking place in the 29th century and mostly in the Valley of the Tombs, each pilgrim encounters a personal struggle. We finally are introduced to the Tree of Pain where individuals are long suffering; impaled on thorns of steel and left writhing. Strange. No one is dead on the Tree of Pain. The point is they are supposed to suffer a fate worse than death. One pf the seven pilgrims end up here, but I haven’t given away his fate.
[To be honest, I had trouble knowing if and when someone actually died. I don’t think it’s a spoiler alert to say that “everyone” dies because most of them come back again, one way or another.]

As an aside – I don’t know why this matters to me, but it does. According to the written description of the Shrike the creature supposedly has four arms. Four. The Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion and even the Endymion covers show the Shrike looking more human with only two arms. What gives? Is the second set of arms retractable?

Disclaimer: I am still not a huge fan of sci-fi. I wanted to quit this one a few times over. The Fall of Hyperion wasn’t grabbing me like I thought it would. To make matters worse, judging by the awards, I read the best one first. The sequels aren’t as popular. I’m a little afraid of the next one, Endymion, because it’s even longer than The Fall of

The one quote I liked, “It was now my name but never my identity” (p 3).

Author fact: Simmons won the Locus Award for The Fall of the Hyperion.

Book trivia: Fall of Hyperion was heavily influenced by the works of John Keats (for whom the book was dedicated) and John Muir.

Nancy said: nada

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the obvious chapter called “Space Operas” (p 211).

Antarctic Destinies

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Barczewski, Stephanie. Antarctic Destinies: Scott, Shackleton and the Changing Face of Heroism. London: Hambledon Continuum, 2007.

Reason read: February is exploration month.

Stephanie Barczewski’s Antarctic Destinies is organized into thirteen different topics. She is careful to set the groundwork for Destinies with an overview of Antarctic exploration from its humble beginnings with the 1901 Discoveries expedition. She goes on to make comparisons between the 1940 Terra Nova expedition of Robert Scott and the 1914 Endurance expedition of Ernest Shackleton. The ever-present question is of heroism. Scott had a heroic death while Shackleton had a heroic survival. So what exactly is a hero? Of the two, who is more the hero? How does the public respond to failure as opposed to the perception of success? Barczewski analyzes the reputations of both before wrapping up Destinies with how each member of the different expeditions has been commemorated. She finishes with Where Are Our Heroes Now?

As an aside – someone wrote in the margins, “how does sheer luck get transmuted into survival?” They wrote a whole bunch of other gobbledygook, but I liked that question best.

On a personal note: my father was busy in the Antarctic when I was born. There is some debate as to what he was actually doing. As a member of the Coast Guard I recall he was on a Coast Guard cutter clearing ice for research vessels. Mom remembers he was actually on board the research vessel itself. But, doing what?

Author fact: a Google query brought me to a Clemson University faculty web page where a smiley Barczewski poses with Mickey Mouse.

Book trivia: Antarctic Destinies includes only nine black and white photographs.

Nancy said: nothing interesting.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “To the Ends of the Earth: North and South (Antarctic)” (p 235).