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For this week’s Nonfiction November prompt, Rennie at What’s Nonfiction invites us to Be the Expert, Ask the Expert, or Become the Expert.
Three ways to join in this week! You can either share 3 or more books on a single topic that you have read and can recommend (be the expert), you can put the call out for good nonfiction on a specific topic that you have been dying to read (ask the expert), or you can create your own list of books on a topic that you’d like to read (become the expert).
Ask the expert
I read In the Kingdom of Ice: The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeannette by Hampton Sides about five years ago and loved it. It’s about George de Long’s effort to sail through the Bering Strait and all the way up to the North Pole in 1879. The optimism and confidence as the ship set sail and then the unimaginable hardship as things inevitably went wrong riveted me to the pages. I’ve been looking for more books about explorers, either famous or mostly lost to history, ever since. I even created a list on GoodReads, Nonfiction Geographical Exploration and Discovery, and hoped people would add new books to it. There have only been a few additions so I’m still searching for recommendations.
For reference, I’ll mention that I’ve also read Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West by Stephen E. Ambrose and found it slow going.
Can you recommend any exciting nonfiction books about geographical explorers and their expeditions?
Be sure to stop by What’s Nonfiction to read other answers and link your own post!
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23 Comments
I’ve just added one to your list on Goodreads. It was one I read back in the mid 1990s but it’s stayed in my mind ever since. It’s called Mind Over Matter by the polar explorer Ranulph Fiennes. It is his account of an expedition with a friend to cross the Antarctic, unsupported, by ski and foot. Fiennes suffered a serious foot infection and his friend fell down a crevasse. Very dramatic!
The only one among those I have read that comes to mind is Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild and I loved it. Not sure if that fits the bill but sharing it. I also did like Lost in Shangri-La, which was more of a forced to explore book.
I’ve read Into Thin Air and Under the Banner of Heaven by Krakauer and enjoyed them. I’ll look for Into the Wild and Lost in Shangri-La. Thanks for the recs!
Arctic Dreams by Barry Lopez, The Mapmaker’s Wife: A True Tale of Love, Murder, and Survival in the Amazon by Robert Whitaker, Tracks by Robyn Davidson, The Snow Leopard by Peter Mathiessen. I’ve heard these are good ones but not sure since I haven’t read them yet but they are on my list! I’ve got Hampton Sides’ books too on the ever-expanding list. Great topic.
A daunting theme, these risky adventures. The closest I ever got was Guns, Germs and Steel. Sheesh! Happy NFN!
I’m not sure if these fit the bill but I loved both of these books by Mitchell Zuckoff: Lost in Shangri-la and Frozen in Time. Both on the topic of expedition, exploration. I was riveted by both book. I’ll have to look up In the Kingdom of Ice. Thanks for sharing!
Those Zuckoff books look good to me! I’ll look for them!
ooh ooh ooh oooh!! Let me tell you about The Invention of Nature by Andrea Wulf. It’s all about the scientific adventurer, Alexander von Humboldt. I think you will the section (quite large) on his travels through South America in the ate 1700’s early 1800’s. Its one of my all-time favourite non-fiction books!
http://bronasbooks.blogspot.com/2016/10/the-invention-of-nature-by-andrea-wulf.html
sorry for all the typo’s! morning coffee has not yet kicked in 😀
I’m not a morning person so I completely understand. 😀
Thanks for the recommendation! I’ll look for it.
I’m sorry I don’t have anything to recommend but I love this topic. I’m not much of a wild traveller so I love living vicariously, especially when exploring unknown territory.
I’m glad you like the topic! Hopefully you see some recommendations that interest you in the other comments. I’ve been adding to my TBR all morning.
YESSSS, I’m reading In The Kingdom Of Ice right now. I just finished Endurance, and my favorite of the year was Labyrinth of Ice. Also recommend Race to the Pole.
Oooh, thanks for the recommendations! And the icy theme is perfect with winter well on its way!
Oh! I read The Oregon Trail book that Deb mentions above and I loved it!!
I’ve actually read that one too and enjoyed it as well!
Ooo good topic!! I have only really read The Lost City of Z which I loved, and Into the Wild, which was good but I am not sure if that one necessarily counts. Good luck!
I listened to The Lost City of Z, which was a mistake. I just don’t absorb nonfiction well when I listen to it. I should re-read it in print sometime. I don’t know if Into the Wild counts as exploration either but I’m all about Jon Krakauer. I haven’t read that one yet though. Thanks!
Thanks for sharing your recommendations. I have The Girl Explorers by Jayne E. Zanglein on my review schedule for next year (via Netgalley) which might interest you.
I’ll keep an eye out for it (and your review). Thanks for bringing it to my attention!
I loved this book, too. Some of the other books about exploration that I’ve liked a lot are: Blue Latitudes: Boldly Going Where Captain Cook Has Gone Before; A Voyage Long and Strange: Rediscovering the New World; The Oregon Trail: A New American Journey; The Vast Unknown: America’s First Ascent of Everest;The Unconquered: In Search of the Amazon’s Last Uncontacted Tribes; and Tracks: A Woman’s Solo Trek Across 1700 Miles of Australian Outback.
Wow! You are the expert in exploration! I’ve read The Oregon Trail but not the others. Thanks for all the recommendations!