Globe Corner Blogs

Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage - by Alfred Lansing

While I’m nearly always drawn to fiction, I recently ventured into the world of nonfiction and found a page-turning, can’t-put-it-down book that’s entertainment value rivaled that of my favorite novels and even, believe it or not, television. Wow.

This book is Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing. First published in 1959, the book is certainly not new nor is it the only book written on the subject matter. Far from it. While Sir Ernest Shackleton’s failed yet celebrated voyage to Antarctica has been the topic of plenty of books, Lansing has one thing going for him: he’s a great writer and storyteller.

Culled from personal interviews and access to crew members’ private journals, Lansing pulls out not only the most compelling comical anecdotes, emotional traumas, and physical hardships from the crew, but also taps into the mental psyche of Shackleton and the others to reveal just how resilient his men were starting in January 1915, when The Endurance became bound by ice in the Weddell Sea, to when everyone (yes, everyone) was rescued in May 1917 – over two years after their ship was crushed by the ice.

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The Ends of the Earth -by Elizabeth Kolbert

The Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts currently has an exhibit entitled To The Ends Of the Earth, Painting and the Polar Landscape. It features over 50 paintings and photographs by artists who journeyed to the Arctic and Antarctica during the 19th and 20th centuries. I have always wanted to see the Aurora-Borealis, and even have traveled to Iceland five times in an attempt to see the phenomena. Unfortunately, I have never seen it due to adverse weather situations. After viewing the slide show on the Museum’s website, I figure that this will be a sure-fire way to finally see the Aurora-Borealis…or at least of painting of it! The exhibit is running through the first of March, so make sure to trek through the ice and snow to catch it before the warm spring months come and take it away.

Lonely Planet Greenland & The Arctic

**The GCB recently coerced Santa (with the help of cookies and plenty of egg nog) to write a guest post for our blog**

In less than a week, I will be loading up my sleigh for my annual trip around the globe. Millions of little minds all over the world are wondering not only, “what will I get this year?!” but also, “how does he do it?” Well, my tiny tots, there is no GPS system in Santa’s ride. All year long I pore over world maps, country maps, city street maps until I’m sure I have the best route down. This is not to say I don’t keep a few in the mitten compartment. (Always make a wrong turn at Albuquerque…) Of course, the magic reindeer help out too.

Now, I come visit each of you once a year–it’s time for you to come visit me up in the North Pole! Maybe this year I’ll leave some brightly wrapped books on the Arctic region under your Christmas tree. Or perhaps I’ll just leave you a guide to the Arctic–or how about a guide to the animals here? It’s not just reindeer and snowmen, you know; there are even polar bears up here!

Things are pretty busy in the ol’ workshop these days, though, so hold off on your trip till after Christmas – and after Santa’s winter vacation in Cancun… As for now, just snuggle up in your PJs with some hot cocoa and make sure the grown-ups clean out the chimney.