The Endurance, September Book

Talk About Books will be participating in Vermont Reads 2016 with our September selection, The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition by Caroline Alexander.

The thrilling adventure has been recounted many times. The expedition started out in August 1914 with the goal of making the first crossing on foot of the Antarctic Continent. 

The crew of 27 under the leadership of Ernest Shackleton came within 85 miles of their destination. There Endurance came to a dead stop, trapped in then crushed by the relentless ice pack. The stranded crew forged on for 20 months before finally being rescued.

Caroline Alexander has drawn upon previously unavailable sources to bring this expedition alive for her readers. She presents the work of Australian photographer Frank Hurley whose first-hand visual record had never before been published comprehensively. The survival of his glass plate negatives was a tribute to his resourcefulness. Together, Alexander's text and Hurley's photographs are riveting.

Copies of Endurance have been provided by a grant from the Vermont Humanities Council and are available at Guilford Free Library, Guilford Country Store, Guilford Central School and the Broad Brook Grange. When finished, readers are asked to return it or pass it on to a friend who will help us keep the books circulating.

Not Without Peril, August Book

Not Without Peril by Marguerite Allis is an historical novel based on the life of a real person, Jemima Sartwell, who born in Groton, Massachusetts. Her father moved his family to the wilderness when Northfield was at the edge of the frontier and built a fort in what is now Vernon, called Fort Sartwell. Jemima moved up and down the Connecticut River as her first husband, then her second husband were killed by Indians. She and her children were captured by Indians and taken to Canada, where they lived as prisoners of war. After the French and Indian War ended, Jemima was returned to New Hampshire, where she was reunited with all but two of her children. Not Without Peril is  an amazing book about an amazing woman. 
 
This epic adventure is a learning experience about the living conditions, political divides, impact of the French and Indian War, the American Revolution and the evolution of the land called The Grants which we now know as Vermont.