Thunderstruck

This week I started Thunderstruck by Erik Larson. So far, it has detailed the beginning of the voyage aboard a large vessel in the sea. It then cut back to the beginning of wireless transfers of data or anything. Guglielmo Marconi is on a hunt, an obsessive one, to be the first to send communication wirelessly. This fascinates him and be become enthralled in it, losing weight and becoming frantic to not be beaten to the discovery. So far, it is interesting. It is written similarly to The Devil in the White City, also written by Erik Larson, in the sense that it details two different stories at the same time. This creates an interesting twist on the story. However, in this book, there are many years between the different events, so it seems more forced than it was for Devil in the White City. More next time.

Water for Elephants

I finished this book this week. It is the tale of Jacob and his story on the Benzini Circus. He and Marlena, August's husband, fall in love and begin to see that August is a terrible man, who is bipolar. Jacob and Marlena run away from August after Marlena tries to throw August a celebration for a great show and August beats Marlena and Jacob. They formulate a plan to get off the circus and get out of the trouble with August. August becomes even more abusive and begins begging Marlena to come back, meanwhile the show must go on. The show continues, more frantic than ever, and once in a while flashes back to normal time when Jacob is 93 in a nursing home when a circus is coming by. In the end, August is killed by Marlena when a fire breaks out and she sees an opportunity to kill him and the leader of the circus, Uncle Al is killed by his workers. Marlena and Jacob take the animals and go to work on the Ringling Circus, after they confess their love for eachother. It ends with Jacob in his 90's leaving the nursing home on another circus, a smaller one, but he is back to his roots. Great book, read it in 3 days, really captivating.

Water for Elephants

The book I am reading for my women author's book group is Water for Elephants, by Sara Gruen. It is a split story, about the same man but set in different time periods. One of the time periods is when he is working for a circus, traveling around the country as a vet, even though he did not take his final exam. He left college because his parents died and he was grief stricken. He begins as a man who jostles people into each performance, but after a horse falls ill he reveals his knowledge of animals. The other time period is when he is either 90 or 93, he can not remember. This part of the story reveals his past, his wife, his kids, and how he wishes he was still young, dreads becoming older. A man says that he carried water for elephants, bragging about it. Jacob (the main character) takes offense to this and gets angry, perhaps he once carried water for elephants? As of right now, the circus he is on has just bought an elephant, so perhaps he will begin carrying water for them. Is it a point of pride? Next time.

Into Thin Air

This week I finished Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer. It detailed the ascent and descent of 11 climbers in Hall's group, and many more in Fischer's group. At the summit, calamity struck. They were caught in a terrible storm at around 1:00 when the predetermined summit time was 2:00 or they would turn back. However, Hall and Fischer were not thinking clearly and let their clients keep climbing after this predetermined time. This made the climbers run out of oxygen of which they only brought a predetermined amount. Some climbers made it to the top and bottom, whereas other were not so fortunate. Climbers reached the summit around 5:00 which created a dark, cold descent back to Camp 4. The last 50 pages detailed the horrors of climbers being stuck in the ice cold, and one climber especially, Beck. Beck was left for dead in the snow without a mask or gloves on. The next morning he showed up at Camp 4, alive and breathing. He was on his last life but kept fighting and eventually made it down the mountain, with severe frostbite, so severe his face had to be remolded with skin to remake his nose. A great, sad, and tragic book. Good read!

Into Thin Air Cont'd

This week, the actual climbing began. Jon and his crew began going from Base Camp to Camp One, Camp Two, and back down again. Part of their day would be going from Base Camp to Camp One, and then back again to acclimate themselves to the air pressure, so as to prevent any pressure related diseases or sicknesses. This method works very well, Hall, the guide, explains to his group. The expedition continues from Base Camp to Camps One and Two for days, not allowing actual exploration of any new land until they are sure they can handle the air pressure. There is one journey from Base Camp to Camp One which involves climbing onto a set of ladders aside the mountain while giant blocks of ice lie careening over, threatening to fall and take the lives of those in its way. One of the Sherpas, however, at Camp One, begins to fall ill and in a race to the bottom of the mountain to get him to safety, many obstacles, like other climbers, lie in the way. Could this be foreshadowing some kind of tragedy? However, the Sherpa makes it down okay and is flown to a hospital, where he dies from an altitude related sickness.