Blue Latitudes: Boldly Going Where Captain Cook Has Gone Before

Hotel Resource Book Store 

 Store Home / Books / Blue Latitudes: Boldly Going Where Captain Cook Has Gone Before

Hotel Industry Books 

Blue Latitudes: Boldly Going Where Captain Cook Has Gone Before
by Tony Horwitz
from Picador

Customer Reviews:

• Avg. Customer Rating: 4.5 / 5.0

• Bad Day at Black Rock
  
  In my research for Wai-nani, High Chiefess of Hawaii, I read a dozen accounts of Captain James Cook's deadly encounter with the natives of Hawaii in 1779. This included not only the Captains' journal, but that of seaman, John Ledyard, and that of first mate, Lt. King. When Tony Horwitz declared that in Blue Latitudes he would take us boldly where Captain Cook had gone before, I didn't expect to learn anything new. What I found was the most informative, well-researched, fun account of the famous... more info

• Cook'n with Horwitz
  An author such as Tony Horwitz is a rare find.
  After reading his latest release (as of this review), "A Voyage Long and Strange", I had to backtrack to "Blue Latitudes". Glad I did.
  Horwitz' slant to history is savvy with modern day adventure, wit and insight.
  Following in the wake of Captain James Cook's three world voyages of the eighteenth century, the author painstakingly confronts hundreds of present day individuals from several South Pacific Islands, New Zealand, Australia, Hawaii... more info

• Another good read
  While this is one of his earlier books, i just discovered this author and love his interplay of current experience and history. As in his other works, a new level of understanding emerges about the earliest interplay of European contact with the native peoples and, unfortunately, the consequences that are with us today. Highly recommended.

• Engaging, if scattered
  Horwitz's gambit is to retrace Cook's voyages as he chronicles his life. It's a good idea, and it's interesting (if depressing) to learn what Cook's stops have turned into. (Tahiti, once a paradise, is now a shabby tourist trap.) Horwitz's own explorations are given equal time to Cook's, which means that the biography of Cook is somewhat less detailed than you might want it to be. But he's an engaging writer.
  Check my list, "Books About Explorers," for more recommendations.

Similar Products:

A Voyage Long and Strange: Rediscovering the New World by Tony Horwitz (Hardcover) - Usually ships in 24 hours

Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War by Tony Horwitz (Paperback) - Usually ships in 24 hours

Baghdad without a Map and Other Misadventures in Arabia by Tony Horwitz (Paperback) - Usually ships in 24 hours

One for the Road: Revised Edition by Tony Horwitz (Paperback) - Usually ships in 24 hours

Over the Edge of the World: Magellan's Terrifying Circumnavigation of the Globe... by Laurence Bergreen (Paperback) - Usually ships in 24 hours