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great read…mind blowing the type of risks these explorers took.

This was a pretty fascinating bit of narrative non fiction. I‘m interested in the lost city / lost world theme so when I heard about this on a podcast it sounded excellent. Gruesome, but excellent. For a lighter tone, watch the Disney movie Jungle Cruise after reading it 🤣 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Another excellent Litsy recommendation that I thoroughly enjoyed. I would not have fared well on any expedition into the Amazon 😂

Explorer Percy Fawcett took many trips to South America to explore within #Bolivia and Brazil before ultimately disappearing in 1925, searching for an advanced, ancient city he was sure existed. Grann tells this story alongside his own adventure of learning about Fawcett. Terrific read with a really satisfying ending.

#ReadingAmericas2023

I appreciate the way Grann allows the story to unfold by alternating between the earlier explorations of the Amazon and his own. He inserts himself into the narrative more than I prefer, but he's self-aware enough that it's not too distracting. I also appreciate how he neither vilifies nor apologizes for the egotism and Eurocentrism of previous explorers but instead makes his point by juxtaposing their views with those of modern archaeologists.

I explored 5 of the 7 bridges on the San Diego Seven Bridges Walk this morning while listening to the tagged book and getting ridiculously sweaty thanks to this heat wave, which seems appropriate while listening to a book about expeditions in the Amazon rain forest.

If I‘m going to read nonfiction, this is the kind I need: really good narrative storytelling with fascinating subject matter. Grann does an excellent job weaving his two timelines (Fawcett‘s life leading up to his disappearance in the Amazon in 1925 and Grann‘s own journey to the green hell on Fawcett‘s trail) together. The number one thing I learned: stay the hell out of the Amazon.😱

Great on audio.

#InvolvesAnExploration #Booked2022

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

A great mix of narrative and insightful writing that make this an enjoyable non-fiction. I also appreciated the author giving an account of his own obsession which added to narrative style. But, it also proves the biographies are influenced by the thoughts of the writer as well.
I crossed off another book from my #Booked2022 TBR during this #20in4 readathon. Involves an exploration.

Riveting adventure tale and mystery set in the rainforest along the Amazon River. David Grann is one of my favorite writers of nonfiction.

#River #SavvySettings
@Eggs @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

Well that was a fascinating read. In 1925 explorer Percy Fawcett was searching for the lost city of Z in the remote Amazon jungle, never to be heard from again. This book tells of his exploits and the authors quest to trace his steps and find out what really happened to him.

This looks a fun proxy for being outside when the wildfire smoke is too much for me! Great idea, @imperfectcj 🔥
1. I want to like tents, but being able to stand upright is clutch. Camper? Cabins are awesome, too...
2. Hazel
3. The tagged is an excellent adventure story and discussion of explorer culture
4. I'd like to read 30 min a day... I've been good on audiobooks but less good about eyeball reading. Too antsy, maybe?
🏕 #litsysummercamp

Here‘s my #booked2021 second quarter wrap up. My favorite was The Lost City of Z. Hummingbird Salamander (my most anticipated) I sadly did not like at all. All the others I gave 3 and 3.5 stars.

#AuthorsFirstNameStartsWithABorC: Elantris
#MusicalInstrumentOnCover: Piranesi
#AntiracismBook: When They Call You a Terrorist
#ContainsPhotos: The Lost City of Z
#NewIn2021: Hummingbird Salamander
#UnderratedOrLesserKnownBook: Swimming in Darkness

I quit this the first time I tried to read it but kept it on my tbr because I knew I would read it someday. 4 of 5 stars. Watching and reading it for movie/bookclub.

Fascinating listen about adventure, history, obsession and how incredibly awful humans are to those they decide are inferior to them i.e. those that lived in the Amazon.

Can't concentrate on the audio version. I may pick up the digital or print version later though.

I hope you don't mind me continuing to flood your feed while I log all my books from 2020.

This book is by the same author who wrote [ Killers of the Flower Moon ]. This had adventure and mystery. What happened to this explorer? What happened to those who went looking for him?

#MuseumPlaceBookGroup

This is an excellent book about the people & history of the Brazilian Amazon forest through the eyes of Col. Fawcett who thrived there and the modern search for the city of Z & the Fawcetts who never returned, including how people can die in a myriad of horrific ways there & how to prepare human meat (yea). Continually interesting and far better than the movie, which gave an inaccurate & boring portrayal of Fawcett. Narration is a bit monotone ⬇️

Listened to about an hour of the tagged book this morning and did a better job finding food from Brazil this morning. Daughter and I will be trying the açaí bowls shortly. Hopefully the Brazilian bakery shows up at the farmers market tomorrow. #foodandlit #slumpathon #joyousjanuary

I found this book fascinating. I enjoyed the jumps in time going from early 1900s preparing for voyages that promised, if nothing else, hardship and adventure to more recent 2005 setting out to discover, not the city of Z, but instead where the 3 adventurers met their possible end. If you take nothing else from this book, you‘ll at least learn that the Amazon has a habit of welcoming explorers and keeping them.

Started the audio book today and watching the movie now. It is very very slow. Rather bored in fact so posting here on Litsy until it hopefully picks up. #foodandlit #Brazil

This audiobook is my second #foodandlit book for #Brazil

I needed an audiobook to follow Bad Blood and this fit the bill. Right up my alley. I‘m a bit worried that I may not like the narrator but hoping for the best.

While the title is about a geographical place, this turns out to be a biography of Percy Fawcett, a 1900s British explorer obsessed with the Amazon. If you don't want a biography, then skip. If you're into turn-of-the century settings or explorer adventures, give it a go. (Continued in next comment) #dw2020reads

?The Lost City of Z (I can‘t think of a single book I‘ve read that starts with Z!!!)
?Markus Zusak/Émile Zola
? Zack and Miri Make a Porno/Zodiac/Dr. Zhivago/Zombieland/Zoolander
?Ziggy Marley/ZZ Top/Led Zeppelin
?Ziggy Stardust(song and album) - David Bowie/Zoloft - Ween

#ManicMonday #LetterZ

This was such a fun challenge! Thanks to our awesome host!

Having finished the book, decided to watch the movie last night and I know you won‘t be shocked to hear this come out of a Litten‘s mouth, but

THE BOOK WAS BETTER THAN THE MOVIE!

And I mean quite a lot better. They somehow managed to take an exciting and fascinating book and make it into a film as dull as dishwater. I thought they‘d focus on the action bits in the jungle and it was more than 30:00 in before anything dangerous happened. 🤦🏻‍♀️

True story: when I was a little kid I was a big fan of these goofy ‘Road pictures‘ when they came on TV and while I don‘t really remember them I think I can safely say it must have been VERY loosely based on Fawcett.😂

#BookSpin done ✅

Like the author, I do enjoy a story that has “the grip” and this is indeed gripping. It‘s a fascinating and entertaining tale of obsession that like most such tales doesn‘t seem to have ended well for the obsessed or those that loved him. The greater tragedy though is how colonialism and present day exploitation has been and continues to be devastating to the Amazon and its indigenous peoples, not to mention the planet.

So I picked this up because it has been on my backlogged TBR bookcase for a few years. There are some times reasons you don't get to a book, and glorifying colonizers is a good reason.
The book is okay in the writing, really easy to read. He touches on disturbing tribes but not as deeply as he should. I guess explorer fans probably don't want to hear about that though.
More comments about the writing in the comments! .

It's that time again for me to purge my shelves and pass on books to my fellow Littens with some #PayItForward GiveAways. 🎉

Last one today is a used paperback copy of The Lost City of Z.

If you'd like to have this book simply comment below and let me know. US only please since we still have shipping restrictions here.

Enjoy! 😁

My son is away this weekend, so I decided to do a deep clean of his room. The Lost City of Z has been a good soundtrack because it‘s very possible that I would have found flesh eating rainforest insects in the mess under his bed 🤢

Another tbr pick for me, Sisko's search for a lost city goes way better than this one does, I think. I had to look Rapture up to refresh my memory, but of course, it's the locust episode. A damn good one!
#startreksummerjune

Watched the movie first. It was very focused on the city itself, and the all-consuming /tragedy/ of it all. And... The book is way different! It's about explorers and exploring and the fascination of the unknown. Plus, weirdly, I've also been playing the newest Lara Croft and it is filthy with Fawcett references 🤣. #24b4Monday

I listened to this as I drove from Boston to Grand Forks, ND. I really liked the narrator, which I‘m picky about. The story was fascinating, but I often found myself getting riled up about the self-importance of the explorers, their disregard for others, religious conversion, and the treatment of indigenous peoples. Not the author‘s fault, though. But I could have done with fewer descriptions of maggots in wounds and bugs on eyeballs.

I‘m amazed by the risks people willingly subject themselves to. The fearlessness it took to enter the Amazonian jungle is astounding and the conditions fawcett endured for exploration. I was fascinated both by Grann‘s decision to undertake the journey as well as Fawcett‘s and the ending was very satisfying. I will say all those bugs and maggots - I would never cut it. So many scenes made me shudder.

Holy crap, but I definitely never want to visit the Amazon rain forest after reading this book. Some of the parasites and predators that live there sound absolutely terrifying. A good piece of narrative nonfiction, glad I read it.

I‘m sucked into this book but GODDAMN are there some horrific creatures in the Amazon. The fish that swims up your [redacted] ?! NO THANK YOU.

This was an enthralling read about P.H. Fawcet and his disappearance in the Amazonian forest in 1925, of which I didn‘t know much beforehand. The timeline switches back and forth between present and past and it contains a thorough research, filled with fragments from Fawcet‘s personal journals and other personal accounts. It‘s an awesome tale about exploration and sacrfice, obsession and tragedy. And in an odd way, about vindication as well.

This is the story about Percy Fawcett, explorer who was obsessed with mythological city - El Dorado, and who eventually disappeared in the jungle (in 1925). It‘s also the story about author - David Grann and his obsession with the Fawcett, and his expedition to find Fawcett. Although I liked some parts, especially parts from Fawcett‘s diary, I find the story as whole rather boring. ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Before picking up this book I knew nothing of Percy Fawcett and his ill fated search for the City of Z, his name for the legendary El Dorado, in the jungles of the Amazon in 1925. He was quite a character, a real life Indiana Jones and I loved reading of his adventures and of the Royal Geographical Society to which he and other famous explorers belonged. This was my L book for #litsyatoz2019.

I am a sucker for an Amazon adventure with archeological significance.

I enjoyed this book about searching for a legend and the man who was searching for the legend - Fawcett and Z. The story went back and forth between the old and new quest. Never realized how obsessed people are and have been with Fawcett. Fawcett and his family were I obsessed as well. The intriguing part was that Grann got to study diaries others didn‘t get to read. Quick, easy read, enlightening and made me want to learn more!

Not as amazing as Killers of the Flower Moon, but interesting. Went deeper into a known story a little too much for me.

Audiocrocheting after I decided on this for #relatedtoapodcast! 🤘 I've seen this floating around for a while but finally took the leap. 😁
#Booked2019
@cinfhen @4thhouseontheleft @barbarathebibliophage

LOVED Killers of the Flower Moon, so I had to read Grann‘s other work. I was equally enthralled with this story of adventure and loss in the Amazon, and was even surprised by the conclusion. I hadn‘t even heard of Percy Harrison Fawcett before this book, but I have read The River if Doubt, which chronicles Teddy Roosevelt‘s trip through the Amazon (which is referenced several times in this book).
Grann‘s work is thorough and compelling.

This one started out gangbusters, crazy fascinating! It did slow a bit and I found myself having to push a bit to finish but felt rewarded in the end. So interesting to think about a time when we were still discovering the world. If you are interested in adventure, anthropology, and real travel, definitely check this book out. David Grann is a singular talent! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ #NONFICTION2019 @Riveted_Reader_Melissa

‪Day 2, book 4 of #24byMonday ! What are you reading this morning? @Andrew65 @TheReadingMermaid

#NoFemmeber #nonfictionNovember

This book is fantastic. It is about Percy Fawcett‘s journeys into the #Amazon looking for a lost city. It was also made into a movie in 2017. Reviews of the movie are mixed, but I highly recommend the #audiobook. #booktomovie

Very well written and researched. I didn‘t find the book as entertaining as I expected but this is because I didn‘t find Fawcett as interesting as others did. Also, a lot of popular books written about historical events sometimes fall into the trap of downplaying racism and other ugliness as being just of its time or not relevant, especially if they like their subject. Grann doesn‘t do this which I appreciated.