Welcome to Litsy!

I‘m not finished with this book yet, but I‘m still counting in as my favorite book of the month. Incredible storytelling; he expertly combines the human side of things with the technical details that I‘m so interested in.

Krakauer was on an assignment to Mt Everest, to write an article for Outdoor Magazine. He joined a guide led by Rob Hall. A mix of weather, inexperience among climbers in the group, poor decisions and a lack of communication, mostly due to lack of oxygen, the trek became fatal.
Date nite to Royal Spice, a local Nepalese/Indian restaurant. I had Newari Khaja with goat, naan, and Nepalese rice pudding. #FoodandLit

Interesting history of the deadliest hurricane in history, it hit Galveston TX. It‘s incredible to see how far weather prediction has come and how much there was to learn and understand something as “simple” as the wind.
Larson has a great way of telling the history and making it feel like a story. Excellent research involved I‘m sure.

⭐️⭐️⭐️ In the 1996 Everest disaster, Dr Beck Weathers was discovered so near death, it was not wise to risk more lives for a fruitless rescue attempt. Hours later, he miraculously arrived at camp. These are the details he recalls. It‘s an incredible story of perseverance, and a bold, selfless rescue. It‘s also very much about his flailing marriage and the part mountaineering played in his often being an absent father / husband.

Best laid plans …

My holds came in on Challenger and Intermezzo, so I‘m bumping them ahead of my bookspin picks and reading them next.

Sadly, this opening epigraph was the ONLY good thing about this book.

It's been a while since I've read a book that was so terrible that it actually made me angry. This was one of those books. It's a 389-page book that's supposed to be about the Union Carbide disaster that struck India in 1984, but the authors decided to wait until page 294 before they got to it. I'm not joking. It's as if they wanted to write about everything BUT the disaster. 😡😡😡 #2025Book4

3.5⭐

I wanted to like this book more than I did. The narrator for the #audiobook had an incredibly soothing and easy to listen to voice. The firsthand accounts of the loss, devastation, resiliency, and strength were powerful. The book just felt too drawn out. If the author had condensed things a bit, which I fully believe he could have done without sacrificing the integrity of his work, then I think this would have easily been a 4-4.5 star read.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ What started as an article for Outside Magazine turned into the deadliest day on Everest (at that point), and a totally different experience ensued. The article expanded into this incredible memoir, perhaps as an act of catharsis. I first read this 14 years ago and loved it just as much now. Harrowing, sad, and incredible.

Highly recommend all of Krakauer‘s books! His “Under the Banner of Heaven” is what got me interested in cults.

This was an emotional read for me! I was in 4th grade in Florida when it happened. My class stepped outside to watch so I saw the explosion live in the sky. And in hindsight there were so many reasons to not launch that day 😔 The story was well told by the author.