Endurance, Alfred Lansing

• Subtitled, Shackleton's Incredible Voyage...First off, there are a lot of books about the Shackleton expedition, and this is the only one I've read and can recommend. It has a forward by James Dobson, and is recommended as an inspirational story and a "metaphor of the Christian experience." Shackleton and other members of the expedition have their own books published. This book is a mixture of journals and other research woven together. It is as suspenseful as the best novel you've ever read.

• Ernest Shackleton was an explorer who took a crew of men and dogs from England to the Antarctic with the goal of reaching the south pole, I believe. The goal doesn't matter because they shipwreck so far away from their mark that the rest of the story is of their struggle to survive the worst possible place on earth to be shipwrecked. Many times, you wonder how you can be reading the story because surely these men didn't live to tell the tale. It's hard not to pity them for surviving. It is amazing and sobering how much suffering the human body can endure, and how strong the will is to live, even when the only option is living miserably.

• I don't know if this story is a metaphor, but it is surely an example of the impossible coming to pass. If you've ever hoped for something that seemed impossible, or prayed a prayer that seemed to much to ask, this story will remind you that anything, is possible. My advice is to read this story during the dead of winter to maximize the effects of the freezing wind, barking sled dogs, the noise of a ship crashing through antarctic ice, and the rocking sensation of camping out on an ice floe. Reading this book made me cold, but the ending is really, really good.