Sold

Today I read the gut-wrenching novel Sold by Patricia McCormick. It is an excellent adolescent lit book that tells the story of Lakshmi, a 13 year-old Nepali girl who is sold by her step-father into a life of prostitution. She is taken from her mountainside village in Nepal and transported to India to work in a brothel. It is a quick read that shows the harsh reality that so many young girls face in the world. Although, for the most part, the story is bleak, the book ends with a message of hope.

Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World

I just finished the book, Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World: The Extraordinary True Story of Shackleton and the Endurance by Jennifer Armstrong. It was an excellent book. It tells the true story of Ernest Shackleton's attempt to cross the continent of Antarctica. Attempt is the key word there because Shackleton and his boat Endurance never even made it to Antarctica (the boat became trapped in frozen ice 100 miles of the coast). The book tells the amazing survival story of Endurance's crew as they were trapped at the bottom of the world for almost 20 months!! Here's how Armstrong ended the book:

Shackleton had failed in his mission. And yet what he and his crew did succeed in doing in 1915-1916 was one of the most incredible feats of survival ever recorded. Every stage of their journey seemed more remarkable than the last. From January 1915, when Endurance was trapped in the ice, during its helpless drift through the Weddell Sea and its destruction in October, to the crew's long, miserable months of camping on the ice, the Boss had held his men together under terrible conditions. Their three-boat passage in April 1916 to Elephant Island was accomplished in spite of enormous odds. The voyage of the James Caird over 800 miles of winter ocean rivals any small-boat journey in history. Shackleton's trek across the unmapped peaks of South Georgia was the first in that hostile mountain range, and the survival of the crew in their hut on Elephant Island over one Antarctic winter is almost too much to believe. And yet it all happened Shackleton brought them all home.

Anyways, I highly recommend it for anyone looking for a fast and fascinating read. Here are a few pictures I found of Shackleton, his crew, and the Endurance:

Endurance after it was trapped in the ice pack.

Ernest Shackleton

Endurance after an ice floe hit it.

The crew with a lifeboat, after abandoning Endurance.