SOUTH WITH THE SUN Roald Amundsen, His Polar Explorations, and the Quest for Discovery

The details of Roald Amundsen’s famous explorations to the South Pole and the Northwest Passage are interwoven with accounts of the author’s own efforts to swim (in only a bathing suit!) in subzero temperatures. Amundsen is a role model for Cox—she wants to know how others who did things in cold places that had never been done before found their way. Narrator Christine Williams adeptly delivers Amundsen’s feats, including his unusual efforts to learn from the inhabitants of arctic environments. The narrative’s footnotes are extremely distracting; they sound disconnected, as if they were added after the main narration. In addition, Cox's details on her research methods are not very interesting. The combination of narrative, footnotes, methodology, and Williams’s overly upbeat voice becomes tiresome. A.B. © AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine [Published: NOVEMBER 2011]