Rating: 
Summary: Very cold bath
Review: As a chubby nine-year-old, Lynne Cox was the slowest kid in the pool. But she loved swimming, so she kept plugging away at it. When the coach ordered her class out of the water because a storm was brewing, she got permission to keep swimming. When hail started falling, Cox kept swimming-alone-in a pool full of ice.
Scientists would later determine that her unique ratio of muscle to body fat made her anomalously suited to swimming long distances in water so cold, it would kill an ordinary swimmer within minutes. At 15, Cox swam the English Channel, breaking the world record. The next year, she went back to England and broke the record again.
It would be a mistake to think that Cox's new autobiography, Swimming to Antarctica: Tales of a Long-Distance Swimmer, is of interest only to swimmers. In fact, the book has more in common with heroic literature of the ancient world-like Beowulf and The Odyssey-than with the typical athlete's success story. Like those ancient heroes, Cox isn't satisfied with races that have a designated course. Instead, she looks for unique athletic challenges that only she can overcome. That's why, at 17, she fell out of love with channel swimming and, instead, took on the unknown-swimming icy lakes, straits and channels that had been thought impossible for a swimmer to breach. Her famous 1987 swim across the Bering Sea from Alaska to the Soviet Union took 10 years to plan, and the water, in August, was barely above freezing.
Although Cox isn't a professional writer, she has a keen eye for details that turn an important life experience into an entertaining story. Readers will be amused, for instance, by the English cab driver who told Cox she was too fat to swim the Channel-as he was driving her to the beach for that express purpose.
While other athletes were wooed by corporate sponsors, Cox had to finance her own projects. Her story is a powerful account of clinging hard to a bigger dream.
Rating: 
Summary: Four Stars for the Author, One Star for the Editor
Review: As an avid swimmer and reader,this book was a bit of a disappointment for me. I truly admire the author's determination and swimming prowess but her character emerges as one dimensional, which I'm sure it is not. There is little reference to her non-swimming life. Am I to believe, for example, that she never had any romantic relationships all those years? Was her life entirely about long distance swimming? Where is she today, in her mid-forties?
I was also disappointed by the fact that there are no photos or maps ! How is that possible in such a book?
Also, I feel that least 50 pages of the current edition could have been dropped. I would like to have read more about Ms. Cox's training, nutrition, etc. I don't even know what she looks like (height, weight).
In short: good story, bad editor.
Rating: 
Summary: If you read just one book this year, read this book
Review: I am grateful to have encountered Ms. Cox's fine account of her swims across the world - where she broke record after record for her swims in places where no human swimmers have ventured. As an endurance swimmer myself, I was fascinated by her accomplishments, and yet, more importantly, I am grateful to have had the opportunity to have been in the company of Ms. Cox, through reading her book. What shines through these pages, again and again, is her humanity, her humility, her gratitude to her team members, and her desire to be a force for peace and reconcilliation in our world. Time and time again in her story she displays where she made a choice to compromise, to respect her teammates, to avoid anger, to chose not be selfish, even, amazingly, when her own life would appear to be in danger, and yet she never preaches and never sounds self-righteous. Her tale is relevant and inspiring to all of us who wish to leave our world a little better than we found it. One need not be a swimmer to find the book a beautiful and inspiring tale. She is a rare individual, because she appears to be free from the blatant narcisissm of prominant athletes who have accomplished only a fraction of what she has accomplished. Her style and pacing make the book read like a compelling novel. I was sad to turn the final page.
Rating:
Summary: If you read just one book this year, read this book
Review: I am grateful to have encountered Ms. Cox's fine account of her swims across the world - where she broke record after record for her swims in places where no human swimmers have ventured. As an endurance swimmer myself, I was fascinated by her accomplishments, and yet, more importantly, I am grateful to have had the opportunity to have been in the company of Ms. Cox, through reading her book. What shines through these pages, again and again, is her humanity, her humility, her gratitude to her team members, and her desire to be a force for peace and reconcilliation in our world. Time and time again in her story she displays where she made a choice to compromise, to respect her teammates, to avoid anger, to chose not be selfish, even, amazingly, when her own life would appear to be in danger, and yet she never preaches and never sounds self-righteous. Her tale is relevant and inspiring to all of us who wish to leave our world a little better than we found it. One need not be a swimmer to find the book a beautiful and inspiring tale. She is a rare individual, because she appears to be free from the blatant narcisissm of prominant athletes who have accomplished only a fraction of what she has accomplished. Her style and pacing make the book read like a compelling novel. I was sad to turn the final page.
Rating:
Summary: Remarkable adventures from a remarkable woman.
Review: I have read many books about extreme accomplishments and loved the excitement of the adventure, but cringed at the narcissism of the adventurer. Lynne Cox's book is full of first-rate thrills, but her character is just as remarkable. (In her first major swim from Catalina Island to the California shore, she waits for her fellow teenaged swimmers to catch up because they had agreed to finish together. How many elite athletes do you know who would sacrifice the opportunity to set a record because of a promise to friends?) Swimming to Antarctica is a fantastic read, as well as inspiring. I recommend it highly.
Rating:
Summary: What an athlete! What a person!
Review: I have to say that I'm a pretty cynical person, but this book actually changed the way I look at certain aspects of life. Lynne has a strong personal philosophy that guides her actions and interactions. She tries to make things better than they are. She succeeds. Her athletic adventures read like a series of thrilling short stories. When I try to describe this book to friends, I always find myself saying: "You just won't believe what this woman has accomplished!"
Rating:
Summary: Lynne rates as a modern Adventurer!
Review: I started reading Swimming to Antarctica at 8 pm and I couldn't put it down till I finished it after midnight!Her book, her adventures, her swims, and especially Lynne herself - are all fantastic! Not only did she set and achieve personal goals, she did it keeping in mind her involvement with those around her - family, coaches, fellow swimmers, the community, and even those non-swimmers who cheered on her achievements! I can't stop using exclamation marks because I admire and am thrilled by everything Lynne has done! I wish the book had photographs! I wish I read Lynne's book or heard about herin high school - it might have inspired me to do more over the years. The writing is engaging and you feel you are right in the stormy, foggy ocean or in the murky slime of the Nile or in the icy, freezing water of Antarctica. Lynne rates as high as Thor Heyerdahl (Kon Tiki) as a modern adventurer. When I saw a photograph of her in People Magazine - it was wonderful to put that smiling face to the smiling voice that comes through clearly in her writing! I will read and re-read this book many times over the years.
Rating:
Summary: Great book- it captures you
Review: I was hooked by the first few pages of this book. The author captures you and takes you on an adventure with her swims around the world. She shares insight, doubts, fears, goal setting and a burning desire to stick to her goals, no matter what may arise to detour her. She has the ability to make you feel as though you can share the image as she did with swimming through rain and hail: "I felt as if I were swimming through a giant bowl of icy tapioca." The imagery of swimming at night in cold and darkness is chilling. There is no other swimmer in the world that can swim in 32 degree water wearing only a swimsuit. She is courageous and inspiring with the details of her swims. The book is not just for swimmers; it is for all of us that have dreams we would like to pursue, but lack the tenacity to push the limits of what we think we can accomplish.
Rating:
Summary: She was in the cabin next to me !!!
Review: I was perusing Borders last nite and I saw her name and the
title and then I knew it was her!!
She was on the same Antarctica expedition with me back in 2002!
Also she was in the cabin right next to mine!!
Many of us were amazed of her endurance and capabilities of handling the rough and cold water, she showed us some videos and had a nice Q&A with all of us also. I saw her shiverring real bad a few times and it was scary seeing her in just a plain one piece bathing suit!!! Not even a wetsuit !!!!
She was also featured on 60 Minutes II and there was a TV crew and even doctors in her group.
I'm also working on a book about the Antarctica trip - I went to see the penguins, but saw and experienced alot more. George Lewycky
New Jersey, USA
http://georgenet.net
Rating:
Summary: Amazing, but we don't see enough humanity.
Review: In a day and age when the term "extreme" is flung around the sporting world far too often, Lynne Cox has gone a long way towards returning it to it's proper perspective through actions that are extreme beyond anyone's imagination but her own, and with "Swimming to Antarctica"; words of an accomplished writer that chronicle those actions. To call Lynne Cox a long-distance swimmer is an understatement, and while "superhero" may be a bit of an exaggeration, it's definitely closer to the mark, and not as far from the truth as one would think. Blessed with a body that defies the laws that bodies are supposed to be bound by, she swam the famed English Channel faster than any man or woman before her... at age 15! When she was done breaking the record times of swims others had made, she began finishing ones nobody else had even dreamed of, each more dangerous, and more mind-blowing, than the last. No, to say Lynne Cox has superpowers wouldn't be far from the truth at all, and neither would calling the engaging and awe-inspiring "Swimming" a fiction reader's work of non-fiction, but, alas, it is still non-fiction, and sometimes reality can be anticlimactic. While Cox's concluding swim, the inspiration for the book's title, is, fittingly, the most daunting, no one who grew up during the Cold War will be as moved by it as by her crossing of the Bering Strait and it's political significance. There are other flaws, too. The dozens of names in the book are easily mixed up, and readers could find themselves backtracking in order to keep them straight. This could have been helped had Lynne elaborated more on the dynamics of her relationships with them, and if she'd done more than just skim the surface of her more personal emotions, she and her work would have come across as a lot more human, something even Superman has to pretend to be to get good reviews. Nevertheless, "Swimming to Antarctica" is an accomplishment, even by Cox's lofty standards, and for those who have a little Lynne Cox in them; who have loved doing something as much, dreamt as big, or have simply witnessed and been able to appreciate the wonders of nature, it's an experience... one through the eyes of an extraordinary woman with an extraordinary soul.
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