Rating: 
Summary: Virtual South Pacific Travel
Review: Read this book during my 2 month journey through the South Pacific. Text was wonderful...and and an upbeat contrast to the biting sarcasm of Theroux and his Happy Isles of Oceania...another good book...but rather depressing. To understand the depth of accomplishment of Captain Cook and the brave men who sailed uncharted seas (without goretex and rubber boots, no less), makes for an impressive tale indeed! I heartily recommend the book to history buffs, human anthropologists/ sociologists, travelers, and those who love to journey vicariously!
Rating: 
Summary: Highly entertaining and informative
Review: I really felt as though I went along on this journey and enjoyed every minute! And unlike some other reviewers, I found Rodger to be a good foil and quite amusing. I was never interested in Capt. Cook but decided to buy the book after seeing the author discussing it on book TV. It's a fascinating story and I learned a great deal. Indeed, this book was as informative as, but far more paletable than, other books that are deemed more "scholarly". Thanks for the good time Tony...and Rodger!
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Summary: Mr. Horwitz combines historic and present events.
Review: Once I met Mr. Horwitz at a book signing in Dartmouth, MA this summer and had a long conversation with him, I delved into his book.I thoroughly enjoyed going along on his voyage to follow the discoveries made by Captain Cook. His way of interweaving past and present is very clever and well done, his research of the original voyages is thorough. Thus I found the reading of Blue Latitudes most enjoyable from both, the historic point of view as well as the present. Mr. Horwitz is a good story-teller as I could see for myself during his presentation and I was impressed by his knowledge as well as the fact that he is a very nice person. I shall heed his advice not to visit Tahiti, as I am sure his description in the book is absolutely correct; but I hope he heeded my advice of visiting SABA, home of infamous Captain Morgan and a pure delight, though unknown to most people as he had never heard of this precious jewel of an island in the Caribbean. Blue Latitudes takes us on two journeys at once, and I hope that the environmental degradation he witnessed and reports may resonate with a lot of people concerned with our environment. The book is a joy to read and his style of writing as well as the use of his vocabulary just what one would expect from a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist. Keep writing Tony...
(why the no button remark? I don't understand why I cannot vote, I certainly did not write Blue Latitudes, Tony Horwitz did and I really would like to point out to you that you made an error there. Kindly correct so I can vote, Inge Perreault)
Rating: 
Summary: Starts off strong...fascinating but lacking depth
Review: Blue Latitudes chronicles the author's journey through Captain Cook's three travels on the Endevour and other ships. The book is well written with an easy-going narrative style that is easy to follow, very conversational. The story opens with a week long excursion on a historical re-creation of an 18th century boat. The most interesting part of the book was the comparision between Cook's recorded history of the islands and native people he visited, versus the current condition today. Nearly all of the locations have become much more westernized, often times for the worse. For example, one island described by Cook as a paradise is now a seedy tourist trap with environmental and economic problems. There are quite a few humorous interludes in the book. I think the funniest ones involve the author meeting with a Polynesian King, or the drunken weekend in the Australian badlands. Unfortunatley, the author feels like a bit of a dilantette when addressing most of the topics in the book other than his personal observations. Many sources of information are ancedotal or secondhand, based on the experience of locals that he encounters along the way. He is not an expert in cultural anthropology, history, or seamanship...and this shows in his prose. His buddy Roger was a positive addition to the book in that he adds some comic relief and nautical skills but he almost becomes stereotyped as the "drinking buddy" by the end. Had the author been paired with some sort of expert who was familiar with the Pacific Rim or Oceania, I think the end result would've been a world class book. Although it was well written, I didn't sense the author's passion for the topic at hand, and that is the main reason I gave this book 3 stars. A more rigorous application of academic or historical principles would have also helped.
Rating:
Summary: Thoroughly Enjoyable
Review: I read this book over two months in the summer of 2003. It took me time to read because it is so facinating and so well written. Tony Horwitz really makes it easy to join along in his journey to explore Capt Cook's exploits and will make you laugh along the way. I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes history, especially little known history that we might have missed out on growing up...... like the exploits of Capt. Cook.
Rating: 
Summary: Doldrums
Review: Sorry to say this, I was looking forward to a wonderful read. Instead I found a badly formed narrative, loose ends, bad writing, a dire lack of wit and style. This guy can make any place look boring and dumpy. He doesn't give any insight into Cook or the South Pacific and ultimately the book reads like an early chronicle. Also Horowitz needs to learn what a reader wants to see focused on. We don't need a three page diary of his friend's drinking spree. His original week on a ship from Seattle is never brought up again, nor is what he learned applicable (in his mind it seems) to the either the other boat trips he took or the ship captained by Cook. If he had a rollicking story we might forgive him (as we do Grisham) but instead this is dull plodding, a sea of doldrums. Had he submitted this to New Yorker, it would have been rejected, and if not rejected edited considerably. It needs it. I had to tap into a Cookian mania for finishing a project just to get through it. Don't bother.
Rating:
Summary: Geography and History at their best!
Review: When I was in school I was proficient in English, Math, and Science. However my reputation was based, not on these subjects, but on my utter inability to absorb even the most rudimentary amounts of information about Geography and History. Geography was locations, climate, topography, and not much more. History was worse: it was names and dates -- gobs of them. My test scores were so bad I once even had a -10 -- I misspelled my own name on the zero grade test paper. Onto this unpromising platform, then, imagine me selecting Blue Latitudes after hearing about it on Fresh Air, the NPR talk show. Sounded interesting, and Amazon.com's one click made it easy to get. I ensconsed it as my bathroom reading book at work, and its episodic structure lent itself to this task well. I don't recall whether it was the opening sentences of the book, or perhaps even earlier than that, the dust jacket, that grabbed me by the jugular, but Tony Horwitz, the author, did something amazing. He populated history with people, and by retracing the voyages himself, sometimes in a replica of Captain Cook's vessel, he populated the geography with life. I gained a connection to the times, the events, the challenges, and the trials in a manner so remote from my school experiences, that I almost feel like a pseudo expert on Captain James Cook. I feel a dichotomy regarding his majesty as an explorer and cartographer (whose maps of New Zeaaland were still standard reference through 1995), and the net negative effect of his "discovery" of the South Pacific and its people over time. Tony Horwitz -- I salute you. You are a master story teller, and amaster of bringing history and geography to life!
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Summary: Great journalistic style... I learned so much!
Review: I knew next to nothing about Captain James Cook when i picked up this audiobook... history books generally glass over his voyages, even though he explored an area that encompasses nearly 1/3 of the globe! Horwitz's urge to learn all he could about the man and his work is infectious... you can see this in the text rubbing off on those around him, as seen in Roger, his companion on many of his "Cook" travels. Retracing Captain Cook's three voyages, relying heavily on the diaires of Cook himself, Horwitz decides to take a short trip to the Pacific Northwest to sail for 10 days in a replica of Cook's ship. He wanted a feel for the life or a seaman, and he sure gets it!! Next he sets off to Australia and New Zealand. His journalistic style brings in great aspects of history, anthropology, and language. He interviews Maori people in New Zealand and Aborigines in Australia, asking them what memories their people have of Cook and his men. Both groups remember Captain Cook, oftentimes in a negative light. It does not appear that they despise Cook as a man, but more of what he stood for, and what his exploration meant for the native culture. Horwitz and Roger then begin to island hop around the Pacific. I particularly liked the time they spent on the island of Niue (like Horwitz, I had never heard of this island!) Describing the scene, Horwitz claims it may be the last part of Polynesia that is not spoiled by commercialism and tourists. He and Roger stay for a week on this small island (only 11 miles long!) and try to unravel the mystery of the hula hula (Cook's men were scared away from these islands by men with red teeth, and they named the island Savage Island because they thought the people were cannibals). Roger and Horwitz go to Yorkshire England, Cook's birthplace (and Roger's too), and take part in a few days of the Cook festival. They meet Cliff, the young president of the Captain Cook society, and try to find out as much as they can about the enigmatic Cook. Going to Cook's own home gives Horwitz a different take on the man, and he learns more about Cook's beliefs and his philosophies. Their travels end in Hawaii, like Cook's did in 1778. They commemorate Cook on the beach where he was killed. I learned a great deal from this book. Polynesian history and culture is drastically overlooked in America. People travel to Hawaii for its sandy beaches, but have no idea about the history of its great people. Horwitz's observation about the vastness and homogenous nature of Polynesian culture was astounding to me. The people of Tonga and Niue had similar rituals, and the islanders of Hawaii, thousands of miles away had many of the same customs. This makes Polynesian culture and ethnicity more expansive than any other. The other aspect of this book that fascinated me was how Horwitz tried to get into Cook's head. Cook was a son of the Enlightenment, and did not come to Polynesia with preconceived notions of God, Gold, and Glory like the conquistadors. He wanted to discover and learn about others, and was very scientifically conscious for a man of his time.
Rating:
Summary: Just about brilliant
Review: I was frankly wary of making this purchase after being somewhat disappointed with one of Horwitz's earlier offerings, namely Confederates in the Attic. I had looked forward to reading it and then found it a trifle dull. However I made the plunge and bought this one. What a great surprise. Horwitz has certainly done his homework by way of reading up on as many aspects of Cook as he could. One slight criticism would be that he constantly refers to the sailors as 'English'. From 1707 the navy was known as the British navy and was full of British sailors (including Americans, who were still deemed British, albeit British Colonials). Barring this and a few error-prone Bligh comments, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. I finished it in about 6 days, probably a record for me. What made it more interesting was that Horwitz entwines his own trips to the various lands touched by Cook with actual narratives and depictions of Cook and his men visiting the same places. A nice touch which is used all through the tome. For someone interested in history, travel or both, I would heartily recommend this.
Rating:
Summary: Thoroughly enjoyable.
Review: My sister gave me this book for Christmas, and it took me about 6 months to get around to reading it. I'm sorry I waited. Tony Horwitz is a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and an excellent writer. He retraces Captain Cook's voyages around the world, cutting back and forth between past and present. I found his descriptions of people, places and events to be frequently humorous, occasionally moving and always interesting. If you enjoy travel, if you enjoy history, or if you enjoy people, you'll enjoy this book.
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