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Summary: A world with a view!
Review: Horwitz & Cook = an enlightening program of entertainment in words tracing historical events currently spattered with ecological, cultural and social changes, which would have been unacceptable in past times and events. Horwitz uses comic relief, facination and expectations, trailing Cooks life, bringing to the present, all the while exploiting his travel companion's creative quips and ideals. You can read Blue in several settings and still gain full impact from its messages mostly of the degradation of the small international eco-environment. Just read it for a new adventure and enjoy it.
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Summary: Something for Everyone--I Just LOVE It!
Review: Blue Latitudes, on Capt. James Cook & Crew's three voyages in the Pacific northwest and beyond, is simply the most interesting and engaging work of nonfiction (or "creative nonfiction") I have read in the past five years. The one before it was Horwitz's last book, Confederates in the Attic-and while that was riveting for me on a personal level, as I grew up in the South, Blue Latitudes is the better book, more universal and accessable, a mixture of first-person journalism with strong narrative technique (creative nonfiction) and history, which is presented so smoothly as to make you amazed you read this thing in a weekend and couldn't put it down, and then you get to the end and notice from the Selected Bibliography that this is also a major work of scholorship-the kind that makes Academics jealous because it's better than they are without being boring and stuffy. I'll bet it makes popular travel writers/participatory journalists like Paul Theroux or Geroge Plimpton envious because Horwitz can do research and they can't-and as in his earlier book he comes across as a likeable guy, not a self-important megalomaniac. This is the kind of book that, for me at least, comes along once about every 3-5 years-if you're like me, and read widely and often, chances are you have some friends and family who do also, and you want them all to read it, you want to be the one to give it to them, holiday or no, which is what I did with Confederates in the Attic and is also what I'm doing with Blue Latitudes. Tony Horwitz already has a Pulitzer Prize in Journalism, for his early '90s work as a correspondent for the Wall Street Journal on the first Gulf War; he deserves another for this, in history. And as I'm obviously giving this book the big Two Thumbs up and Then Some, and spending 1000 words doing it, let's just go on with this little line of thought for a moment, shall we? We shall. We were reading it at 4 am, wishing it were closer to Father's Day-and not just our father, either! One can teach it to high school students. Beautiful women can read it while laying out sipping Daquiris on the beach this summer. Grad students can use it in their dissertations, and even idiots can enjoy it. We were flipping through our phone book and didn't find a person therein who wouldn't dig it all the way to Tahiti and back in a pea-green boat, even those who care little or nothing for books on travel or history. And I admit that before I picked it up, Captain Cook and his voyages had never been that important to me, or seen by me as having literally shaped the modern world as we know it-nor was I aware that Star Trek has been ripping off details from Cook for years. I was at one time very interested in the Franklin Expedition, and in the past few years the culture's had Shackleton Fever, but it took the writing of Tony Horwitz to really get me Cooking-and it's amazing how fascinating it all is, no matter who you are or what you normally like to read. It's as good as Six Feet Under on one of those nights where the episode lasts the full hour. James Cook truly did chart new territories, going where no European had gone before-and he did it in his 50s, which was of course elderly in the late 1700s, in conditions that make a jail cell look like San Francisco Bay without the fog. Yep, Horwitz has a real prediliction for examining Hardcore Human Experience-and while he does so with the upmost taste and delicacy (which often gives the writing a certain ironic hilarity), you'd be hard-pressed (pun intended) to find an S & M site on the Internet where they get into stuff like the voyages of Cook's Endeavour. And it's all right here in this book-and sex, you wanted that, too, right? Well, read the chapter about when they go to Tahiti. They had more fun than Marlon Brando in the 70s. And gave the "new" world all the "old" had to offer-to the point at which the population of said island was reduced by some 95% in the next hundred years. Indeed, on the cusp of the Industrial Revolution, Cook's voyages define for Horwitz the literal beginnings of global Eurocentric hegemony and homogony-but the sex sure seemed like a good idea at the time. That's what Sir Joseph Banks, the youthful naturalist, thought, at least-he loved it, and you gentlemen will read the book and fancy yourself Sir Joseph in Tahiti circa 1770. You ladies out there, you want him, too! You won't want Cook, but you'll really get into the toughness of it-well, I take it back-a woman like Melanie Hassler would desire Cook, a man who makes Shackleton and Franklin and Bering and Amundsen put together look like an uncooked hot dog. There's violence in this adventure story, too-I mean really. It's got you hanging on every word-because just about every word is true, it's wild, all the popular genres rolled into one, with NASA parallels thrown in to boot! You'll want to buy it for your Hairdresser. Your Dentist. Your Boss. And if these are all the same person (could be), you'll start in on your kids. Because while I could step back and really analyze how brilliant is Horwitz's own account of shadowing (in his own ways) Cook's journeys, and noting changes, etc. (and making a lot of sapient observations between the lines as suggestions, too), I think the most remarkable thing about this book is how accessable and engaging and, yes, fun it can be to read a book on history-when it's written like this, for this, as I've shown, is about a little of everything. And you'll be surprised, as I was, at how much you'll learn-major facts, geography, dates, names, events, as well as tidbits that bring to life, by microcosm, the very different worlds of the past in a past where there were, for the very last time-different worlds. 1000 words, folks, and what I've said ain't the half of it. But go buy it or check it out and go read it-you'll wish every history book read like a book by Tony Horwitz. Or, who knows, maybe you won't. But I feel sure that you believe that I do.
Rating: 
Summary: Much to savor, but too much hand-holding.
Review: There is much to enjoy about this book. Author Tony Horwitz's historical accounts of Captain James Cook and his travels are compelling and reverential without being worshipful and one-sided, and his modern-day travelogue, recounting his trips to the places Cook visited are evocative, educational, and humorous. The skill with which he alternates back and forth between the past and the present is the strength of the book, allowing the reader, place by place, to experience the changes wrought by the passage of time since Cook's first landing. With all this praise, why did I give it only three stars? I feel that much of the emotional impact the book might have had was diminished by Horwitz's continual attempts to forcefully bridge historical narrative with his present-day travelogue. Each time in his present-day travels he encounters a "ghost" of Cook - a home in which he is said to have resided, an inlet which appears much the same today as it did in Cook's time - Horwitz invariably interjects something like, "One can almost imagine Cook writing at his desk / viewing the breathtaking site / etc." At first I merely noted these sidebars, then I found them awkward, and finally, annoying and forced. Rather than have spoon-fed us each time we were supposed to have taken notice of some bridge between the past and the present, I would have preferred that Horwitz had stepped back and let us imagine them for ourselves.
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Summary: Take me along Tony
Review: Another Horwitz adventure I'm glad I got to go on. Tony has the gift of using his wit and wile to take his readers on journeys to lands past and present. His friend Roger's perspective, provided a humorous Thompson-esque view on many of the destinations. I'm ready for the next trip. Take me along!
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Summary: Cook Now and Then in this Informative and Witty Tale
Review: If you liked "Confederates in the Attic," you'll like Tony Horwitz's latest effort "Blue Latitudes." Journalist-turned-author Horwitz seeks to follow in Captain James Cook's footsteps to both alight upon lands discovered and visited by Cook as well as ascertain the legacy contact with the famed explorer produced around the Pacific Rim. As with "Confederates..", Horwitz alternates between history and the present. This adventure's sidekick, Roger, is an affable foil for Horwitz and provides some of the book's lighter moments. Roger embraces the mission, but also the chance to go "crumpeting" around polynesia with his ever present bottle in tow. His "funster" role does grow to approximate the author's appreciation for Captain Cook by the end of the book and serves as a merry distraction throughout. Four or so pages of Tony and Roger exploring Cook's old haunts are followed by four or so pages describing Cook's life and journeys. This interspersion continues throughout the book and works well. This organization keeps the focus on the imprint Cook's visits had on native people and their cultures as well as providing for a light easy to read format.
Horwitz begins his quest by signing up for a week cruise in a replica of the Endeavor (Cook's first ship) as it plies windy and tossed seas off the Pacific Northwest. Armed with this touch of experience, he and his pal mostly jet to Hawaii, Tonga, New Zealand, Australia, the Aleutian Islands - "boldly going where Captain Cook has gone before" as the sub title states. The inevitable conclusion one draws from Cook's visits is that a series of insular cultures did not survive well or long first contact with Europeans. Most islands today have a fraction or less of the native population that hosted Captain Cook. Disease, manipulation, the sudden imposition a material culture and avarice produced their predictable results. Horwitz does not blame Cook, for if not him some other wind born adventurer would have brought the same calling card within a few years. Cook was actually enlightened in his attitudes towards crew welfare and obligations towards natives. The author only tells the story of change and contact with Cook did bring change -- on a massive scale. This is an engaging and entertaining book. Though not a full biography of Cook or a detailed telling of his three voyages, it gives an excellent overview of the man and his legacy. The modern day cuts and informative and told in the same witty observational style that made "Confederates" such an enjoyable experience.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting
Review: I love travel writing in the Bryson style of wit (ok juvenile, now leave me alone.) In that vein, I thought Mr. Horwitz's mate Roger really helped the way the book flowed. I kind of felt the way I feel about Bill Bryson when Katz isn't around, he's funny but he's lacking a certain element. Call that element trashy if you want to, but it's still an element. I hope Tony Horwitz writes many more books and I hope Roger is with him every step of the way.
Rating:
Summary: Good author - book not what I expected.
Review: I gave this a 3 because 3/5ths of the book was fascinating. Unfortunately, the remaining 2/5ths of the book contained a barely comatose character named Roger. It got so bad that I began to skip pages whenever the author and Roger began to drink with the native peoples. The author writes in a very appealing style whenever talking of Cook and his crews. At times I was on that tiny ship as we were stranded on the barrier reef or approaching unknown natives for the first time. The day-to-day aspect of discovery is avoided in most adventure texts - this book brings it to life. So, I am sorry for the manic-depressive review but that is the way that I felt from ½ way on with this book.
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Summary: Another Horwitz Winner
Review: I thought about how to title this review, and just decided to plainly describe how I felt. I am a fan of Tony's writing, and have read most of his published work to date. With just one glance at the bibliography in the hardback you will know that the ensuing several hundred pages will be filled with lots of interesting data and tidbits. They are! From how Cook traveled, to the interesting customs of the islands he visited, to the eventual disposition of some parts of his body, it is a fascinating read. The book opens with Cook's death, and details his home life, his benefactors, his shipmates, his adventures and the discoveries he is credited with and quickly moves into a narrative style which places his travels against the current-day locations and how the islands and islanders view/celebrate Cook. While there is no Rob Lee Hodge (his Confederates in the Attic pal) in this book (I'm sure RLH was somewhere practicing his BLOAT), his boozy friend Roger from down under is a fine travel companion. The adventures they experience on this Cook-Gasm are a bit risky to life, limb and liver as they retrace several major Cook routes, and are very detailed and focused on how the "discoveries" by European explorers changed whole island-based societies. It is great fun to read about their adventures, hotel room accomodations and audiences with local royalty. Though this is a work of fiction, written for a price, sold commercially for profit, it is an obvious work of love for Horwitz and his dedication to detail, vis-a-vie his time, energy and research are also obvious. I highly recommend this book. In fact, look through the bibliography I mentioned previously in this review and you will find some really great reading material for your own adventure enjoyment or education.
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Summary: Travel, history, geography -- all with good humor
Review: Blue Latitudes was my "subway" book last week. (See, I am a traveler too!) I loved the unusual structure of the book, loosely alternating history of Cook's travels with descriptions of the author's own visits to the same places two centuries later, and then having the author ("ego") taking his ne'er-do-well travelling companion ("id") to compare impressions of the locations which, depending on your point of view, were discovered ("ego") or spoiled ("id") by Captain Cook. The travel reporting is in the Paul Theroux mode; Horwitz is often unromantic, even cranky, about the project and the places he visits. However, he is always witty and perceptive. The history and geography research is fascinating, especially when Horwitz turns up Englishmen, Australians and Polynesians, all Cook hobbyists, with strongly held but magnificently divergent opinions about the facts and impact of the Voyages of Discovery.
Rating: 
Summary: Blue latitutes not Cook history
Review: I was expecting more info on Captain Cook and his exploits and not so much on the author and his buddy flying around visiting depressing islands and talking to people who had nothing to do with Cook and what he accomplished. The book was a rambling travelog and not much value if you are interested in what happened over 200 years ago. Although there was some interesting history included, it makes up less than half the contents of the book.
The author missed an opportunity by not expanding on what Cook did, how he did it, the tools he used, and how hard it was to do in the world in which he lived.
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