Rating: 
Summary: Amazing travellog and biography... I couldn't put it down.
Review: Tony Horwitz manages is an amazing writer; his clear, easy style had me laughing out loud several times. Still, he managed to draw a vivid picture of this most controversial explorer. Cook's "discoveries" in the Pacific and annexation of the lands therein exposed the cultures there to European "civilization" and all the inherent ills and diseases... is he a villain? Or was he at the very least an open-minded explorer, concerned about the effects his ship and those-to-come would have on the native peoples? And why did he make such questionable choices, especially on his last voyage? Horwitz sets out on his own Voyage of Discovery, tracing three voyages of Captain Cook in the Pacific through Polynesia, Australia, and even the Pacific Northwest (he could not get to Antarctica, though he wrote about Cook's travels there). Most fascinating, Horwitz explores, with great empathy, the of the people and cultures of the places Cook encountered, and their attitudes (both then and now) to this most controversial man.
Rating:
Summary: Good
Review: Anyone who's travelled to at least one Captain Cook spot will enjoy this book. P.S. Mick Jagger said on THE CHARLIE ROSE SHOW that "Blue Latitudes" is the book he is reading at the moment.
Rating: 
Summary: Like Peter Mayle, with more canvas and context
Review: With the aid of a witty sidekick named Roger (able to shout "Bugger Cook" at just the right moment), not unlike Regis, the gourmande who appears in Peter Mayle's Provence books, Tony Horwitz has produced an amusing, often wry, look at Cook's world today. Along the way, he's levened it with a good dose of history and a healthy respect for Cook and his crew. There's something postmodern about the book -- highly personal travel writing with a bit more at stake. It's not going to be everyone's cup of tea, but if you enjoy a good first person account with pointed observations, Horwitz's book is for you.
Rating:
Summary: But Where's Roger?
Review: Tony Horwitz on steroids! I have to say it, I like Tony's pithy little volumes about Australia and the Middle East much better. Blue Latitudes is too heavy, both literally and figuratively. It is of course a well-researched and well-written book, but I am glad Tony had to read the original Cook journals, and that I didn't. His impressions of the South Pacific today are right on, and I loved the tales of the Yorkshire people. No wonder Roger went to Australia. Tony, you wouldn't mind giving out Roger's phone number, would you???
Rating:
Summary: Good travel book
Review: This is NOT a biography of Captain Cook, as some reviewers seem to regret. Rather it is something altogether more interesting: a juxtaposition of a modern travelogue and a mini-life of the mariner. The synthesis works well. Horwitz's biting sense of humor is every bit in evidence here as in "Confederates in the Attic," only the landscape is much larger. There are also no pictures because the author wants you to rely on his words to paint the scene; he accomplishes that end very well. I recommend this book to any lover of travel or seafaring literature.
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Summary: The Pacific, Then and Now
Review: Horwitz does a great job of moving back and forth between the Pacific as Cook found it and the same places today. Along the way he meets those who cherish Cooks memory and activists who revile him for spoiling paradise. It's hard not to repect a man who sailed to each arctic circle and around the world, but Horwitz examines his flaws as well as his heroism. The book is informative and fun, and the style works well. Those who like Bill Bryson will enjoy Blue Latitudes.
Rating:
Summary: A sucker for Polynesia
Review: I'm a sucker for any information about Polynesia today. I also
envy professional travelers. So Blue Latitude gave me both:
a stoy about Captain Cook and a stoy about the author's travels
following Captain Cook's footsteps. Horwitz does not mince words about the state of some of the Polynesian Islands. Tahiti is dirty and disinterested. The Tongans in the capital are sullen. But Horwitz met the King of Tonga. To me, that is amazing. Thinking about it, Horwitz's methods were as interesting as the book that it produced. He did a lot of research but he also trusted himself to meet people as he went along. He *talked" to the locals and left plenty of time to search out the local experts.
I could not put down this book!!
Rating:
Summary: An entertaining sampling of Cook for the non-historian
Review: Tony Horwitz spends a year and a half visiting many of the places Captain Cook visited from 1768 - 1779. The book culminates with Cook's violent death in modern day Hawaii. The book alternates back and forth between Cook's 18th century experience and Mr. Horwitz's modern day travels. Horwitz does an excellent job of interpreting the various sources available and giving an account that the historical layperson can relate to. Key characters include the author, Cook, the colorful Joseph Banks (the Endevour's Botanist) and Horowitz's even more colorful traveling companion Roger Williamson. Horwitz paints a picture of Cook as an austere, yet fair man-seemingly driven to the edges of the earth. As driven as Cook is to explore the world, Banks is driven to explore the anatomies of females from different Polynesian cultures. Roger is mainly content to explore the bottle and make wisecracks about Horwitz's adventure. If you think Blue Latitudes sounds like a dry historical piece, you're sorely mistaken. Any potential dryness is quickly quenched by Horwitz's wit, Banks's "botanizing" and Roger's boozing. Much to my wife's amusement I found myself laughing out loud many times while reading Blue Latitudes. Despite that, I found myself strangely moved after reading the account of Cook's death. While the consequences of Cook's voyages are complex, you cannot help but feel a great admiration for this man who started with so little yet went so far. Great book, highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: "Ambition leads me¿as far as I think possible for man to go"
Review: In three epic journeys, from 1768 to his death in Hawaii in 1779, Captain James Cook charted most of the south Pacific, the coast of Alaska, and parts of Antarctica, claiming much of it in the name of the king. Despite the fact that he covered 200,000 miles, "explored more of the earth's surface than anyone in history," and redrew the map of the world, Cook remains a relatively obscure historical figure, even in his native land, and is the subject of legend, much of it fanciful, in the places he charted. In celebrating Cook's achievements, analyzing the man and his values, and evaluating his influence, Horwitz attempts to put Cook's discoveries into their rightful perspective. Accompanied by Roger Williamson, an Aussie free spirit dedicated to wine, women, and fun, author Horwitz travels to those places "discovered" by Captain Cook, describing Cook's reception by indigenous cultures, and observing the cultures as they exist today--in virtually all cases, despoiled by contact with the "civilized" world. Tahiti, Bora Bora, New Zealand, Australia, Tonga, the Aleutian Islands, and Hawaii, before and after western contact, are presented in detail, using Capt. Cook's own journals, the journals of naturalist Joseph Banks (who accompanied him on his important first voyage), drawings by Cook's artists, and the research of Cook biographer John Beaglehole to establish the pre-contact cultures. Horwitz's personal observations, interviews with local inhabitants, and on-site research assess the lasting effects. Cook becomes accessible as a personality because of his friendship with Banks, who often served as his sounding board, and, it appears, loosened him up a bit. Naturally expansive and enthusiastic, and uninhibited by responsibilities and the sense of morality which seemed to dominate Cook, Banks serves as a foil to Cook. While Cook conscientiously records the contours of islands, Banks is far more interested in getting to know the local residents. Horwitz's friend Williamson, on the trip primarily for fun, not scholarship, serves the same purpose in Horwitz's book, creating humorous diversions both for Horwitz and the reader and spicing up Horwitz's serious research. Fascinating as a biography of the complex Capt. Cook, as a lively record of the age of exploration, as a modern adventure to "romantic" south Pacific islands, and as research on cultural anthropology, this is an exhilarating and fast-paced narrative, one which will reward careful reading and cause the reader to examine the dubious results of "civilization." Horwitz obviously enjoyed his research, and the reader will, too, however vicariously. Mary Whipple
Rating:
Summary: "Hardly Even Comprehensible"
Review: For various reasons, there continues to be substantial interest in great explorers such as Earnest Shackleton, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, Robert Falcon Scott, and James Cook. This the first of two books about Cook which I recently read and thoroughly enjoyed. (The other is Vanessa Collingridge's Captain Cook: A Legacy Under Fire.) They discuss a common subject but from different perspectives. I highly recommend both. According to Horwitz, Cook set out on various voyages (1768-1789) uncertain of eventual destinations and traveled more than 200,000 miles while dependent (by today's standards) on crude, indeed primitive navigation instruments but sustained by his superior seamanship skills. Of special interest to me is the fact that Horwitz traced many of the same voyages to Bora Bora, Australia, Savage Island, Tonga, Alaska, and Hawaii. He shares his own reactions to what these areas have become, most in sharp contrast to the "pure state of Nature" as Cook once described it. Horwitz's extensive research suggests that many of those whom Cook encountered correctly suspected (and feared) that their lives and communities would never be the same after Cook's "discovery" of them. Beyond the wealth of information this book provides, it is that rare achievement among works of nonfiction: a page-turner.
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