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Summary: Outstanding Account of Iditarod Hilarity and Difficulties
Review: An awesome book that keeps you entertained from the moment you pick it up to the moment you put it down. The book is touted as a "must read" for dog lovers. I'm not a dog lover, nor am I a dog owner. Yet I believe you could claim this is a must read for anyone. The book is so much more than a dog lover's book. It's a great story regardless.The guy writing the book tells the story of his adventure training for, and running, the Iditarod. As you likely know, this is an extremely long dog sled race across a part of Alaska. From the moment he decides to do this, a litany of bad decisions and on-the-fly learning experiences make the author realize that nothing is ever as easy as he thinks. This is especially true when you line up so many sled-pulling dogs and try to contain them in any way, shape, or form. The story plunges through miles of snow packed narrative that makes you laugh with almost every paragraph. In addition to his hilarious trials and tribulations, the author comes to love the outdoors and be at one with his dogs. His relationship with the dogs grows to a point where considers himself one of them. He comes to understand this is part of what the Iditarod is; becoming part dog. Together they endure the brutal weather, the long days, and slowly become a team. The narrative is engrossing, pulling you in and letting you out only when the words run dry. The book is short; you could read the entire thing in a long afternoon. But it's too good to read that quickly. Consuming it in one sitting would be a waste of enjoyment. It's much better to give yourself small doses of laughter instead of ingesting it all at once. It's a great book. I'm not sure there's much more to say about it than that. Well worth the read. I highly recommend it.
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Summary: a great fast read
Review: Believe it or not, the book actually makes driving dogs through -60F weather sound fun!
Rating: 
Summary: Good, not great
Review: First, this is a one-day book, 250 pages of large type. So if you're looking for an in-depth tale of the Iditarod, look elsewhere. Second, the first 50 pages are some of the worst prose I've read in years. But after that Paulsen finds his pace, uneven as it is, and I started to thoroughly enjoy it. Paulsen paints an entertaining picture of his amateurish preparations and training for the race. But the pace shifts again as the race starts and he turns serious. From then on, the reader begins to feel both the stark beauty and the incredible harshness of the race. One can also feel the joy of the dogs who love to run, and sense Paulsen's decline into exhaustion, not so much from his words but from the fact that he writes (I suppose because he recalls) less and less as the race wears on. This is an intensely personal book, full of downright foolhardy determination, and worth the short time it takes to read.
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Summary: Absolutely fantastic.
Review: Gary Paulsen is a master writer insofar as the young male set goes-he has written a long series of stories that have captured the imagination of young men everywhere, from his fictional wildlife adventure tales like Hatchett to his entertaining Culpeper Adventure series, Paulsen has a knack for connecting with a young male audience. He was my son's all time favorite author growing up and, last time I visited him at college, noticed he had a copy of Hatchet on his bookshelf at school. I asked him about it and he said something to the effect that his room didn't feel like home without it there. How many writers can affect people like that? Winterdance is a bit of a departure for Paulsen. As sott of younger male's version of Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air, the book is a memoir telling the story of Paulsen's entry into the Iditarod dog sled race in Alaska. Funny, sad, poignant and riveting, I read it and enjoyed it very much. I also had my son read it and he loved it as well. I rather suspect it's on his shelf next to Hatchett. You can't really go wrong with Paulsen, but this is one of his very best works, which makes this one of the best works ever for this genre. Want to help your son, nephew, whomever to love to read while making your son, nephew, whoever very happy? Give them this book.
Rating: 
Summary: A Good Adventure Story by a Great Author
Review: I have always been interested in dogs and sports involving them, so I thought this would be a good book. I was right. WINTERDANCE was a humorous, easy-to-read story (Which I finished in two days). The plot is fast-paced, and this is not the kind of story where you get one page into it and quit. It's about a dog musher who decides to run the Iditarod. He doesn't realize what he's getting himself into and what a serious commitment it is. He survives the tough training, but it is nothing compared to the real race.Before he finally crosses the finish line, he has been victim of a moose attack, had hallucinations, fallen off a cliff, gotten lost, and almost frozen to death! It keeps you on the edge of your seat. On the down side, this book draws a rather abrupt, and not very satisfying conclusion. A few parts are poorly written (Although most of in is well written). It also has profanity. Lots of it. This book is definitely not for very young children. But overall, it is a very satisfying read.
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Summary: WinterDance book review
Review: the skunks... the skunks... the skunks!!!!
What a riot!
Rating:
Summary: quite fun!
Review: the skunks... the skunks... the skunks!!!!
What a riot!
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Summary: Smooth easy to read
Review: There are some books that transcend their own genre and appeal to everyone. This is one such book. It flows over the funny bone so easily throughout the course of the story that the end comes before you want it to. It is especially poignant for those who have a bond with their significant other (dog). It is my GO TO gift when I need one quick.
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Summary: The fine madness of running the Iditarod
Review: This book packs quite a punch. Each chapter ended with this reader wincing for the author, who had just spent the night stumbling through a Minnesota swamp, his eyes almost swollen shut from mosquito bites, searching for his runaway dog team, or had been blown down an Alaskan mountainside with his team, in the midst of a blinding snowstorm. Not to mention the five-skunk night. It takes a great deal of physical as well as mental toughness to train for the Iditarod, much less run a team of half-wild dogs in the actual race. "Winterdance" reminds me of Algernon Blackwood's "Wendigo:" in both stories men are caught by the spirit of the Great Northern Wilderness, and perish or almost perish. I think the most telling moment in Paulsen's book comes when he runs his team to the end of his trapline---and then keeps on going in the dead of a Minnesota winter, just to see what lies beyond the next hill. His wife's intuition to call out a search team was correct, even though Paulsen eventually did turn back. The 'Wendigo' or wanderlust had almost captured his soul. It also reminds me of "Call of the Wild." Like Jack London, Paulsen has a laconic, fluid writing style, and both authors include the Wilderness itself as one of their major characters. I won't say that either man subscribed to Blackwood's weird brand of pantheistic mysticism, but read how Paulsen slowly bonds with his dogs--and other wild animals. This book is also a grand dog story with more pratfalls than a "Three Stooges" movie. The author spent many a night on his backside, being dragged down a dirt road (or worse, through a second-growth forest) by his lusty team. Running the Iditarod takes a very special madness, and Paulsen endured moose attacks, blizzards, dog bites, and too many helpings of moose chili to draw us into his very beautiful and brutal world.
Rating:
Summary: A vivid description of madness!
Review: This book will touch so many emotions. I have never laughed so hard in the middle of the night from reading a book. It runs the gauntlet of emotions and is a page turner that you do not want to put down! Being a sled dog owner myself, I can totally identify with the scenarios that the author places himself in! A must gift for animal lovers and those with a great sense of humor!
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