Rating: 
Summary: Leave It, This Books Dead
Review: Of all the people involved in the 1996 Everest expeditions, Beck Weathers should have 1 of the more interesting stories to tell. Blind, severely frostbit, and left to die (twice), Weathers stood up and basically walked down the mountain to a high altitude helicopter evacuation.This Everest story involves about a quarter of the book. It quickly becomes apparent that Weathers' greatest accomplishment in life was to almost die. The rest of the book is about Beck and his parents, his brother, his wife, his kids, his pets, his depression, his faith, and his job...and it's pretty boring. In the end, we find that Weathers neglected his family for so long, they basically gave up on him...not caring whether he was around or not. But of course Beck is given a second chance to make everything better and now he wanders around his house telling his kids, wife, and pets how much he really loves them (at least that's the impression I got). What I found most interesting is that Weathers at no point absolutely swears off mountain climbing (despite having lost a good part of his face and most of his hands to frostbite, not to mention the strain it put on his family). Will Beck climb again? Will Peach divorce him and take the kids? What will happen to the family dog? I'm sure there will be a sequel and I'll tentatively call it "Back To Life" and give it 1 star. The gravy train on Everest books is coming to an end.
Rating: 
Summary: It's not really about Everest...
Review: This is Beck Weathers' account of the 1996 Everest tragedy.
While there are certainly some interesting sections devoted to Everest, the bulk of this book is about Beck's formative years with segments in his own voice interspersed with segments written (or transcripted) by other people close to him- his wife, daughter, brothers, son. So to sum up, not a lot of flow in the text, a misdirected title, but not a bad read if you want to read an autobiography. If you are looking for adventure reading about Everest, skip it.
Rating:
Summary: Not that bad of a book
Review: I just finished the paperback. Actually I could not put this book down. I stretched it to 10 days and have ordered another round of Everest books (being a fellow Everest junkie like all of you.) The first Everest book I read was the superb "Into Thin Air." Since then, I have been finding all the subsequent Everest books on Amazon. The only complaints I have about this book is the lack of high quality photos (paperback version), the only photo's being grainy blk & whites group shots of Beck Weathers and friends. The other is that there is a rather large section of the book going into deep detail on Beck's family tree. I skipped that part and went on to experiences Beck had on the other 7 summits of the world and the narrative was worth the purchase price ( I had bought "The 7 Summits" and the narrative was so bad, I could not finish that book...and what an interesting subject. Too bad that book wasn't written by a good ghost writer.)For Everest junkies, this book is very well written and gave me some insights into my own marriage. Beck has had a life-long mid-life crisis it seems and Everest finally purged the demons from his life. I hope he lives a long happy life.
Rating: 
Summary: Save your money
Review: I suppose I was expecting to read more about the climb and the months he spent with the group of people he was climbing with. But the book seemed to me to be more about his wife's life who comes across as a woman who would make me very tired. I kept getting this impression of her standing over him with whip in hand telling him how she wanted the book wrote. I had to force myself to even make it half way through. At that point I finally told myself that this thing is not going to get any better. I then closed the book and never finished it.
Rating:
Summary: I enjoyed this book...
Review: I watched and listened in horror in May 1996 as 8 climbers died on Everest in the worst one-day disaster that had ever happened on that mountain. I was overjoyed and incredulous when the news broke that one of the climbers, Beck Weathers, who had been left for dead on the mountain, had somehow managed to walk back into camp. Dr. Weathers lost his nose, both hands and his toes from frostbite, but he lived through his ordeal on the mountain. This is Weathers' story. It follows Weathers through his depressions to his discovery of mountain climbing and from there, the story really begins. This book is told from Weathers' point of view with his wife, Peach and several friends, relatives and acquaintances chiming in with their recollections. I enjoyed this book. It is a quick read and very interesting. I do have to warn you, however, there are times that this book reads as if it were a marriage counseling session between the Weathers. I found that Beck Weathers is a person to be admired for his sheer will and determination, but he is very human and very flawed.
Rating:
Summary: Skip It!
Review: I have not read this book and will take the advice of those who have said to "skip it". I am still mystified why everyone of the experts ignores Anatoli Boukreev who was the only one to save anyone on the '96 expedition. Krakauer and the rest of them tried to point the finger at Boukreev as some sort of negligent and uncaring person and apparently have been successful in denigrating this heroic man. Weathers was in a spot he never should have been, Krakauer, Hall and the rest of them knew it before the whole thing started but did nothing. They were more interested in the commercial aspects of the entire journey. I am not interested in Weather's personal life.
Rating: 
Summary: Weathers' book is one of the best
Review: There are lots of people who will not like this book. They will want "Into Thin Air"mark II. This story is remarkable in that there is more description of the motivation for Beck being where he was. As a climber who was nearly killed himself I can appreciate a lot of what Weathers has to tell us regarding his own life that led him into the mountains. I used to say that every man needs, like Christ, his 40 days in the desert. So much has been written aobut the 96 Everest tradgedy that to simply recount the event from Becks perspective would have been dull. To make the event the beginning was a wise decision. I would recommend this book to anyone who is thinking about tackling big mountians. There is very little jargon and detail. for that read Greg Child, John Krakauer, etc. As J. Krackauer said in his book "it is an intrinsically irrational act" to wish to climb such peaks. It take an amazing series of internal and external forces, all acting at the right moment, to send a man or woman into the Himalaya. Some say it is a rich man's folly. Well I would disagree. Most rich men wouldn't be caught dead in the Khumbu. Beck is not a great man, none of them were up there. What is supremely edifying is to know that they are not superhuman, they are, as you and I are, human beings frail and small yet cabable of feats of nobility and self sacrfice. And best of all Beck shows us that, no matter what, we all can change for the better.
Rating:
Summary: A second chance...
Review: Beck Weathers has been blessed with something very few people receive, a second chance. He and his wife (and many in their immediate circle) relay to the reader true feelings that can be related to. If you are looking for an indepth telling of the disaster on Everest, this might not be the book for you as that is only a small portion of the story. His life relationships are also peaks and valleys in his life and, when all is said and done, help the reader understand his metamorphasis. If you are already familiar with the disaster and all the players involved, this is a very rewardng read, adding dimension to the individuals and the psyche behind the high altitude climber. Enjoy.
Rating:
Summary: Don't bother with this one.
Review: I am about 3/4 of the way through and have read the constant bickering that took place between his wife and himself. We wanted to read his account of the tragedy on Everest and he wrote about 2 chapters worth (there are 24 or 25 total) on the tragedy. The rest is about his failing marriage. If I wanted this, I would have read an Oprah book.
Rating:
Summary: Another perspective
Review: I think this book would appeal to the sort of people who are trying to search out answers to questions about what motivates mountainclimbers. It has often been suggested that mountaineers (mostly,but not exclusively men) are completely ego-centric beings, lacking in some capacity, unable to form relationships which have primacy in their lives. That most certainly seems to be, or have been, the case with Mr Weathers. This is not a book for someone just interested in derry-doing and gonzo activities, though the first part of the book is an excellent account of the "miraculous survival" we have learned about from various other books, and an account of "what happened next". I enjoyed the way the book was structured with the other voices added at various times. Mr Weathers survived and was able to set down his story. In another book I loved, "The Fragile Edge" by Maria Coffey we hear about the destructive nature of this sport on intimate relationships, the devastation left behind, but because her partner and his friend died, we don't have the benefit of their thoughts on the matter. I agree with the reviewers who said that Mr Weathers was fortunate in the extreme to have both the money and the political connections to be able to take off as he did, and be brought back. If people with lesser means and less social standing than a rich pathologist abandon their families, then they are condemned for following dreams , chasing windmills. It is my personal belief that there is something quite odd about people who feel they have to conquer nature in this way - people are NOT meant to be hauling themselves into death zones! It is fundamentally selfish. I thank Mr Weathers for his honesty. I know I would not have liked him, but am glad that he survived to tell his story and make a scond chance with his family.
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