Rating: 
Summary: Involved, exciting and highly informative!
Review: "Back of the Pack" leaves the reader (much like Clancy in "Red October") confident that he can proficiently complete some task never before imagined. Whether navigating a nuclear sub or mushing across the wilderness, these books take the reader on a trip into neverland and return them to reality feeling breathless, excited and a whole lot wiser about the world we live in. This author delves into not only the mechanics of a race few people undertake, but into the very heartbeat of the Alaskan wilderness, his utter dependance on his animals and his knowledge knowledge of the wild, as well as the comraderie that inevitably develops under such extreme circumstances. Filled with colorful commentary, gripping suspense and heartwarming photos, this is a book I wholeheartedly recommend.
Rating: 
Summary: If you have ever been intrigued by the iditarod, buy this!
Review: A very good book if you have a beginner's interest in dog sleds or have ever been intrigued by Alaska, Dog Sleds or the outdoors.The author can be a bit wordy and long winded, particularly in the first half of the book, but it is well worth it anyway. The last half of the book describes the race and his experience in great detail and really puts you there. Easy reading. I couldn't put it down for the last 100 pages.
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding Biography for a Non-Musher
Review: As a fellow US Air Force Academy Grad, I was thrilled by Don Bowers' adventure! Spending years as an Iditarod pilot, Don finally decides to run the race. He shows the true human effort behind running the race, not as a champion, but as a man willing to give his all to prove his determination and the love for his dogs. Unfortunately, Don Bowers died this year doing one of the things he truly loved: flying airplanes. This book is a tribute to the man and the sport that took over his soul. I highly recommend this book for anyone who loves mushing or for anybody with an adventurous heart. It's a true uplift from the everyday drag of modern life. It will yield to the wanderlust of even the most rigid of people. It shows that some people out there still pursue their dreams, no matter how crazy they may seem. Farewell, Don Bowers! May your book be a tribute to you and the sport that you loved!
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding Biography for a Non-Musher
Review: As a fellow US Air Force Academy Grad, I was thrilled by Don Bowers' adventure! Spending years as an Iditarod pilot, Don finally decides to run the race. He shows the true human effort behind running the race, not as a champion, but as a man willing to give his all to prove his determination and the love for his dogs. Unfortunately, Don Bowers died this year doing one of the things he truly loved: flying airplanes. This book is a tribute to the man and the sport that took over his soul. I highly recommend this book for anyone who loves mushing or for anybody with an adventurous heart. It's a true uplift from the everyday drag of modern life. It will yield to the wanderlust of even the most rigid of people. It shows that some people out there still pursue their dreams, no matter how crazy they may seem. Farewell, Don Bowers! May your book be a tribute to you and the sport that you loved!
Rating:
Summary: Training, Running the Iditarod - A True Adventure
Review: Don Bowers takes the reader through the process of training for, and running the Iditarod and makes you wish you were there even though it's umpteen degrees below zero and snowing like crazy. It was very hard to put the book down and so readable! Mr. Bowers leaves you "thirsty" for more about the great race to Nome and its history. I hope there's more to come.
Rating:
Summary: Training, Running the Iditarod - A True Adventure
Review: Don Bowers takes the reader through the process of training for, and running the Iditarod and makes you wish you were there even though it's umpteen degrees below zero and snowing like crazy. It was very hard to put the book down and so readable! Mr. Bowers leaves you "thirsty" for more about the great race to Nome and its history. I hope there's more to come.
Rating:
Summary: It will touch your heart
Review: Don Bowers wrote it with so much heart, it's amazing! If you love sleddogs, Alaska and the Iditarod - it's a must to read it (especially if you want to run the Iditarod once)! Even if English isn't your mother tongue - you will love it! I laughed but also cried while reading the book. It really touched me very much! Don Bowers was killed by an air-crash in summer 2000 and even if I haven't known him personally - my eyes went wet when I heard about it! I wish I could have meet him once...... (sorry, about my bad english, but even with this english it is easy to read his book)!
Rating:
Summary: Excellent, great word pictures
Review: I "fell in love" with the Iditarod about 3 years ago, have read everything available; Mr. Bowers book is one of the best.
Rating:
Summary: Awsome
Review: I love this book. I am in my 4th year of mushing. I love the sport. This book tells you what it is like to deal with these wonderful creatures that are a special breed. The author had a wonderful insight to share his thoughts, feelings, adventures,failures, and successes. Most of us dont tell of things that we did wrong. He not only tells you about what he did wrong, but what he learned from it. I am hoping to run the Iditarod sometime in the future with my daughter, and this is a book that I will for sure have her read before we set of to THE GREATEST RACE. I recommend this book for a veteran, or a beginner, or anyone that just has an interest in dogs. I have laughed outloud while reading this book and I have cried, and had every other emotion but anger. This book is the best I have read in a long time about this sport. Thank you DON.
Rating: 
Summary: Becoming a musher has been much more than I ever thought.
Review: If anyone had told me thirty years ago--or even ten years ago--that I'd be driving a dog team across Alaska in the Iditarod, I'd have collapsed laughing. I was the last person in the world anyone would have expected to be a musher. In fact, I was the last person in the world **I** thought would ever be a musher. But now I've run the Iditarod five times and I'm hopelessly enmeshed in dog mushing and everything about it, and especially the Iditarod. After I got to Nome this year--still in the back of the pack and after one of the hardest Iditarods in recent memory--I looked back and once again, I couldn't believe I'd made it. Running dogs, and running the Iditarod, has become the most intense and yet most rewarding thing I've ever done in my life. I hope my book can impart some of the heart-stopping range of emotions any musher feels in the course of a "normal" year.. But most of all, I hope it shows the ultimate respect and love we all have for our dogs. They are without question the most incredible athletes in the world. They are also our most trusted friends and are in every sense a second family for every musher. I hope everyone has the chance to visit Alaska and see what dog mushing and the Iditarod and the Last Frontier are all about. And I hope my book can at least be a beginning guidebook for that journey. Don Bowers
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