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Summary: This book is about a adventure of a lifetime
Review: The book that i read was called Winter Dance.This book talks about running the iditarod. The iditarod Is a race across Alaska but you can only use dogs to pull your sled. This book was written by Gary Paulsen and he has experianced this adventure first hand. This book shows you all the obstacles that you have to jump. You have to watch out for moose and watch out for the harsh wind and cold. I rated this book five stars because this book is written so well i highly recommend this book for any reader that loves an adventure.This book also shows that you have to trust your instincts and those who are running it with you.This book is excellent.
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Summary: Winterdance is beautiful madness!!
Review: I loved this book. It was funny, fast paced and really expressed the love of running dogs. I recommend this to anyone who does, wants to, or is interested in understanding dog sledding. It really brought out the adventurer in me, but showed me my limitations on the sled!
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Summary: Give this book to someone you care about
Review: As a former bookseller in Montclair, NJ, I can promise you that most people will enjoy reading Winterdance. It is great read for a young person, a dog lover, someone who enjoys humor, one who loves nature...almost anyone. It makes a great readaloud for a couple, friends or a family. I have given and sold it for all those purposes and received many thanks in return. I particularly enjoyed the humor of the first part. Paulsen has written several fine books for younger people as well. I was not aware of the shortcomings in form mentioned by one reviewer, perhaps I was too busy laughing.
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Summary: stunning and amazing
Review: I picked this book up on Saturday afternoon and finished sunday!
Some parts of it had me laughing so hard my side would hurt.
The book leaves you breathless and it was just amazing! I do not know what else to say
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Summary: What a Hoot!! Brilliant!!
Review: Great, great book. I haven't laughed so much in years!! Sparse, to-the-point account of Paulsen's almost accidental appearance at the Iditarod mushing "race" - the story is all about the man and the dogs, not the race (are we sure that anyone else was actually in it?) which elevates the book from yet another diary of an endurance junkie to a literary classic. You gotta read it!!And I really disliked dogs before reading this.
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Summary: Fabulous, entertaining, hilarious
Review: This hilarious book details one man's journey from a mild interest in dog sledding to an obsession. A very funny story written with a healthy dose of self-depreciating wit, makes for a fast and wonderful read. It's a whole world I didn't know about that was very interesting.
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Summary: Very good
Review: You don't have to be male to enjoy this book (no offense to Mr. Gannon) -- I'm female & really, really enjoyed this book! It's an interesting tale, well-told by Gary Paulson. It covers the bond he feels with his dogs; the beauty of nature; some hilarious training mishaps and the difficulty and intensity of the Iditarod. I also enjoyed Into Thin Air and similar adventure stories. It's an easy read and the subject matter and how it is approached takes you away from the stresses of everyday life. I very much recommend this book.
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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.
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Summary: Not my style, but really funny!
Review: Gary Paulsen writes in a style that is both simple to read and amusing. I don't normally read this type of book, but it was given to me by a friend who said it would make me laugh. It really did make me laugh. His descriptions of his wrecks and mistakes is both sad and amusing. At times reading this book I find myself asking "what's this fool doing? He is certainly not thinking!" Just after I ask that question I would laugh out loud at some fantastic wreck he has. His relationship with the dogs is a bit out there. I am not sure he can learn as much from a dog as he seems to say, however, maybe the cold, hunger and sheer exhaustion distorted his view of the lessons he was learning. It is a great adventure book and one that I would recommend to young readers (Paulsens normal target audience will LOVE this book)interested in adventure. It was different genre for myself, yet I enjoyed it all the same.
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Summary: Mark Twain reincarnated
Review: Gary Paulsen must have studied his Mark Twain. Like his 19th Century mentor, he's combined self-depricating humor, adventure, astute observation, personal honesty, and impecable comic timing into a page-turning mix that reads so easily you don't realize how hard this stuff is to write. The chapter "Major Wrecks" alone is worth the price of admission. Read that chapter aloud to a friend and find out just how perfectly he's set up each and every line. Also (lest the reference to Twain be offputting to modern readers), this book is written in a concise, modern style: not a 19th Century retread, but the way Twain would be writing if he were alive today. I can think of no higher praise. This is, quite simply, one of the finest adventure travel books ever written.
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