An American Princess: The Many Lives of Allene Tew

An American Princess: The Many Lives of Allene Tew by Annejet van der Zijl. This memoir follows the life of a girl born in Jamestown, New York in 1871. She was the lower echelon of a well off family. But through marriage ended up living a wealthy life style, from the Gilded age through WWI, the roaring twenties, the depression and WWII and into the 1950s. Married 6 times, she moved in the circles of wealthy industrialist and European royalty just as the latter group was being pushed out of favor, but still retained the glamour of having titles. Throughout the ups and downs of the economy for almost a century she managed to avoid the pitfalls that so many others made. A great beauty when she was young, she grew into a smart and capable business woman.

The Ice at the End of the World

The Ice at the End of the World: An Epic Journey into Greenland's Buried Past and Our Perilous Future by Jon Gertner. This very interesting book is both a history of the exploration of Greenland and an assessment of the global climate change crisis. The author describes the social history of Greenland and its exploration, and also the stories of the intrepid early explorers who added so much to the knowledge of large ice caps. Its striking how 'no 2 glaciers are alike' according to this author. His writing is clear and descriptive, and the build up from exploration to scientific research of the large ice fields of the world is an exciting, and at the same time disturbing narrative. From the Inuit and the early Norse settlers, to the use of satellite technology to analyze the ice melt, the story plunges us into the remote areas that will change all of our worlds.