Rating: 
Summary: Extreme Adventure-Extreme Isolation
Review: If ever in your wildest imaginings, you would ever consider wintering in the coldest, darkest place on earth, then this is the book for you. It is absolutely amazing to consider all the difficulties involved in human survival in this harshest of climates at the south pole. While dressing in multiple heavy layers to conserve body heat, one still has to inhale the frigid air. I never realized how hypoxic (low in oxygen) living conditions were until I read this book. There are physiological reasons in addition to the two mile thick ice layer that make the south pole a high altitude experience. Even more amazing to consider is that 8 month period of total isolation incurred during the dark, long polar winter. The book does a great job of successfully relating the challenges posed by this extremely brutal environment. It vividly impresses the reader with the very tenuous and fragile nature of human existence in conditions where electric generators are an umbilical cord . Severance means certain death for all humans at the station since outside winter temperatures drop three digits below zero ( below -100 degrees)! The book also deals with the ordeal of facing serious illness or traumatic injury in this harsh isolated environment. The doctor is a one man/woman show. She/he is a jack- of -all medical trades, performing multiple other duties (those of a nurse, lab technician , x-ray technician ,storekeeper, and Radiologist, etc. ) This most rudimentary medical care is further jeopardized when that solo doctor becomes a patient and medical evacuation/replacement is not an option for many months. This is the story of a doctor who having diagnosing her own breast cancer is stuck with a lenghty delay in treatment, watching her tumor grow in a setting where treatment options are essentially nonexistent- much as in the days of our ancestors, before anesthesia, surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy . (Fortunately an emergency drop of chemotherapeutic drugs and a medevac eventually do take place.) This is an enlightening and educational book. It effectively relates the very deep sense of camaraderie and coping mechanisms shared by the 'polies' . Written as a narrative with copies of email scattered between the paragraphs to expand on the story, it could use editing to eliminate redundancy especially in the emails . A more concise and smoother flowing narration would improve readability. For the scientifically curious, more information about ongoing polar research would add to the book. Overall, an interesting and worthwhile read, certainly an experience this less adventurous reader prefers to be vicarious!
Rating: 
Summary: Could not finish it.
Review: I got about halfway through the book and could not finish it. I found it boring and it just wasn't what I expected. I thought there would be mored detailed information on the South Pole itself and the conditions at the Pole. I felt like all I was reading about was the author's relationships with the other Polies and their partying. I also did not like the description of her ex-husband killing their family dog and the whole business of her marriage. That really bothered me. I don't see what relevance that had to the story. After putting this book down I just didn't look forward to picking it back up.
Rating:
Summary: Icebound
Review: A good story, and reasonably well written. However, the author should NOT have read it! Her reading is stilted and difficult to listen to...I'd recommend the book rather than the audiotapes.
Rating:
Summary: Great story, but ...
Review: Let me get the bad stuff over with first. Before I even finished the first chapter, it was obvious to me the Dr. Nielsen had alterior motives for writing about her odyssey in the South Pole -- it's an attempt to reach out to her children in hopes of reestablishing contact with them. Not that I blame her; if her account of her failed marriage and the effect it had on her relationship with her children is true, I don't blame her at all. But she spent a lot of time convincing us in the book that she did NOT want to draw attention to herself and her plight at the Pole, yet she writes a book about it? Hmmm... The other problem I had with this book is she is just too much. No other way to put it. Everybody is described as "my best friend," or "my favorite person." and she talks as if this is not her first tour on the ice. In other words, you just moved to a new town in another state, but you talk about it like you've always lived there. It's annoying. I'm not a sappy person, so the sugary parts just annoyed me rather than endearing me to the story. That said, the story is good. The description of life at the South Pole is very interesting and informative. The account of Dr. Nielsen's battle with the cancer and her feelings at the time are outstanding. She is a very brave woman, and should be commended for continuing to carry out her duties at the Pole even though she feared she might be dying. If you can stand wading through the syrupy stuff, this book is definitely worth reading.
Rating: 
Summary: Remarkable
Review: After hearing Jerri speak at a seminar and having Dr. Miller as my doctor, it really brings this story alive knowing both women. The book is a page turner. We are reading it for our book club. Jerri really gives life to the Pole and to her situation. I can't put it down. What an amazing experience good and bad.
Rating: 
Summary: A Powerful Book
Review: This was a difficult book for me to read. Just a month prior to reading it, my wife had a biopsy for breast cancer. It turned out that she's OK, no cancer, but all the feelings that Dr. Nielsen experienced were still personally close to the surface for me. I think I appreciated this book even more because of my wife's "brush" with possible breast cancer. A very powerful book by a very strong woman.
Rating: 
Summary: My advice: don¿t waste your time on this book.
Review: I truly tried to see in this book what some others apparently saw! !!
From the other reviews that I read before reading the book, I thought this book would be fun reading as well as informative. The hard reality started to hit me the very first few minutes I started READING THIS BOOK, I JUST COULD NOT BELIEVE THAT THIS IS THE SAME BOOK mentioned in the reviews. To start with the childish immature manner in which the author described her unfortunate difficult marriage, along with the naive layman's psychology that she stuffed this book with, insulted both my taste and intelligence. I could not believe that this was the writing of a physician! I kept on reading (in tremendous agony) in the hope that the better part of this book was yet to come, but it did not, the description of life in Antarctica was a joke, author talked about numerous parties and complained of the cold and lack of resources but failed to give us a sense of the adventure -if there was one-, the experience she would rather talk about was her e mail messages back and forth so boringly listed unedited again and again and again. I really tried to see beyond the embarrassingly irrelevant paragraphs till I painfully finished the book, I honestly did not find anything in this book worth reading.
My advice: don't waste your time on this book.
Rating:
Summary: Great read!!
Review: Though I was interested in reading this book based on word of mouth, I expected to have to "work at it". I was pleasantly surprised to find that it is not only well written, but fascinating and informative. It is a great adventure, a painless geography and history lesson and just a good story. I've recommended it to my husband, my teenage son, my parents and my best friend. I can't see not enjoying this one!
Rating:
Summary: Good Personal Story and Place Story
Review: This book gave a great view of life in the South Pole, the teamwork that develops in close quarters and what motivated a doctor to go there and how she dealt with her illness while there. We heard about her on the news and it was neat to see the world from her view. Also has lots of interesting soft science.
Rating:
Summary: Light Reading
Review: This book is okay if you want some light reading for the weekend. However the childish tone, and negative comments regarding the author's ex-husband became grating after awhile. I also grew tired of hearing about the numerous "Polie" parties -- they may have been fun for the author but they were not of much interest to the reader. Instead, it would have been nice if there had been more information on research being done at the South Pole. Research was covered very briefly -- given the author's scientific background I would have thought this topic would have been covered more extensively than the parties!
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