Rating: 
Summary: Good read...
Review: After seeing all the interviews of Dr. Nielsen I couldn't wait to read her book. Besides telling us of her experiences at the South Pole, it also briefly describes why she became a doctor. She also skims over her "bad" marriage and her estranged children. I felt that she could have delved a bit more into why her marriage was an unhappy one, then maybe we could better understand why she felt so compelled to go to the South Pole. Her descriptions of everyday life at the "Pole" are absolutey wonderful, the reader comes away with a sense of the immense closeness that is shared between the Polies. However, her emails to her family are a bit mundane and would be better off in a personal journal rather than her book.In all this book is extremely entertaining and worth the time. It'll give you a brief glimpse of what life is like at the South Pole.
Rating:
Summary: Icebound, a wonderful adventure
Review: I found this book to start quite slowly. It was hard to get into it in the beginning. Once it did get going, I stayed up late to finish it. It is a wonderful adventure to imagine in your mind all that went through her head as she was so ill. The book includes many e-mails and correspondence Dr. Neilson received and sent. I would recommed this book.
Rating: 
Summary: please read this before purchasing the tape!!
Review: The book looked amazing and adventurous. When I finally received the tape set , I was excited to start it. I was horrified by the reader. It was the author. While the story was fantastic, the reading really did a number on me. The publishers should have picked another reader to make the story come alive. The reader was dry, and at times, choppy and unfeeling. Trust me, if you are a fan of books on tape, you know that the reader makes the book. I chugged through the book read by the author and came out a survivor. If you really want to get to know the book, you are better off purchasing the book and reading it yourself rather than paying 2X the price and having the author read it to you. The story gets a definite 5 in my book, but the publishers should have realized a bad thing when they listened to the first chapter and found a more literate and feeling reader. Dr. Neilsen is a great doctor, but she should stick to medicine.
Rating:
Summary: Poorly written
Review: I am an avid fan of most "adventure books" and human interest stories. Some are poorly written, but I manage to slog through them nonetheless. I could not even get past the fourth chapter of Ice Bound, no matter how hard I tried. This is just a rehash of poorly written emails strung together with poorly written word. Thankfully I got this out of the library and didn't have to pay for the hardcover!
Rating: 
Summary: FASCINATING!!!
Review: This is the best book I've read in 10 years! I could not put the book down...and to think I put off buying it for several months because I didn't want to pay the cover price. It is worth every penny. It taught me so much about the human spirit, endurance, community and priorities. I look at things I thought necessities (coffee creamer, fresh produce) as appreciated little luxuries now. To top it off, even though the author is an M.D., her writing style proves she is a very gifted writer. God has blessed her beyond belief. After her experience, I am sure she realizes that (even though Christian views were not really ever expressed in this book....sadly). Those who criticize her book should ask themselves, "Would I dare live through her experience?" And those looking for a book "on breast cancer" missed the point of the book entirely. I was not disappointed one bit by this book. It is a must read!!!!
Rating:
Summary: "The patient got up from the bed and held the doctor"
Review: This line, already seventy per cent through "Ice Bound," epitomizes the history of the 1999 sequester in Antarctica. The narrative details not only Dr. Jerri Nielsen's highly publicized rescue from the South Pole, but the incredible friendships forged on this other world on Earth. Dr. Nielsen, the one doctor on site, discovered a lump on her breast. As it continued to grow, the "Polies" banded together to save "Doc," even attempting to aspirate the tumor and by administering her chemotherapy. Dr. Nielsen had an incredible story to tell as a physician voluntarily stranded on the South Pole with forty other people -- scientists and engineers. With Maryanne Vollers, the tale of The Fun 41, before and after Dr. Nielsen's diagnosis, was told with joy and tears. Dr. Nielsen's descriptions were so vivid, and not at all condescending. I sobbed when I read Big's letters to Jerri's family. I wish them all well, and thank them for sharing their story with us. This was a great book.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating Philosophical Treatise
Review: I was spellbound by Ice Bound. Especially the first half. I agree that the second half was overlong and in part tedious. Nevertheless, the book is mostly philosophy and only tangentially about cancer. How in the world can Man (or Woman) fall in love with THE most inhospitable place on earth. What is it about our species that can find joy and peace in the sensory void that is the Antarctic winter, yet not at home in Ohio? This book is fodder for truly deep introspection. If you've ever had "white line fever" this is a must read!
Rating: 
Summary: A good book but not quite as interesting as expected
Review: I purchased this book after seeing multiple interviews with Dr. Nielsen, in the hopes of learning more about her experience. I found the book pretty slow in the beginning and it took quite a few days to read the first 70 pages or so. Once I got that far in the book, it seemed to pick up a bit but I was hoping to get more of a sense of what it was like there. Perhaps part of the problem was all of the references to being divorced and that process, that created some weird breaks in the book. I'd recommend this as a book to read, but borrow if you can and save your money for another read, as I wouldn't consider this a keeper.
Rating:
Summary: Mixed feelings
Review: Dr. Jerri Nielsen's ongoing medical drama was the subject of many conversations on the hospital unit where I work. I couldn't wait to read her first hand account of her struggle. The opening chapter quickly sketch her early life and decision to become a doctor. She also touches briefly on her past marriage and estrangement from her children. It is cut and dried, leaving no doubt that she feels she was the only adult in the situation. Feeling unhappy and seeking a change, Dr. Nielsen applies for, and is accepted to be the only doctor on an American research base on Antarctica. Before she knows it, she is on the other side of the world in a bizzare enviroment. The base is populated with various researchers, support staff, an odd assortment of people who have chosen to be in the isolated base for a year. During her year, Dr. Nielsen discovers a lump in her breast, and must begin diagnostic procedures and treatments on the base, there is no way to leave the continent for several months. The parts of the story that deal with her coworkers stepping in to aid her and to take on jobs that they wouldn't dream of doing in "the world" are facinating. The efforts made by those on the base and the outside to give her every available chance are spellbinding. I am amazed that these events took place and that the outcome was so positive. Where the book fails is the everyday. The recounting of the day to day, the e-mails verbatim, and the grind of life on the pole are wearing and tedious. I found the first person style too much for me.
Rating:
Summary: My Visit to Antarctica
Review: This was such a wonderful book and quite a page turner. I usually have a hard time getting through books, but I finished this one in about two weeks!! Each evening when I read it, I felt like I was visiting the South Pole myself. I had the benefits of their experiences, but didn't have to go through the hardship. It was such a great read!!! I laughed, I cried. I was so transfixed on the group experience that when Jerri first thought she might have breast cancer I thought, "Oh yea, that's what this book is about." I loved the poetry slams, but fell to pieces when Dr. Miller joined in the slam. That poem happens to be a favorite of mine, too. I was also surprised to find out that there are so many people, "at the bottom of the earth".
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