It's rare that a 19th-century history becomes a page-turner, but there I was, well after midnight, unwilling to put the book down until I found out what happened to Captain DeLong and his crew on their desperate quest for survival in the truly unforgiving arctic. That such inhospitable places existed - and still exist - gives us new insight on the ways that we have yet to master the planet's elements at full force. As Hampton Sides takes us from the glorious beginnings of the quest, complete with gilded-age excess and manifest destiny, to the bone-chilling conclusion, we learn that no amount of confidence in a man or a country can overcome the forces that nature has in store for us. Written like a thriller, this book holds a story you'll be surprised you never knew, and will never stop talking about.