I have a weakness for reading tales of exploration, particularly in the summertime. The ice fields, the icebergs, the shifting, cracking, groaning ice sheets, the vastness, the brightness, the extreme cold. This book describes a remarkable series of voyages made in the 16th century by Dutch mariners, looking for a northeasterly passage to China, launching themselves off the northernmost tip of Norway in an attempt to travel up, over and around Russia. It starts off a little clunky, but then settles in as the inevitable happens and one of the ships gets stuck in the ice.  I was particularly moved by the way the men maintained their humanity and cared for one another, so difficult in such trying circumstances.