A new Strook with something I drew, read, and listened to.

Drawing

We were now sitting on a flat piece of ice measuring sixty by thirty meters. Sleep was out of the question. Orcas were swimming around us in the channels, and we waited for daylight, while being on the lookout for new cracks in the ice. - from South (1919) by Ernest Shackleton

Reading

One of the most beautiful books I have read in recent years is Finding Endurance.

South African writer Darrel Bristow-Bovey's fascination with the Endurance expedition began when his father told him that he had been to the south with Ernest Shackleton. As a 10-year-old boy, Darrel even gave a presentation about it. When his father died shortly afterwards, he discovered that something was wrong. His father had not yet been born when the Endurance sank.

After Shackleton's Endurance was found deep in the sea near Antarctica in 2022, Darrel went in search of the story of Shackleton, who got stuck in the pack ice with his ship but managed to get all members of the expedition home alive. But above all, he searches for his father, who was confined to his home after a stroke and created his own world there, together with him.

Although I had already read Shackleton's South, the story of survival on the Antarctic ice floes remains a great read. What makes this book special is Darrel's personal quest to get to know his father through Shackleton. This quest will particularly impress readers who have parents with a chronic illness, or who are themselves.

Finding Endurance: Shackleton, My Father and a World Without End by Darrel Bristow-Bovey.

Listen

Divorce is a great British alternative country band. With violins, harmonies, and music that's not too heavy. In my opinion, the best song on their debut album is Antarctica. How fitting.

See you next week!