Antarctica: Life on the Ice

Antarctica’s legend as a fascinating, forbidding place is confirmed and expanded in these insider articles. Covering everything from “Happy Camper School” to washing dishes to what it’s like to fall in love in a place where the sun never goes down (or never comes up), these articles limn a world of colorful characters (human and otherwise) and breathtaking backdrops. The humor runs high here in work by Karen Joyce, who recounts an odd afternoon when it “rained chickens,” and Glenn Grant, who riffs on the dreaded “psych test.” Some of the contributors are award-winning travel writers: Bill Fox, for example, leads a pithy tour through the remote base McMurdo, while Lucy Bledsoe tells of looking for krill and finding dinosaur bones instead. Other contributors are newbies who vividly conjure the region’s extraordinary sights, from gale-force winds and magnificent glaciers to mummified seals and charming penguins.