Todd Balf

I'm not usually a fan of history or biographies, but I found the story of Marshall "Major" Taylor fascinating. From the first chapter, the author paints a picture of cycling at right around 1900 that sets the story up in a fascinating light. At that point there were no real spectator sports, no Hollywood, even Broadway hadn't gotten big yet. Cyclist were the biggest celebrities in the world.
Major Taylor, at a time when slavery had only recently been abolished and segregation was a reality show more all over the world, managed to make a way for himself to become the World's Fastest Human Being.
Regardless of if your into cycling or not, you'll really enjoy this book. And it just might make you want to dust off your bike and cruise the neighborhood. show less

Todd Balf's "The Darkest Jungle" is a wonderful account of the Darien expedition, which marched its away across a section of Panama jungle in the hopes of determining a route for the much hoped for Panama Canal.

The expedition, led by Isaac Strain, relied on bad information and marched its way in the wrong direction, following the wrong river through a dense tract populated by terrifed natives (who fled their villages, burned their homes and hacked apart their canoes to keep them out of the show more white man's hands) and apparently little food.

Exhauted and weakened by starvation and a variety of exotic, jungle ailments, the party split up and men started to die. Amazingly, another man marched across the isthmus (taking a different route) and yoyo-ed back again in short order, while the Darien expedition members were still entrenched in the jungle fighting for their lives.

Balf's account of Strain's difficulties is great -- it's a good mixture of jungle lore, history and expedition story. I was just a little disappointed there wasn't more information about the Kuna, both in Strain's time and today (as the final chapter is about Balf's trip to the area) but otherwise I found this to be a fine expedition book. show less

A history of the doomed antebellum survey of the isthmus of Panama by the American navy. An ambitious and competitive group of volunteers set out to gain a sense of the land and hopefully discover a water route from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The group of 27 men set out with very limited supplies to allow them to move quickly. They expected to traverse the distance in only ten days. Nearly two months later, after having been given up for dead, the leader of the expedition stumbled out of show more the jungle weighing only 80 pounds and covered in sores. A rescue expedition was quickly launched and most of the men were recovered although several dies shortly thereafter.

It is a story of hubris, inexperience, and political jockeying that led to the death of six men and the lifelong mental and physical handicapping of the survivors. What they endured is told her and some of what came after. show less

As someone who has never been in a kayak I was pleasantly surprised at how well I could understand the mechanisms, skill level and passion involved in white-water kayaking. Balf does a great job describing not only the people involved in this tragic adventure, but just how dangerous it really was. Balf also is wonderful in giving cultural, historical and geographical backbone to the Tibetan landscape.