Customer Reviews

Titanic Adventure

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Two of my favorite recent books are "Into Thin Air" and "The Perfect Storm." "Titanic Adventure" is a thrilling addition and adds up to a great trilogy. I'm a strong admirer of William F. Buckley, Jr. and when I saw his enthusiastic endorsement of "Titanic Adventure," I had to pick it up and see why he was so excited. Before the first chapter was halfway over, I knew. This is not just another Titanic story -- not at all. It's an amazing, suspense-packed, unforgettable drama of a courageous woman who fought all obstacles to become the first woman to dive to the Titanic.

What I liked most about the main character was her humanity. She's no cardboard superwoman, but a person with fears and doubts who pushed ahead and overcame them to fulfill her dreams. She faced a shipwreck, two hurricanes, a killer fog and a Captain Queeg-like enemy on board ship and she refused to knuckle under and let herself be destroyed. I only hope this becomes a movie, so the whole world can read about -- and be inspired by -- a story both unusual and powerfully moving.

School Library Journal - July 1999 by Cynthia J. Rieben

A well-paced autobiography of a remarkable gutsy woman whose life-long love of adventure and the sea seemed destined to lead her to the wreck of the Titanic. Carter begins by describing her youthful obsession with the ocean and classic stories of nautical adventure. She recounts events in her youth, her first marriage and her devotion to her children as she took on the burden of single motherhood. While maintaining a tedious day job, Carter managed to pursue skydiving, parasailing, ballooning, river rafting, hang gliding and skiing. On one fateful trip to Scotland working as a diver for a National Geographic shoot, the author met Bob Ballard, who was eventually the first man to see the wreckage of the Titanic on the ocean floor. She explains how her varied experiences over the course of many years as a diver, project director and diving coordinator would one day land her the job of a lifetime: leader of a French-American expedition to film a documentary on the salvaging of the ship's artifacts. Much more than just another story of the Titanic, this is a true account of high drama, written with flair.

So rarely do you find a non fiction work that reads like a novel, tells a gripping story and rivets your eyes to every page. Such is the case with "Titanic Adventure". We read about notorious characters like Monica Lewinsky, a person who sets women's causes back years, and here we have a truly inspiring women who perservered through adversity and followed her dream. I was taken into a world of possibilities pitted against all kinds of roadblocks. What a glorious example for our children and ourselves. The heroine, Jennifer Carter, came of age at a time when women adventurers were a rarity and where marriage and family appeared to be the only option. Despite this she plunges into the diving world, wrestles with sharks, and becomes a team leader for the Titanic Expedition. She finds true love in her life after a difficult first marriage, satisfaction in her work and makes the reader believe anything is possible. This book should top the charts for a long time to come.

TITANIC ADVENTURE

Authors: Jennifer Carter
And
Joel Hirschhorn

Forward by: William Buckley Jr.

Hard cover: 324 pages
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Book Review by Linda Lewis
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The content of the book starts with background history of Jennifer Carter, the first woman to dive on Titanic. She talks about what it was like growing up in her family, as young girl who had so many dreams. Then Jennifer relates to the experience of surviving an abusive marriage. There are exciting action packed adventures under the mentorship of Ralph White, skydiving, scuba diving, and para sailing. Then there's the search for the Loch Ness monster with Ralph White and Emory Kristof of National Geographic. You will read about her work with Steven Low in the making of the Imax Film, "Titanica", featuring Ralph White, Steve Blasco, Emory Kristof, and Anatoly Sagalevitch (chief scientist for the Russian Academy of Science) of the "Akademik Mstislav Keldysh". Most of us like domestic animals, like cats and dogs, not Jennifer...she stares into the eyes of whales and sharks and reaches out and touches them!

Jennifer has won an "Emmy" for her work on the National Geographic special, "The Great Whale". She has swum with sharks in Steven Spielberg's, "Jaws". She has also dove with renowned shark handlers in "The Sharks", on PBS, and goes on to tell about her harrowing experience on the "Majestic Explorer" cruise ship, that hit a large rock and started to sink.

As a Titanic fanatic, she is faced with a similar dilemma of which the object was survival. Jennifer was the expedition leader for the French/American expedition in 1987, in which she tells about the eight weeks of turmoil and tension between the French and the Americans aboard the ship and the thief in their midst. She then goes on to share her experience of her dive to two and a half miles below the Atlantic to where the crumpled wreck of Titanic lays motionless, her dream finally fulfilled. Jennifer has faced all of her obstacles head on that have lain before her. As a woman, she has had to fight and work even harder to prove that she is a very strong, courageous and competent woman, able to accomplish any job or dream.

Once I started reading the book, I couldn't put it down! I wanted to see what adventure was next as I felt so many emotions of anger, sadness, laughter and excitement. Jennifer Carter is a definite inspiration to all those with dreams, that might seem unreachable. She proves that anything is possible, with hard work and determination.

The co-author, Joel Hirschhorn, is her husband and confidant, who has won two academy awards for writing the love songs for disaster films, "The Morning After" from the "Poseidon Adventure" and "We May Never Love Like This Again" from the "Towering Inferno". His songs have sold over 94 million records including 14 gold records. He has authored four best sellers and was "Tony-nominated" for his work on the score in "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers". Very exciting reading!

(Copyright Linda Lewis all rights reserved-2000)

James Cameron captured the imagination of millions by taking them back to 1912 to see the splendor and tragedy, both material and personal, of Titanic's maiden voyage. Through the eyes of one woman and one man, he captured an age and a timeless human drama. Picking up the story in 1987 with the first voyage back to Titanic, Jennifer Carter and Joel Hirschhorn do much the same thing, and in many ways pen a true sequel to the 1912 epic. Their true-life story, a gripping adventure of the sort usually found only in the first-class fiction, is certainly a story about the world's most famous ship, but it is also a story of humanity. Ultimately, it is the chronicle of one woman's courage, an adventure which is in some ways a spiritual oddessy as well. If you enjoyed James Cameron's epic, book passage on Jennifer Carter and Joel Hirschhorn's sequel.

Surely, this book will not raise the hackles of the same critics who suggested the movie had no storyline...

When I was told this book is a real "page turner" I kinda scoffed. I'm tired of the Titanic-mania and another book on the subject didn't interest me, but I have had the honor to know both Jennifer and Joel, well before I had any idea they were so adventuresome and talented, so I thought I'd give it a try. What a story!! It goes well beyond your everyday "Titanic", and brings you insights to what it would be like to go down to 12,000' in a titanium tube. I really couldn't put it down.

I recently attended a book signing for Jennifer Carter and her husband,Joel Hirschhorn. The same passion that Jennifer exhibited in her writing was apparent that evening. She is a wonderful role model for our daughters and granddaughters. As a single mother,she overcomes obstacles to realize her titanic dreams. She is truly an inspiration to all of us.

Jennifer Carter's absolutely enthralling story of how she transformed herself from bank teller to world adventurer has more real-life action than a dozen thriller novels. She's faced challenges ranging from skydiving with a defective parachute, to being trapped INSIDE a shark cage WITH a hungry shark(!), to enduring the nightmare of an abusive first marriage, and has emerged from all of them stronger, more determined, and willing to share the secrets of her success.

Her book, written with her husband, double-Oscar-winning composer and songwriter Joel Hirschhorn, is exciting, inspiring, and always entertaining. The passages of her first dive to the Titanic are poetry and do justice to the magnificence of the legendary ship herself.

No work of fiction can top it. We highly recommend Titanic Adventure.

This was one of the most interesting books I have read. I am an avid reader and this book kept me interested up until the end. It was very hard to put down. Ms Carter has lived a life that should be an inspiration to those who face difficult choices in their lives.