Lost City of Z by David Grann

I love reading about really smart people who get themselves into really stupid situations, whatever that says about me. Like putting together a million-dollar Mount Everest climb and forgetting to take gloves, or in the case of Lost City of Z, by David Grann, numerous expeditions down the Amazon without enough food. Lost City of Z was obviously fastidiously researched, and was well written and interesting enough, but less engaging than River of Doubt, by Candice Millard, which offered the added glamour of Teddy Roosevelt who ventured down the Amazon in 1912 to lick his wounds after he was licked in his third-party attempt to be president again.

So if you want to read about copious insects, festering sores, and starvation in 110 degree heat and 120% humidity, read River of Doubt, not Lost City of Z. Or, if like me you never tire of stories about masochistic wackos doing their thing in exotic places, read both.