July 2009 Theme Read: Polar Regions

Hello everybody! Some while ago I was asked by avaland to set up a July theme read on polar regions. I am now reporting for duty. I apologise for leaving this so late. muddy21 and trisweather were suggested as possible collaborators and I have contacted them. I seem to remember that others may have been montioned too, so if I have forgotten you, please remind me - I would appreciate your contributions.

I should say up front that I am far from being an expert on polar regions. My only direct experience is having led a couple of trips to Alaska, which included travel within the Arctic Circle. Nor would I claim to have read exhaustively about the subject. So any input from those who have more experience with polar literature (whatever that is, and I'll try to suggest some sort of definition in my next post), or who live within the region, would be most welcome. I hope to post up some guidance and suggestions for reading over the next couple of days. Suffice to say that we will be covering both fiction and non-fiction related to both north and south poles. The subject is broad enough a wealth of books, some of which should be fairly easy to get hold of for most of us.

I should also let readers know that I may not be able to participate much once the group kicks off in earnest since I will be travelling (and largely away from Internet contact) for the first half of July - not in polar regions, alas.

I will post a couple more introductory messages shortly. I look forward to seeing how this theme develops and to reading your thoughts.

I'll read the novel Independent People by the Icelandic author Halldór Laxness, the winner of the 1955 Nobel Prize for Literature, and An African in Greenland by the Togolese author Tété-Michel Kpomassie, a nonfictional account of his decision to travel to Iceland after reading a picture book, where he becomes a hunter and interacts with the Inuit population there.

Having now carried out extensive research on this subject - via Wikipedia - I feel confident enough to suggest some definition of a "polar region" so that we can tie down our reading matter a little.

Polar regions are, of course, the bits of the planet around the poles. The poles are relatively easy to locate, though there are several different kinds: geographical poles (the points on the Earth's surface transected by the axis of rotation), magnetic poles (to which a compass needle points) and cartographic poles (fixed according to convention as the point where the circles of longitude intersect). The first two may wobble and magnertic poles even flip back and fortgh over periods of geological time. However, we don't need to go into this in our definition - though it may be a fruitful subject to read about in July.

What we do need to define is how far towards the equator the polar regions stretch. The Arctic is usually defined as the region within the Arctic Circle, the latter being the circle of latitude north of which the sun is above the horizon for 24 continuous hours at least once per year - 66.6°N. Sometimes the definition is expanded to the surface north of 60°N or to anything north of the timberline. The Antarctic is commonly defined as the surface of the planet from 60°S south to the pole or the Antarctic continent itself. I would perhaps suggest for this group that we adopt the broadest definitions, i.e. for the Arctic all territory north of the timberline and for the Antarctic, the Earth's surface south of 60°S.

Does this sound about right?

Sorry Larry, I was composing my last message while you added yours - thanks for your suggestions. I'm sure Laxness is going to be popular, since Iceland is included within our literary north pole. In a moment I'll post some characteristics of each polar region, including the territories they comprise. Then tomorrow I will hope to offer up my own meagre reading suggestions. In the meantime, please feel free to contribute!

Here are some characteristics of the regions we will be reading about and discussing in July, in large part condensed from Wikipedia:-

The Antarctic or south polar region

Our Antarctic region is composed of the continent of Antarctica surrounded by the Southern Ocean. At 14.0 million km² (5.4 million sq mi), it is the fifth-largest continent in area. Some 98% of Antarctica is covered by ice averaging at least 1.6 km (1.0 mi) thick. It is the coldest, driest, and windiest continent. There are no permanent human residents (and therefore no indigenous people) but several thousand people reside throughout the year at research stations scattered across the continent. Only cold-adapted plants and animals survive there, including penguins, seals, insects, mosses, lichen, and algae. Some animals - notably whales and birds - migrate. Antarctica belongs to no country.

The Arctic or north polar region

The Arctic includes the Arctic Ocean and parts of Canada, Greenland (a territory of Denmark), Russia, the United States (Alaska), Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Finland. It consists of a vast, ice-covered ocean surrounded by treeless permafrost. In recent years the extent of the sea ice has declined. Arctic vegetation is composed of plants such as dwarf shrubs, graminoids, herbs, lichens and mosses, which all grow relatively close to the ground, forming tundra. There are no trees. Arctic Hare, Lemming, Muskox, and Caribou are hunted by Arctic Fox and Wolf. Migrant birds - especially shorebirds and duck, but also raptors and passerines - are abundant in summer. Marine mammals include seals, walrus, and several species of whales as well as Polar Bears. There are several groups of indigenous inhabitants, most notably the Inuit. Like the Antarctic, the north polar region has recently been affected by global warming.

I have three books on polar regions and am not sure which I'll read: Polar Hayes: The life and Contributions of Isaac Israel Hayes, a very academic book; The Coldest March:Scott's Fatal Antarctic Expedition; and an anthology, The Ends of the Earth. But I'm looking forward to this read, as these books have been hanging around for a while.

I am planning to read on the Antarctica of the imagination ... Coleridge's The Ancient Mariner, Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness and Poe's The Narrative of Gordon Pym and, if I can find a copy and the time, the Jules Verne sequel to Pym's adventures, An Antarctic Mystery. I have been looking forward to this read as I devoured the Lovecraft at 12 or 13 and remember being too scared to sleep after finishing it and then vaguely uneasy for days. My mom blithely commented "What did you expect with a title like that?" and offered no sympathy whatsoever. Probably it's nothing by today's horror standards, but it will be fun to revisit.

I have also read and would recommend Gretl Ehrlich's This Cold Heaven (Greenland), Martie Murie's Two in the Far North and Will Steger's Crossing Antarctica for those interested in narrative nonfiction.

May I suggest The North Pole Was Here: Puzzles and Perils at the Top of the World by Andrew Revkin. History, science, legend, ecology, some spectacular photos.

I read The Year Long Day: One Man's Arctic by A.E. Maxwell about 30 years ago, and still remember it. If I have time over the next month (I'm going on vacation, north to Canada, but not to the Arctic), I may give it a reread -- I still remember being rather mesmerized by it.

Here are some Greenlandic literature. All available through Amazon:

1. The Veins of the heart to the pinnacle of the mind by Aqqaluk Lynge . It is a book of Aqqaluk Lynge's poems from 35 years of writing tranlated into English.
Fun fact: Aqqaluk means little brother in Greenlandic, but is also a very common name given to boys, who are in fact little brothers

2. Journal in Greenland 1770-1778 by Hans Egede.
To clarify, it is Hans Egede Saabye's journal. Hans Egede is another very important person in Greenlandic history. He founded Nuuk among other things. But Hans Egede Saabye's journal is interesting too, if you are into historic journals.

3. Inuit folk tales collected by Knud Rasmussen. Knud Rasmussen is witout doubt the most famous of the people travelling in Greenland. He was the first to collect the Greenlandic folktales. He travelled in most of the Northern polar region and was one of the first to describe the similarities in ways of life, language and so on between all the inuit in the North

There are alot more if you can read Danish, but for now I have only taken English tranlations and availability through Amazon into account

Not all the tochstones seem to be working, but I have checked amazon today and all three are available at Amazon.

At a meeting recently a list was made of which of the Greenlandic literature should be translated into English. The translators have also been found, so in time the most important of the Greenlandic literature will be available for the English reading people too

There is a frensh tranlation of a Greenlandic book. The book is called:
Juste avant l'arrivée du bateau by Hans Anthon Lynge . I haven't checked if it is available through Amazon. The original title is Umiarsuup tikinngilaattaani. Which means something like: Just before the ship arrives

I really enjoyed The Sea Road by Margaret Elphinstone, a fictional account of Gudrid of Iceland's life that is partly set in Greenland.

Does anyone know of books set in the northern reaches of Scandanavia?

#12 -

Try Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name by Vendela Vida or Popular Music from Vittula by Mikael Niemi.

A lot of Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson takes place in northern Norway, and the book has a lovely sense of place, among other features.

I have three non-fiction books on my shelves which fit this theme:

Ada Blackjack
90 Degrees North: the Quest for the North Pole
Polar Passion, the Best for the North Pole by Farley Mowat

I have one book in my TBR pile that fits the theme, Women of the Klondike. Yay-- it fits one of my favorite reading catagories--nonfiction biographies of pioneering women, as well as making the mountain one pebble smaller.

Even though it doesn't show up in my catalog, I'm pretty sure I also have a copy of The Snow Walker by Farley Mowat. I enjoyed his books People of the Deer and Never Cry Wolf when I read them about twenty years ago. Maggie, I'll be interested to hear what you have to say about Polar Passion.

I've been thinking of reading Call of the Wild which would also help fill in my 1001 books catagory for the 999 challenge.

Out Stealing Horses was the first audiobook I listened to this year and loved it.

without question one of the best books i have read about Antartica is Caroline Alexander's, Endurance.

A true account of Ernest Shackleton's doomed exploratory expedition in the early 1900's. The account reads like a thriller novel. You get to know the different members of the team, their personalities, strengths and weaknesses. The text also includes a fabulous photographic essay done by one of the team's members, Frank Hurly.

I second the recommendation of Endurance.

I'm not sure I'll be able to participate in this read, but I'd really like to try. I have several books that will fit the topic, but the one that's calling my name the loudest is Consumption, by Kevin Patterson. It's about the Inuit community of Rankin Inlet, which is on the northwest coast of Hudson's Bay, in the Canadian territory of Nunavut. Apparently it's the story of a woman who leaves for treatment of her TB, and her difficulties in returning to the community.

An excellent fictionalized account of life in the Arctic in the early 1900's is A Dream in Polar Fog by Yuri Rutkheu. From the back blurb by Farley Mowat:

"Thousands of books have been written about the Arctic aborigines by intruders from the south. Yuri Rytkheu has turned the skin inside out and written about the way the Artic people view outsiders. A Chukchi himself, Yuri writes with passion, strength and beauty of a world we others have never understood. A spendid book." Published by Archipelago Books.

another book sitting on my shelf, unread, is the highly reviewed Arctic Dreams by Barry Lopez. While I have not read this volume I have read Lopez's fiction- Resistence- a fabulous, fascinating read. Lopez is an exceptional unique voice and I trust his Arctic Dreams is worth reading.

I forgot that I also have Arctic Dreams, and I also have a book called The Reindeer People: Living with Animals and Spirits in Siberia, which may not be strictly polar. Much too much to choose from, and A Dream in Polar Fog sounds so interesting I'm about to go off and order it!

This is a hard category!

Here are some ideas.

On Squeaky's list - last year i read Edgar Allan Poe's The Narrative of Gordon Pym and it is a strange tale that feels quite contemporary though written 150+yrs ago.

While it hardly focuses on the Polar issue it does capture the mystery of distant seas and people.

I might recommend Smilla's Sense of snow by Peter Høeg. It is a mystery set quite a bit in Greenland, but also in Copenhagen.

Going to the antipodes with This Accursed Land by Lennard Bickel brings back the true survival stories of Mawson and others.

I'm still not sure what to pick for this topic. May I pick any Danish, Swedish or Norwegian (etc.) author or does the author and/or setting have to actually be within the polar circle?

Polar circle map

I wouldn't consider Denmark to be part of the polar region. But Sweden, Norway and so on reach way farther north, so they probably have alot of authors who will fit into the polar region. But that is just what I think

Unless, of course, the Danish author writes about Greenland. :-)

Number 22,

The Reindeer People: Living with Animals and Spirits in Siberia reaches so far north that it definitely counts as polar literature.

Thanks, SqueakyChu, for the list. I have Voyage of the Narwal and Seal Wife on TBR. I also have Lady Franklin's Revenge, but haven't read the info to see if, besides the fact that she's the wife of the adventurer Franklin, it fits our category.

If anyone else finds any other similar lists, please share them with me. I haven't found any polar fiction yet that I'm particularly interested in reading.

I have read Smilla's Sense of Snow* and like Danish writer Peter Hoeg's writing. Perhaps I'll just stretch things a bit and read one of his other books even though the story might not quite reach into the polar regions of the north.

I also did read a very good book called Silence in October by the Danish writer Jens Christian Grøndahl, but the action of that book took place in Paris and New York. :(

*which is today available on BookMooch

Like squeakychu, I'm not sure what I want to read. I did a tagmash on "novel, Greenland" to see what would come up:

Two historical novels:
The Ice-Shirt by William T. Vollmann,
The Greenlanders by Jane Smiley.

Also an air travle fantasy written in 1940:

An old captivity by Nevil Shute.

#30, Thanks for the info, Urania.

>33 vpfluke: Another novel with an historical setting is The Rope Eater by Ben Jones, which I think is set in the arctic of Canada's Hudson Bay area in the 1860s and is about a failed expedition. I liked it. Here's some reviews: http://www.iambenjones.com/press.html

oy! my message was just eaten!

>12 catarina1: Unformed Landscape by Peter Stamm is set mostly in northern Norway. I remember the tone of the story being quite heavy, but I liked the book. Here's a bit from the New Yorker:
If Albert Camus had lived in an age when people in remote Norwegian fishing villages had e-mail, he might have written a novel like this. Kathrine, a customs inspector, abandons husband and son, because she's unsure whether she has "missed anything or not." In Paris and beyond, she connects with a series of men, and, after finding the world much as she expected (a garden café in Paris looks "the way a Norwegian who has never seen a garden café might imagine one to look"), returns to her fjord in Finnmark. In Stamm's portrait, a scenario that could have been half-baked captures what seems a particularly Nordic view of adult life: austere pragmatism mixed with mordant wit.

I have just finished the fifth in Arnuldar Indridason's Icelandic mysteries (urban Reykjavik setting). These mysteries have a spare prose and a somber tone. The main protagonist comes across as a bit of a looser in the early books but seems to be coming out of it (this also coincides with the reader learning more about his background). In this installment, the main issue is immigration.

The first one of these available in English was Jar City, and also a movie in Iceland by the same name. I thought it quite good and interestingly featured a men's choir of some sort (I think they were singing 'the old songs'), although it is not officially part of the story. Should be available on DVD by now surely. Icelandic with English subtitles.

One of the best fiction books taking place in Greenland that I have read is Unn fra Stjernestene by Danish author Hanne Marie Svendsen. I don't think that it has been tranlated into English but Amazon sells a German translation, Die Frau von den Sternensteinen. So is you can read German or Danish it is a book that I highly recommend.
The book follows Unn, a young girl, who is one of the viking people who lived in Greenland and mysteriously all vanished several hundred years ago. She lives in a convent, but also follows the teachings of her grandmother, who believed in Odin. It is a very good description of the life they lead, while still being a very interesting story about choices and nature

I few years ago, I went on a polar region jag. My favorite polar region book is Alone by Richard Byrd. A great story of survival. Also, The Worst Journey in the World by Apsley Cherry-Garrard is very good.

I've been watching for polar books at the library where I work & keeping a list - tried to get a wide selection of nationalities, languages, types of nonfiction, etc.

Polar Regions
Fiction

Arctic
1. Jones, Stan – Shaman Pass {A Nathan Active mystery}
2. Jones, Stan – White sky, black ice : a Nathan Active mystery
3. Kantner, Seth – Ordinary Wolves
4. Laxness, Halldor – Iceland's Bell {translated from the Icelandic}
5. London, Jack – White Fang
6. Hogan, Linda – People of the Whale
7. Nichols, Peter – Voyage to the North Star
8. Barrett, Andrea – Voyage of the Narwhal
9. Masiel, David – 2182 kHz
10. Heighton, Steven – Afterlands
11. Edric, Robert – The Broken Lands: a Novel of Arctic Disaster
12. Johnson, Wayne – The Navigator of New York
13. Jurjevics, Juris – The Trudeau Vector

Antarctic
14. Alexander, Caroline – Mrs. Chippy’s Last Expedition {The remarkable journey of Shackleton’s polar-bound cat}
15. Atwater, Richard and Florence – Mr. Popper’s Penguins {1988 reprint, children’s literature}
16. Robinson, Kim Stanley - Antarctica
17. L'Engle, Madeleine - Troubling a Star
18. Brockmeier, Kevin - The Brief History of the Dead
19. McCaughrean, Geraldine The White Darkness
20. Masello, Robert – Blood and Ice
21. Cussler, Clive – Atlantis Found : a Dirk Pitt novel

Non-Fiction
Arctic
22. Kantner, Seth – Shopping for porcupine: a life in Arctic Alaska
23. Lopez, Barry – Arctic Dreams: Imagination and Desire in a Northern Landscape
24. Henderson, Bruce – Fatal North: Adventure and Survival Aboard USS Polaris, the First US Expedition to the North Pole
25. McGoogan, Kenneth – Fatal Passage: the Story of John Rae, the Arctic Hero Time Forgot
26. Harper, Kenn – Give Me My Father’s Body: the Life of Minik, the New York Eskimo
27. Kavenna, Joanne – The Ice Museum: In Search of the Lost Land of Thule
28. Albanov, Valerian Ivanovich – In the Land of White Death: an Epic Story of Survival in the Siberian Arctic {translated from the Russian}
29. Henson, Matthew – A Black Explorer at the North Pole {reprint, 1989; originally published in 1912, titled “A Negro Explorer at the North Pole}
30. Hunt, William – Stef: a biography of Vilhjalmur Stefansson, Canadian Arctic Explorer
31. Williams, Glyn – Voyages of Delusion: the Quest for the Northwest Passage
32. Horn, Mike – Conquering the Impossible: My 12,000-Mile Journey Around the Arctic Circle translated from the French
33. Flowers, Pam – Alone Across the Arctic {One Woman’s Epic Journey by Dog Team}
34. Potter, Russell – Arctic Spectacles: the Frozen North in Visual Culture {1818-1875}
35. McGhee, Robert – The Last Imaginary Place: a Human History of the Arctic World

Antarctic
36. Mastro, Jim – Under Antarctic Ice: the Photographs of Norbert Wu
37. The Ends of the Earth: an Anthology of the Finest Writing on the Arctic and Antarctic {Holtzbrinck Publishers
38. Walton, Kevin – Of Dogs and Men: Fifty Years in the Antarctic {The illustrated story of the dogs of the British Antarctic Survey, 1944-1994}
39. Mawson, Douglas, Sir – The Home of the Blizzard: Being the Story of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition, 1911-1914
40. Knecht, G. Bruce – Hooked: Pirates, Poaching and the Perfect Fish
41. Gosnell, Mariana – Ice: the Nature, the History and the Uses of an Astonishing Substance
42. Mathews, Eleanor – Ambassador to the Penguins {A Naturalist’s Year Aboard a Yankee Whaleship}

Edited to add some Antarctica fiction.

Understandably, most of the recommendations here relate to the Arctic. Living in New Zealand, my bias is to the Antarctic. I made a quick check of my LT library and discovered I have 20 books tagged with "Antarctica":

http://www.librarything.com/catalog.php?view=timjones&deepsearch=Antarctica

Some of these will not be easy to obtain worldwide, but I especially recommend the two Bill Green books, the two Ernest Shackleton books, Bill Manhire's anthology of creative writing about Antarctica The Wide White Page, Kim Stanley Robinson's near-future SF novel Antarctica, and the volumes of poetry by Bill Manhire and Chris Orsman.

But if you forced me to name one must-read from this list, it would be Apsley Cherry-Garrard's The Worst Journey in the World. Wonderful writing about terrifying real-life experience in the depths of the Antarctic winter.

Heading North for a moment, thanks arubabookwoman and others for your recommendation of A Dream in Polar Fog, which I've just started reading. For a left-field choice, how about Philip Pullman's The Golden Compass/Northern Lights, with major sections set on Svalbard?

So many books to choose from that I've already started The Coldest March:Scott's Fatal Antarctic Expedition and have gotten far enough to recognize Apsley Cherry-Garrard's name (mentioned above by Tim) as one of the men who accompanied Scott. Another one for the list!

Thanks, Rebecca - and I have subsequently seen that surfgrl recommended te Cherry-Garrard above too (#39).

Another book I've read but don't have listed, suitable for expat Brits like me, is I May Be Some Time: Ice And The English Imagination by Francis Spufford. And, though it's not a "polar regions" book by the definition offered by chrisharpe above, Ice by Anna Kavan would be a most relevant novel to read. Finally, for a stuff-upper-lip thriller, there's Ice Station Zebra by Alistair Maclean.

>42 timjones:
Thanks, Tim, it's helpful to have some more Antarctic options and I'm pleased you added Alistair Maclean and Philip Pullman - I meant to include them both.

Knowing the fiction bent of the group, I've edited my list above to add some Antarctic fiction, gleaned largely from LT tags. Most of the fiction I've found is by American authors, I think (though I haven't looked closely). Do you have any suggestions for fiction by non-American/European authors?

Does anyone know about polar region graphic novels? All I know offhand is Superman's Fortress of Solitude!

#43, muddy21: Your question reminded me of the vital resource I'd forgotten to mention:

"Tekeli-li" or Hollow Earth Lives:
A Bibliography of Antarctic Fiction, by Fauno Cordes, at

http://www.antarctic-circle.org/fauno.htm

This doesn't show the country of origin of authors, but I see it lists Graham Billing and Daphne Clair, both New Zealand authors. (Incidentally, Daphne Clair is the mother of a friend of mine!)

>43 muddy21:

Last year Kaassassuk was put on the market. There is a Danish, Greenlandic and a English version.
Kaassassuk is a very old Greenlandic folktale and last year it was made as graphic novel.

It can be bought through the bookstore in Nuuk. www.atuagkat.gl. You can choose to get the webpage in English and they send to the whole world. It is a great place to get books about Greenland.

I don't know if that was what you thought about when talking about polar region graphic novels, but it was the only one I know

Non-fiction
For people interested in cookbooks I highly recommend Neri...-Food in southern Greenland for 1000 years. It is a book with Greenlandic recipes. Both (very) old and new. And it tells about the history of Greenlandic food. The book is in three languages, so one will also what Greenlandic and Danish look like. The third language being English.

#45: thanks, trisweather! Though I probably can't afford it, I love the idea of buying a book from a bookshop in Nuuk.

I just joined this group. This sounds interesting.

After reading about the death of Dr Jerri Nielsen this week, I think her book might be appropriate for a polar region read.

It is: Ice Bound: A Doctor's Incredible Battle for Survival at the South Pole by Dr. Jerri Nielsen.

>44 timjones:, timjones
Thanks for the bibliography link...what a valuable resource to have on hand!

and
>45 trisweather:, trisweather
These both look quite interesting...hmmm! I'm particularly interested in Greenland's history through food. Maybe I can get it through InterLibrary Loan.

>10 trisweather:
I read The Veins of the Heart to the Pinnacle of the Mind earlier this year, and I found it absolutely fascinating. It's a book of poetry that is fully bilingual Greenlandic/English, and because I'm something of a language junkie, it was a real treat to see both the original poems and their translations (I can't read a word of Greenlandic, but I'm hoping to take a crack at it in the near future). I don't read much poetry, and to be blunt, these poems (at least in translation) aren't always particularly elegant, but they're very intense and impassioned, particularly in their commentary on Danish colonialism and its destructive effects on traditional society.

Hi...I'm new to the list and enjoying the reading globally discussion! You've inspired me to pull out a book that I started a number of years ago. It is A Schoolteacher in Old Alaska. Thanks for the excellent suggestions!

All the best...Diane

Here are a few more titles to consider (summaries from Amazon)…

Kpomassie, Tete-Michel – An African in Greenland {translated from the French} A chance encounter with a picture book about Greenland inspires the young Tete-Michel Kpomassie to embark on a life-changing journey that would last ten years…The author's distinctly African voice and perspective create a narrative that is refreshingly free of Western assumptions and prejudices. Readers witness innumerable culture clashes between the African and Inuit cultures, as well as occasional surprising similarities.

McAllister, Bruce – Wings Above the Arctic …the first comprehensive photographic history of arctic aviation. Author Bruce McAllister has interviewed many veteran arctic pilots, some in their nineties, and gathered photographs from dozens of sources around the world. There are chapters on Russian, Canadian, and U.S. pilots who have accomplished extraordinary flying feats in the Arctic.

Watkins, Paul – The Fellowship of Ghosts : a journey through the mountains of Norway The effect of landscape on human consciousness is at the heart of novelist Paul Watkins's exhilarating travel story. Long bewitched by the stark beauty of the Scandinavian Alps, Watkins sets off among the ice-clad peaks and dark fjords of the arctic with only a tent and rucksack. On the way, he stops at rustic inns, follows the paths of other solitary travelers, navigates the punishing weather, and confronts the magisterial presence of the past among these mountains--a journey that makes for one of our finest accounts of the life and the land in the frozen north.

Holm, Bill – The Windows of Brimnes : an American in Iceland A Minnesotan of Icelandic ancestry, his travels have taken him all over the world, providing the material for a number of rich and memorable books. In The Windows of Brimnes, Holm travels to Brimnes, his fisherman’s cottage on the shore of a creek in northern Iceland. From there, he considers the fate of America — "my home, my citizenship, my burden" — in these provocative essays.

Now working on The Wake of the Unseen Object: Among the Native Cultures of Bush Alaska by Tom Kizzia. It's a bit tough to get into, his narrative isn't all that flowing...actually, rather choppy.

I'm 2/3 of the way through A Dream In Polar Fog and enjoying it a lot. The translation into English is a little dodgy at times - idiomatic expressions which don't sound right for 1910, the year the book is set - but that's a minor blemish in a great story, set on the Arctic coast of Siberia.

I read Out Stealing Horses two or three months ago, and then finally got To Siberia: A Novel also by Per Petersen and have just finished it. The latter is actually set in Denmark, the northern part, initially, and then the narrator spends some time in Norway. I'm not sure what part. What these share is the richness of character. To Siberia: A Novel is from a girl/young woman's point of view.

Some things that I have read in the past are some children's books, some of my favorite children's books actually. I believe they are all Swedish. There is the whole Moomintroll series by Tove Jansson, for example Moomintroll Midwinter. She also wrote The Summer Book.

Then there is Maria Gripe with Hugo and Josephine, and some other books about the same two character, I think one is called Hugo. Then there is Pappa Pellerin's Daughter and the Glassblower's Children.

Finally, not long ago I read a couple of detective novels by a Swedish writer that I really liked. Eriksson, Kjell is the author of The Demon of Dakar: A Mystery (Ann Lindell Mysteries) The Princess of Burundi (Ann Lindell Mysteries) and The Cruel Stars of the Night: A Mystery (Ann Lindell Mysteries)

I had almost forgotton, I don't remember the title (my library catalog has one called Scott's Last Expedition: the Journals and a couple similar titles, but I read the journal of Scott, the English explorer of the South Pole who did reach it finally, as I recall, but a few weeks after Admundson (Norwegian). Scott kept his journal almost until the very end when he died along with all the other members of his expedition very close to where they could have gotten fresh supplies.

Here's my review of A Dream in Polar Fog:

http://www.librarything.com/work/74275/reviews/47317628

My first polar read (I'm hoping to get more in, including A Dream in Polar Fog, was The Coldest March: Scott's Fatal Antarctic Expedition by Susan Solomon.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It combines the story of the expedition, largely told in the words of the men on it, from diaries of those who survived and those who didn't, with modern scientific data that throws light on the conditions the expedition encountered; it brings the characters of the military men, scientists, and seamen alive; and it does a great job at helping the reader experience the close, dark, dangerous, and above all COLD environment of Antarctica. Solomon addresses the reputation of Scott as a "bumbler" through the use of the men's diaries and modern meteorological and other information, and provides interesting insights into such topics as how well skis work under different temperature and snow conditions, how to get into a frozen sleeping bag, and how to choose ponies for polar conditions, among others.

Wow--I'm enjoying everyone's comments and reviews of their books.

I finished my first book for this read, Women of the Klondike by Frances Backhouse.

In 1896 gold was discovered in the Klondike region of Canada's Yukon. Due to the remoteness of the region, it took another eleven months for news of the discovery to reach the outside world, triggering the gold rush that would last only a few years.

The 1890’s, sometimes called the gay 90’s, nurtured the seed of independence and freedom in the heart of many women. This book contains brief biographical sketches of women from many backgrounds that used that newfound freedom for the adventure that was the Klondike.

It briefly tells their tales beginning with Kate Carmack, a native woman whose husband and brothers made the first strike. It continues with sketches of women from all walks of life: those following husbands and sweethearts; those who left husbands, children and sweethearts to follow their dream; women who became entrepreneurs such as store owners and miners; prostitutes and dance hall girls; Catholic nuns and members of the Salvation Army; teachers, doctors and nurses; rich tourists who brought canaries and pedigreed dogs while they ‘did’ the Klondike while they toured its sights.

Personally, I would have enjoyed more details of their day to day life and the unique challenges they met in this Arctic region just south of the Arctic Circle. I most enjoyed the stories of women in their ground length skirts (let no ankle show! although bloomers were acceptable until they got into town) as they climbed the daunting Chilikoot Pass which was the most direct route, although it was also the most strenuous. Mention was made of enduring sixty below zero temperatures and building fires on the ground in order to melt the earth underneath enough to mine. All in all, though I was left short wanting more details of their unique physical environment and how these amazing women met its challenges. 3.5 stars.

I'm already into my next book for this challenge from the tbr pile, The Snow Walker by Farley Mowat. I read this one when I was a bookstore clerk when it came out in the 70's. Thirty years later, I'm finding it just as fascinating.

Just back from vacation, no time to read one for this group, but want to follow along the postings.

I discovered that there is another thread where people are discussing the books they read for the Polar Regions theme read and so I reposted my review there.

Thanks rebecca--I'll repost mine over there, too.

Hello, I've noticed this group in passing but have only just joined.

Just a book suggestion: Nikki Gemmell's Shiver: A Novel is a romance, set (partly) in Antarctica. Gemmell is an Australian author (since relocated to England, I think). It wasn't a knock-your-socks off read, but I liked it well enough at the time.

>62 wookiebender: wookiebender - glad you've joined us and thanks for the suggestion!

The Terror by Dan Simmons is an excellent fictionalized account of Captain John Franklin's lost expedition to the Arctic 1845 - 1848.

The Top 10 in the Guardian today focuses on cold places - lots of good recommendations here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/jul/22/marcus-sedgwick-tales-cold-climes.

Thanks for posting that!

I'm just back from a trip and regretting not having had the time to contribute further to the theme. Thanks for everyone else - muddy21 in particular - for developing the thread. I intend to follow up some of the recommendations above, and although I won't have time to read anything specific for the thread, I will be leafing through A Wildlife Guide to Chile: Continental Chile, Chilean Antarctica, Easter Island, Juan Fernandez Archipelago by Sharon Chester. It's a fairly recent field guide to this region and from previous perusals seems to be well compiled, though I have not field tested it - alas!

I had also meant to point out that there is an almost dormant group called "North and South Poles" at http://www.librarything.com/groups/northandsouthpoles, if anyone feels like carrying on this discussion after the month is up - it would be nice to keep the group afloat!

The northest part of Finland quite qualifies to the topic, but finding books in English may be tricky.

Popular Music from Vittula is from the borderland of Finland and Sweden and actually Swedish but with so much Finnish ingredients that it is almost Finnish.

Rosa Liksom is originally from up North. Her books are not necessarily set there but the Norht is in her writing. At least One Night Stands and Dark Paradise seem to have been translated into English.

Then there is At the edge of light. Have not read this one myself but two other books by the same author. Contemporary life in the North. These are tough books.

Timo K. Mukka is a local classic from Lappland but his work has not been translated very much.

Torgny Lindgren is from Northern Sweden dwells still on my TBR so I can not say much more about him than that he is very interesting.

And yes, I notice I am a bit late.

thanks Eairo for your contribution. I find it hard to keep up with the reading - too many good books and not enough time. I was on a short vacation to Portland Oregon recently and spent time at Powell Books. Picked up Popular Music from Vittula and Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name. They've just been added to the TBP pile. And now you have just added some more. I love LT!!

There really isn't any substitute for reading the stories of the men who undertook those first perilous journeys in the heroic age of exploration, and there's more to it than 'the race to the pole'. I'd recommend The Home of the Blizzard too, but it's worth getting the book rather than the gutenberg freebie to see the photos, maps and diagrams. It's also condensed from the original 2 volume version and while the main story is the tale of Mawson's tragic expedition and his solo journey back to base after his two companions were lost, it also includes narratives from other members of the team. See my reviews here on LT and (different) at http://anzlitlovers.wordpress.com/2009/12/05/the-home-of-the-blizzard-by-douglas...
Lisa Hill, ANZ Litlovers