December 2021 Theme: Brrrrr Cold!

Brrrrr Cold! That’s what our münchkī used to say when coming in from play in the wintertime. In my neck of the world, December is a very cold month. For December’s challenge, read a book which has a cold, wintry setting. Preferred reads would be a memoir, autobiography, biography; based on a true story; historical fiction based on specific historical events or times; or is a classic which shows a strong sense of place for the time. Pretty much anything goes – but not a romance or mystery or such that just happens to be set in winter.



Some tag ideas to use in searching
avalanches
mountaineering
blizzards
Arctic/Antarctic exploration
winter battles/wars
Serum Run (1925 Alaska)
Titanic

Historical Fiction ideas
* Between shades of gray by Ruta Sepetys (WWII Siberian labor camps)
* Burial rites by Hannah Kent (last execution of a woman in Iceland, 1820s)
* City of Thieves by David Benioff (Siege of Leningrad)
* Consumption by Kevin Patterson (1950s Nunavut)
* The Frozen Thames by Helen Humphreys (certain England winters)
* The madonnas of Leningrad by Debra Dean (Siege of Leningrad)
* One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn (gulag life)
* The siege by Helen Dunmore (Siege of Leningrad)
* Two old women : an Alaska legend of betrayal, courage, and survival by Velma Wallis (Yukon folklore)

Nonfiction Ideas
* The Children's Blizzard by David Laskin (1888 American Midwest)
* Curse of The Narrows: The Halifax Disaster of 1917 by Laura M. Mac Donald (1917 Nova Scotia)
* A Frozen Hell: The Russo-Finnish Winter War of 1939-40 by William Trotter
* The Indifferent Stars Above : The Harrowing Saga of a Donner Party Bride by Daniel James Brown (1840s American West)
* The Longest Winter: The Battle of the Bulge and the Epic Story of WWII's Most Decorated Platoon by Alex Kershaw (1944 Europe)
* Moscow 1812: Napoleon's Fatal March by Adam Zamoyski
* Valley Forge by Bob Drury (American Revolutionary War)

Classics Ideas
* Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton (1900s New England)
* Hans Brinker, or the Silver Skates by Mary Mapes Dodge (1860s Netherlands)
* The lion, the witch, and the wardrobe by C. S. Lewis (WWII fantasy)

Thanks for getting this thead up, Cindy. : )

I have a couple of books that I will consider for this topic:

The Indifferent Stars Above by Daniel James Brown
White Fang by Jack London

Thanks for setting up this thread for us to plan--I appreciate it. And thanks for the many helpful suggestions.

I'm leaning toward Ethan Frome--I read it years ago and do not remember anything about it, least of all that it had anything to do with winter! So time for a re-read.

But The Children's Blizzard also looks intriguing--reminds me of Laura Ingalls Wilder's The Long Winter, but I think that was set in 1880-81.

Never read anything by Wharton except for The Age of Innocence a few years ago. Could be a good chance to get around to Ethan Frome in the Norton Critical.

I could do Solzhenitsyn (whom I don't really that much care for), but I've had the Pevear-Volokonsky translation of Doctor Zhivago sitting around for so long that I really ought to get to it. Haven't read it (in another translation, of course) in probably fifty years. But it really is terribly lo-o-o-ong....

But now that I think of it, one book by Mikhail Bulgakov (whom I love dearly) that I've yet to read is A Country Doctor's Notebook, though I have read the "Morphine" story. Dang it, I've had it around the house for ages, but I don't see it in my catalog which means I'll have trouble putting my fingers on it. I'm doing some clean-up and consolidating in the next few months (I hope), and maybe I'll come across it.

And there's The Shipping News. I saw the movie (and really liked it) when it was first released but never read the book, which I've had sitting around for ages.

For a little fantasy lit, there's Naomi Novik's Spinning Silver.

Most likely? First Ethan Frome, then maybe The Shipping News (or Spinning Silver for some fantasy entertainment).

The Frozen Thames was a book I thought I read for another theme but now not to sure. i'll have to take a look on my shelves

So many great ideas, Cindy! Thanks! I will probably read either Burial Rites (on my shelf) or do a re-read of Dr. Zhivago.

>5 cindydavid4: I read that this year and I liked it! I also read Frost, Freezes and Fairs which was equally good.

I did find it and just loved it! so many great vignettes some funny, some heart breaking I appreciate how she was able to tell each story as if each was wrapped in a little box. No words were wasted in these tellings.. Several of them I thought would make really good short stories; might be fun to try!

I also liked frosts freezes and fair, but not as much as the first.

>3 kac522: "The Children's Blizzard" was very good. I read it before I was rating and reviewing books, but I do remember it being a really good read.

I have another historical fiction one to recommend:
Whiter Than Snow / Sandra Dallas
(Avalanche)

>9 LibraryCin: There's a new historical fiction novel about the same event: The Children's Blizzard by Melanie Benjamin.

>10 kac522: Oooooh, thank you!

>11 LibraryCin: Thank my library--I searched the catalog for the title after your rec, and both books came up in the search! I just ordered the original for now.

I read Burial Rites by Hannah Kent. I requested it from the library and got it 2 days later, hence the early read. This was Kent's debut novel and it was superb! It is the story of Agnes Magnusdottir, a 30 year old woman in Iceland that was put to death for a gruesome murder. The first lines of the book set the tone, and they are chilling: "They said I must die. They said that I stole the breath from men, and now they must steal mine. I imagine, then, that we are all candle flames, greasy-bright, fluttering in the darkness and the howl of the wind, and in the stillness of the room I hear footsteps, awful coming footsteps, coming to blow me out and send my life up away from me in a gray wreath of smoke." The book, although a novel, was based on a true story. Definitely a winner! 336 pages 5 stars

I also did a re-read of Dr. Zhivago, always a winner in my book!

I just realized that Robert Jordan's "Eye of the World" fits this category very well. The harsh winter which hasn't given way to spring, the lack of feed and graze, the failure of crops to come up--all are essential to the setting of Jordan' story. It's fantasy, good vs evil, coming of age and loyal friends all rolled into one.

I read The Frozen Thames and remember being charmed by it but don't fancy a reread when there are so many unread books on my shelves. I pulled Ethan Frome from the stacks instead.

>16 Familyhistorian: I'll likely do Ethan Frome myself, using the Norton Critical Edition for its supplemental materials.

Right now, for the November Reader's Choice theme, I'm reading The Starless Sea. I figured it would be a follow-up to last month's Supernatural/Superstition, which it is, but I've discovered that it's also appropriate to December's theme because of the cold-snow-wind settings.

started mr dickens carol for a book group (easy book, book drawing, and smoozing)

I've been trying to get to Arctic Fury all year. I will try to make it a priority this month. Historical fiction about a woman's expedition in the Arctic.

The January 2022 theme page is posted: https://www.librarything.com/topic/337020

mr dicken's carol was a very surprising well done look at how the christmas carol was written, very believable, dark even, but puts the book in perpective. Lots of snow and fog and twists and turns.

Ok, I wroite that last night, not actually having read till the end. Oh my. All day yesterday till just now I was ready to praise mr dickens carol to the heavens. Then I got near the climax and well-the author jumped the shark. Totally ridiculous thing to do. I was planning a 5*, now a 3* and wondering if thats too high. I get that she's a screenwriter, and was not surprised how much the entire book was written for screen. But what she did made the entire journey fake and wasted. Im angry with her to waste my time with thi s But I reached a point that caused me not to care about the book . In fact I will not finish it. I enjoy fantasy, I enjoy magic realism, but this was neither. Just sloppy writing 2*

For this month’s theme, I’ll be reading Jon Krakauer’s Into Thin Air, the author’s account of the snowstorm on Mt. Everest in May of 1996, that proved disastrous for several groups of climbers, including Krakauer, who were on the mountain at that time.

>24 dianelouise100: An unforgettable book. The images stayed with me for a long time.

I have just finished White Fang by Jack London. I thought that I hadn't read it before, yet parts of it felt very familiar so I may have read it when I was much younger. Set in the Canadian Yukon, the opening sequence mentions the temp. being 50 below!

I will be reading Two Old Women: An Alaska Legend of Betrayal, Courage and Survival by Velma Wallis.

I have finished Bunte Steine, which also contains Bergkristall where two children get lost in a heavy snowfall on their way home to their village on Christmas Eve.

May 10, 1996 was the day chosen by three commercial guides to lead their groups of men and women to the summit of Mt. Everest; it was also the day of an unexpected spring snowstorm that began mid afternoon. Into Thin Air is Jon Krakauer’s account of being part of famous Australian guide Rob Hall’s group, in order to report on the experience for a sports magazine and to fulfill a climber’s dream of “summiting” Everest. I loved reading this book. I felt totally absorbed into the awe inspiring setting and into the struggles of the different climbers to prepare themselves for the ultimate challenge of reaching the top. This book was a page turner, but written powerfully enough to stay with me and to provoke reflection on the immensity of the mountain where a snowstorm of insignificant strength in that setting could be catastrophic for so many people.

first encountered an excerpt in Outside magazine and was spell bound. The book itself was so well done. I have heard some controversies over some parts of the book that may not be true. But I still loved it.

>29 dianelouise100: Love this one. It started my reading of Everest and climbing memoirs.

A good follow-up is The Climb by Anatoli Boukreev to get things from his point of view as well (though it's not as compelling as Krakauer's book).

Frozen in Time: The Fate of the Franklin Expedition / Owen Beattie, John Geiger
4 stars

This book first looks at the Franklin Expedition in the mid-1800s to find the Northwest Passage. Franklin and his entire crew of 129 people and two ships disappeared. In the years following, others set out to find them or some clue as to what had happened. In the early 1980s, Owen Beattie, a forensic anthropologist, and a team of others set out to the graves of three of the expedition members on Beatty Island to dig them up to do autopsies to see if that would tell them what had happened.

Surprisingly, I found the second half more interesting than the first. I guess all of it was potentially interesting to me, but I was surprised to be more engrossed in the parts as the modern-day scientists dug up the graves to find extremely well-preserved bodies and to read the details of their testing and what they found. Be warned that there are photos of the bodies that were dug up; of course, there are other interesting photos, as well.

Just remembered a winter book about a young girl who is given a chance to travel to Antartica. where'd you go bernadette Her mother was a former architect with a secret. And its so more than about the journey. BTW DO NOT see the movie of the same name. Horrible adaptation, picks and choses what to include and the ending is totally off.

I’ve just finished Two Old Women: An Alaska Legend of Betrayal, Courage and Survival by Velma Wallis. It’s a short book, only 127 pages, including an introduction by the author, who was born and raised in the remote region where the story takes place, and a short piece about the Gwich’in people. There are wonderful pen-and-ink drawings and maps by indigenous artist James Grant. A great story beautifully told. Happily, she has written a few other books which I hope to read in the near future.

Anna Kavan, Ice 3½***, and I think I'm being a little generous. If it hadn't been for this month's theme, I'd almost certainly have gone straight to the Norton Critical of Ethan Frome, which I'm hoping to get to later this month; but I saw Ice browsing at Barnes & Noble a couple months ago and picked it up for the sake of this month's theme because it looked interesting and I do like apocalyptics.

And if it weren't for this month's theme, I might have applied the Pearl Rule except that Ice isn't that long to begin with so I figured I might as well finish it. I just found the whole thing a bit confusing.

It did get better as it went along, but it took at least half-way if not two-thirds before I started to get into it. So I'll give it 3½*** for its last 60-90 pages (it only ran about 180 pages or so in the Penguin paperback), though I was tempted to go a bit lower.

>32 LibraryCin: I read Frozen in Time a while back. I remember it being interesting but then I find anything to do with the Franklin expedition interesting. It is part of the Canadian mythology.

>35 CurrerBell: I ended up reading Ethan Frome. Not really my cup of tea, I think. This is what I wrote about it:

Well Ethan Frome clearly fit the bill for a book with a cold setting. Not only the wintery New England weather was frigid. The characters in this tale also clearly lacked warmth or lost it after living there.

Background article on the Arctic Convoys topic.
https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thecourier...