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Good Reads
Currents >>>>> good reads A Cool Collection of Winter Books
By JOSEPH W. SMITH West Branch Life
Winter is a great time for plowing into a good book. So, in honor of this frosty season, how about cuddling up with this cool collection— all concerning cold, snow, ice and winter?
by John Steinbeck
“Endurance”
by Alfred Lansing
This is the best-known of more than 30 books on Ernest Shackleton’s 1915 Antarctic expedition. After their vessel was crushed by ice, the crew was set adrift on floes. Eventually, six of them took a 22foot boat across 800 miles of the world’s worst ocean. This incredible survival story has gotten renewed attention this year due to the discovery of Shackleton’s sunken ship, almost perfectly preserved in the icy waters of the Weddell Sea.
“The Call of the Wild”/“White Fang”
by Jack London
Several modern editions offer both of London’s early-20th-century tales concerning dogs, wolves and wintry wilderness. Some also include the author’s quintessential man against nature story, “To Build a Fire. ”
by Donnie Eichar
The craziest unsolved mystery ever revolves around nine young hikers dying in an icy Russian wasteland in 1959. Despite their experience and careful planning, they had all fled their tent into the freezing night and were later found dead, some wearing almost no clothes at all. And still, no one knows what happened.
Though it’s not actually set in winter, I’m tapping this deeply felt morality play because it remains my favorite Steinbeck. A late-career triumph, “Discontent” involves a likable grocer whose financial struggles have him contemplating bank robbery in his seaside New England town.
by Ezra Jack Keats
As my children grew older and we sold or gave away our kids’ books, I hung on to this colorful and charming little story about a tot’s adventures in the snow - a treat for all ages.
by Hammond Innes
I considered including at least one icy tale from action-master Alistair MacLean (“Where Eagles Dare, ” “Ice Station Zebra, ” “Night Without End”) but Innes is a better writer in that genre. This virtually perfect thriller concerns a quest for lost fortune on the mountains and glaciers of Norway.
by Farley Mowat
This is an exciting youngadult tale of two boys stranded in the Canadian wilderness for an entire winter, superbly informed by the expertise of naturalist Mowat (“Never Cry Wolf”).
by McKay Jenkins
This utterly enthralling work of nonfiction uses the story of five men killed in a 1969 avalanche to examine mountain climbing, snow, avalanches and searchand-rescue in the wilderness.
“The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”
by C. S. Lewis
This is the first in Lewis’ beloved seven-book fantasy series about the land of Narnia, which is here locked in perpetual winter by the wicked White Witch. Wise, allegorical and deeply moving.
by Peter Hoeg
Set in Denmark and Greenland, this expert thriller begins with a boy falling from a roof and gradually builds to cosmic complexity—an ingenious blend of mystery, sci-fi, romance and metaphysics.
by Michael Innes
As one of Innes’ numerous, lovingly written mysteries featuring British inspector John Appleby, this one offers murder, statuary, an ancient memoir, lots of snow and the wouldbe Mrs. Appleby.
by William Horwood
As the last of Horwood’s four followups to Kenneth Grahame’s beloved “Wind in the Willows” (1908), you could scarcely ask for a finer re-creation of Grahame’s charming River Bank. His animal characters reappear to help their hare-brained friend Toad as he struggles with an oppressive houseguest, who has ruined Christmas. Watch also for Horwood’s “Toad Triumphant, ” “The Willows and Beyond, ” and of course, “The Willows in Winter. ”
