Editor’s Note: Thank you for reading along this week as the Eleventh Stack team highlighted the many different ways you can help the Carnegie Library during these challenging times, and the many reasons you might want to.
We close our week of library advocacy with a guest post from Kathie, whose book picks and info nuggets are perfect examples of the high-quality materials you can get at your public library, with the help of skilled staff. Don’t leave CLP out in the cold when the heat is on – support your library today!
July usually brings us some rip-roaringly hot days and on these days I try to concentrate on the cold — and I mean the frigid cold, the way below zero type of cold — in an attempt to keep cool.
For the readers among us, titles such as those listed here give us a chance to bury ourselves in a cold mystery, a cold adventure, some cold history, or plans for a cold trip. This may not be quite as good as a dip in a cool lake or being in a heavily air-conditioned house, but it’s not a bad way to cool off if you are trying to keep the electricity bill from spiking or there’s no lake within miles. So choose your book, pour a tall glass of ice-cold tea and turn on a fan.
Alexander, Caroline. The Endurance: Shackleton’s Legendary Antarctic Expedition.
Fast-moving narrative with numerous photographs by a member of the crew; companion DVD also available.
Alexander, Caroline. Mrs. Chippy’s Last Expedition: The Remarkable Journal of Shackleton’s Polar-Bound Cat.
A fictional perspective from a cat that was really there!
Cable, Mary. The Blizzard of ’88.
“…a moving and dramatic social history, in the tradition of David McCullough’s Johnstown Flood.”
Gosnell, Mariana. Ice: The Nature, the History, and the Uses of an Astonishing Substance.
Together with Marling (see below) you have all you ever needed to know about ice.
Henry, Sue. Murder on the Iditarod Trail.
Or try any of Henry’s other mysteries that take place in Alaska.
Krakauer, Jon. Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster.
The top of Everest is never warm.
Lambert, Katherine. The Longest Winter: The Incredible Survival of Captain Scott’s Lost Party.
Based on the unpublished diaries of the men in the party.
Libbrecht, Kenneth. The Snowflake: Winter’s Secret Beauty.
Spectacular photographs of snowflakes and a narrative that promises to answer most questions about the snowflake.
Lopez, Barry. Arctic Dreams: Imagination and Desire in a Northern Landscape.
A Lopez classic.
Marling, Karal Ann. Ice: Great Moments in the History of Hard, Cold Water.
A Minnesota resident and art historian exploring the cultural history of ice.
Mergen, Bernard. Snow in America.
Snow in art, poetry, literature, film, history, public policy and much more.
Rubin, Jeff. Lonely Planet Antarctica.
OK, it’s a long way down there and we might never have a chance to go, but what’s wrong with planning the trip just in case?
If reading is not your thing on a hot day, check out this Texan’s advice on how to stay cool or check out Quebec’s ice hotel where the beds are made of ice. Or imagine a working drum set made of ice!
Kathie
