GeoKIT 2021 (all year): Polar

Welcome to the yearlong GeoKIT for Polar. For this challenge that will include Antarctica and the Arctic.

Can someone please tell me how to put a map here?

There won't be authors from Antarctica, but you can read about the expeditions to Antarctica as well as about the penguins that do live there.

For the Arctic if someone knows about authors from there let me know. One topic I can think of easily would be about reindeer herders. (I know that I read a book about them some years ago and now I just need to find it.)

Post your book ideas and I will list them here.

Ankomst by Gøhril Gabrielsen
The Terrors of Ice and Darkness by Christoph Ransmayr
The Discovery of Slowness by Sten Nadolny
The White Darkness by David Grann
Leading on the Edge: Extraordinary Stories and Leadership Insights from The World's Most Extreme Workplace by Rachel Robertson
Ice Station Zebra by Alistair MacLean
Alberta and Jacob by Cora Sandel
Arctic Dreams by Barry Lopez
A Cold-Blooded Business by Dana Stabenow
Smilla's Sense of Snow by Peter Hoeg
The Arctic Fury by Greer Macallister
Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing
3 Among the Wolves by Helen Thayer
This Cold Heaven by Gretel Ehrlich
Last Night in Nuuk by Niviaq Korneliussen
The Will of the Unseen by Hans Lynge
The Veins of the Heart to the Pinnacle of the Mind by Aqqaluk Lynge
A Journey to the Mother of the Sea by Maliaraq Vebaek
An African in Greenland by Tete-Michel Kpomassie
A Negro Explorer at the North Poleby Matthew Henson
The Penguin of Death by Edward Monkton
Icebound: Shipwrecked at the Edge of the World by Andrea Pitzer
Her Christmas Phoenix by Zoe Chant

(I'll try to get the touchstones to work soon)

I'm going to suggest Ankomst which I read this year. Set in the polar regions, it has an air of increasing menace as well as being very hard to tell what it real and what is imagined.

1. Find a map.
2. Right click on the map image and choose Copy image address.
3. In your post put the following code: less than symbol img src ="image address'' greater than symbol. You have to include the quotation marks.

I have two suggestions for this category. These are German novels but as far as I know there are English translations available.

The Terrors of Ice and Darkness by Christoph Ransmayr
A novel about the Austro-Hungarian North Pole expedition in the 1870s - there are two story lines: One about a member of the expedition and one about one of his descendants.

The Discovery of Slowness by Sten Nadolny
This is a fictionalized account of John Franklin's expeditions. It's not authentic, but portrays Franklin as someone who is looked down upon by his peers for his slowness - however, it's exactly this slowness that makes him such a good explorer.

The White Darkness by David Grann received good reviews. I have it on my virtual TBR.
Last year I read Leading on the Edge: Extraordinary Stories and Leadership Insights from the World's Most Extreme Workplace. This is a memoir from an Australian woman who lead a year-long expedition to Antarctica.

I read Ice Station Zebra during our polar month in September. It's a great technothriller with a genuine murder mystery! The technology is a bit old since the book was written in the early 1960s, but I hope that won't deter anyone.

Alberta and Jacob by Cora Sandel is set in northern Norway, inside the Arctic circle.

I read Arctic Dreams by Barry Lopez this year and thought it was brilliant.

>7 NinieB: - I remember that book! (Am I dating myself?)

>10 dudes22: I just read it this year, so no!!

Dana Stabenow's Alaskan Native sleuth, Kate Shugak, goes up beyond the Arctic Circle in at least one book A Cold Blooded Business. She may do in others but I haven't read the whole series yet.

I found out that I have one unread book concerning the polar regions, so I plan to read it this year because this challenge motivates me to finally do so! I‘ve had it for ages but just never got around reading it.

Großer Süden by Isabelle Autissier and Erik Orsenna
It‘s a travelogue of a journey to Antarctica in a sailing boat. (One of the touchstones isn't working.)

I think this was originally published in French and I own a German translation, but I couldn‘t find an English one.

Another one that came to my mind is

Miss Smillas Feeling For Snow by Peter Høeg

I read it as a teenager and didn't enjoy it, but I want to reread it because now I really am into Nordic Noir.

I love this topic so much! Such a great challenge!

>6 beebeereads: - I definitely recommend The White Darkness by David Grann. It's a short and thrilling account of one explorer's journey in Antarctica.

Just heard a review of a new historical fiction book. The Arctic Fury. This story takes place in the 1850's and features an expedition made up of all women. I may try to pick this up next month.

I am going to try to squeeze in a book that takes place in Iceland, which is only 2 degrees from the Arctic Circle. In fact, the Arctic circle runs through Grimsey Island, which is on the north coast of Iceland. Although the bee's read, The Arctic Fury looks good.

I just wanted to pop in and recommend a book if you haven’t already read it, Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage (by Alfred Lansing). It’s a narrative NF story that reads like an adventure tale. It’s about Shackleton’s expedition to the South Pole and if you don’t know about what made Shackleton famous, you’re in for quite the surprise! This is one of my favorite books and audiobooks (narrated by Simon Prebble).

>15 beebeereads: Oh this does sound wonderful. I’ll probably be buying this soon.

>17 Tanya-dogearedcopy: Book bullet for me...thank you!

>15 beebeereads: This has piqued my interest!

I just spent the first of my Christmas cash on Arctic Fury! That was a very viral bookbullet from >15 beebeereads:!!

>21 DeltaQueen50: Hope this meets all of our expectations!

Here are two from my TBR

Three among the wolves by Helen Thayer ©2006
This cold heaven by Gretel Ehrlich (Greenland) ©2003

I've added a link to this thread from the GeoKIT wiki. :-)

LittleTaiko recced me The White Darkness by David Grann which I've acquired from my local library and am aiming to read in January.

Books from Greenland
• Last Night in Nuuk (US) aka Crimson (UK) by Niviaq Korneliussen
• The Will of the Unseen is a novel by Hans Lynge
• The Veins of the Heart to the Pinnacle of the Mind is poetry by Aqqaluk Lynge who also has poems online
• A Journey to the Mother of the Sea is an illustrated children's book by Maliaraq Vebaek
• An African in Greenland by Tete-Michel Kpomassie from Togo
• A Negro Explorer at the North Pole, 1912, by African-American explorer Matthew Henson is available online

I'm still hoping for a rec for the best ever penguin book!

I can offer The ballad of The Penguin of Death : method 412, but I'm not sure that "best" is quite the word to describe it. It features a Penguin, that is for certain.

>26 Helenliz: I LOVE that book! One of my friends' children gave me The Penguin of Death years ago because we had an in-joke about Killer Whales and Penguins of Death.

I read The White Darkness by David Grann, which was recced to me by LittleTaiko for a GeoKIT Polar read but also fits the BingoDOG "Dark or light in title" category. It's a well written short book of 143 pages, including many photos, about Antarctic walker Henry Worsley and his polar expeditions.

Just saw this title on a New Books list. Thought the group would want to know.
Icebound: Shipwrecked at the Edge of the World by Andrea Pitzer. Will be published January 12th in US.

Her Christmas Phoenix by Zoe Chant is set in Antarctica.

I finished Miss Smilla's Feeling For Snow by Peter Høeg - about half of it takes place on an icebreaker on the way to Greenland, and on the ice. The other half takes place in Copenhagen, but the Inuit and expeditions to Greenland conducted by Danish explorers are a very important aspect of it.
I'm glad I finally reread this book after twenty years!

>31 MissBrangwen: That one is in a box at home somewhere. I really want to read it sometime. I'm planning to sort through some of the boxes this summer. I'll get rid of things I am no longer interested in reading and probably prune a few others. Then I will hopefully come up with a plan to attack what remains!

>32 thornton37814: That sounds like a time-consuming but great project!

I read Arctic Hero : the incredible life of Matthew Henson, by Catherine Johnson, which is a biography of African American Matthew Henson the famous Arctic explorer, written for children, with illustrations by Seb Camagajevac. Johnson is a reliable children's fiction author who has written both historical and contemporary fiction. She also made an excellent job of this non-fiction. Even bearing in mind her experience as an author, I was surprised how well she tackled the more difficult issues in Henson's life story, especially his difficult childhood, the appalling racism he experienced, and his second Inuit family created outside conventional Western ideas of marriage. Most importantly, this is a perfect book for kids whether as interesting history or exciting adventure. 5*

GeoKIT: Polar (Arctic), which completed my second world tour of 2021 for GeoKIT on 29 March. \o/

I read Shackleton's Journey by William Grill, which was a middle-aged (10-12) book recommended to me. I am still going to read a few more before the end of the year.

I read a fascinating account of one man's journey across Canada within the Arctic Circle with Beyond the Trees by Adam Shoalts.

I read Into the Abyss by Carol Shaben set in cold northern Alberta for this category.

Shaben gives an account of a plane crash where her father, a politician, was one of the four survivors. The pilot also survived as well as two others, an RCMP officer and the prisoner he was accompanying. The prisoner became the life-saving hero of the crash and was deservedly exonerated.

I remember this disastrous crash well because another politician, Grant Notley, leader of the Alberta NDP party at the time, was also on board and was one of the six who did not survive. He was seen as a potential for sea change in Albertan politics if he managed to uproot the entrenched Conservative party. Eventually it was his daughter Rachel Notley who achieved the feat.

An interesting thing I learned was that a helicopter's fierce rotor speeds creates static electricity and the first rescuer let down on a long line receives a significant jolt. In this case it blasted the rescuer a foot in the air and left him immobile on his back for a minute.

Shaben's book is an engrossing account of the crash as well as the aftermath.

>37 VivienneR: I read this for my book club 6 years ago. The author is a friend of a friend of our Canadian member and she joined us for the meeting by Skype!

How interesting, Robert! And that was considerate of the author to join the meeting.

This read completes my third circumnavigation of the GeoKIT globe, yay!

I read An African in Greenland, by Tete-Michel Kpomassie, translated by James Kirkup, which is an autobiographical travel book by a Togolese author set in Togo amongst Mina-speaking Wayti people, across Africa and Europe, but mostly in Greenland amongst the Inuit where the author spent about fifteen months. 4*

GeoKIT: Polar (Togo, Europe, Greenland)

Let's hope that book of Sami poetry I want will turn up for sale somewhere so I can make a fourth circumnavigation.... :-)

I read Into the Abyss by Carol Shaben since I found >37 VivienneR:'s description so fascinating.

>41 sallylou61: I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. Some of my appreciation might have been because I remember the news coverage of the event so well and of course the loss of a promising political leader.

Far North by Will Hobbs

This is a terrific adventure story set in the Northwest Territories where two sixteen year olds and the uncle of one take a plane ride out of radio range. The inexperienced pilot landed the plane on a river near the top of a waterfall and then the engine stalled. The passengers were able to reach the river bank but the plane and pilot went over the falls. The boys, one from Texas, the other one aboriginal as well as his elderly uncle, had to spend the winter in the frigid conditions with little in the way of necessaries. Although the old man knew little English he was able to share his knowledge and using his old skills for Arctic living gave him some satisfaction and spiritual comfort. It was interesting to see the difference in characters and how they approached problems, of which there were many. I appreciated that Hobbs portrayed the respect Dene have for living creatures and the environment. Enthralling throughout.

Reading about the icy, snowy conditions was almost a physical relief as we in the British Columbia interior still suffer from record high temperatures, drought, and wildfires.

The Land God Gave to Cain by Hammond Innes

I thoroughly enjoyed this adventure tale set in frozen Labrador, where the young Ian Ferguson has made the trip from Engand in an attempt to convince Canadians that his grandfather had picked up a radio message from a lost expedition. This was written in 1958 yet is still action-packed and exciting.

COMPLETED: An African in Greenland by Tété-Michel Kpomassie (Set in Togo and Greenland)

I've decided that Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy will be my Polar book.