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Hotlists 2008

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Booklists

Lists of books, many of which received at least one starred review (indicating a work of unusual merit) from the following review sources: Booklist , Publisher's Weekly (PW), Kirkus and Library Journal (LJ). Additional titles of interest may be included on the lists. Titles are generally listed alphabetically by author.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Overbooked specializes in providing timely information about fiction (all genres) and readable nonfiction. Overbooked has been online since 1994. Overbooked is a work in progress . . .

Overbooked is the winner of the 2008 Louis Shores - Greenwood Publishing Award: to recognize excellence in book reviewing and other media for libraries. The award recipient is selected for significant achievement related to a reviewing process that helps librarians make selection decisions.

Booklists and Suggested Reading

Arctic Stars

 

Page Modified: June 18, 2008

Books set the Arctic regions. Fiction (all genres) and nonfiction are included.

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Annotations are from Advance, the Ingram Book Magazine, unless noted.

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Fiction

• Voyage of the Narwhal
  Author: Barrett, Andrea
  Publisher: Norton $ 24.95 ISBN: 039304632X Date: 1998
  KirkusLJ
  LJ Best Books | NYTBR Notable | ALA Notable | PW Best Books
  A major novel by the author of Ship Fever, winner of the 1996 National Book Award for fiction. Part adventure, part love story, this unforgettable novel captures a crucial moment in the history of exploration. Combining fact and fiction, the story focuses on Erasmus Darwin Wells, a 19th-century scholar/naturalist and his expedition to search for an open polar sea.
  Updated 12.28.06
• One Day the Ice Will Reveal All Its Dead
  Author: Dudman, Clare
  Publisher: Viking $ 25.95 ISBN: 067003276x Date: 2004
  PW
  A haunting first novel based on the fascinating life of an Arctic explorer whose fearless pursuit of scientific discovery revolutionized our perception of the world. - Publisher Marketing.
  Suggested Reading: Fiction & Mystery Debuts
  Updated 2.10.04
• The Broken Lands: A Novel of Arctic Disaster
  Author: Edric, Robert
  Publisher: St Martins $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312288891 Date: 2002
  Booklist
  In this enthralling, richly inventive novel, Edric re-creates what may have happened to the doomed Franklin expedition which set sail in 1845. - from the jacket copy.
  Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction Stars
  Updated 11/20/01
• The Ice Child
  Author: McGregor, Elizabeth
  Publisher: Dutton $ 24.95 ISBN: 0525945679 Date: 2001
  McGregor takes readers on an epic journey into the heart of the Arctic--and into one of history's most fascinating mysteries--to tell a breathtaking story of faith, courage, and a mother's indomitable love.
  Updated 11.27.06
• The Cage
  Author: Schulman, Audrey
  Publisher: Algonquin $ 17.95 ISBN: 1565120353 Date: 1994
  PW
  ALA Notable
  A gripping adventure of a woman who goes on an otherwise all-male documentary expedition to the Canadian tundra to photograph bears from within a small iron cage. As she tests her limits on the frozen tundra, disaster strikes and she must draw on her every strength in order to survive.
  Updated 12.6.06
• The Terror
  Author: Simmons, Dan
  Publisher: Little Brown $ 25.99 ISBN: 9780316017442 Date: 2007
  KirkusPWLJ
  Based on the true story of two ice ships that disappeared in the Arctic Circle during the Sir John Franklin Expedition in 1845.
  Updated 11.16.06
• North with Franklin: The Lost Journals of James Fitzjames
  Author: Wilson, John
  Publisher: Fitzhenry & Whiteside $ 10.95 ISBN: 1550416308 Date: 2000
  Based on a series of letters written by Franklin expedition officer James Fitzjames -- journals which were only recently discovered in a Scottish attic after lying unsuspected for nearly 150 years -- this unique work of fiction masterfully chronicles one of the most enduring mysteries of the grand era of Arctic exploration and sheds new light on the expedition and the fate of its crew. Set against a backdrop of hardy adventurers and high Arctic imagery, this work of fiction is both an engaging story of the triumphs and tragedy of the last Franklin expedition of 1845, and are interpretation of the men and events that comprised one of the great episodes in nineteenth century exploration. - Publisher Marketing
  Updated 12.28.06
• The Rifles - Seven Dreams: A Book of North American Landscapes
  Author: Vollmann, William T.
  Publisher: Viking $ 24.95 ISBN: 0670848565 Date: 1994
  Vaulting through time to another flashpoint in the long struggle between Indians and Europeans, Vollmann's visionary fictional history now focuses on the white explorers of 150 years ago, desperately dreaming of forging a Northwest Passage.
  Updated 12.28.06

Nonfiction

• In the Land of White Death: An Epic Story of Survival in the Siberian Arctic
  Author: Albanov, Valerian
  Publisher: Modern Library $ 21.95 ISBN: 0679641009 Date: 2000
  Kirkus
  "A beguiling and valuable record of polar exploration before the planes landed, and a miraculous testament to what the human spirit can achieve. Albanov's harrowing story is a welcome addition to the canon of polar literature." -Sara Wheeler, author of Terra Incognita
  Updated 12.28.06
• Barrow's Boys
  Author: Fleming, Fergus
  Publisher: Atlantic $ 26 ISBN: 0871138042 Date: 2000
  KirkusLJ
  ALA Notable
  Adventure literature at its best: the breathtaking story of England's heroic 19th-century expedition to the Arctic, the heart of Africa, and Antarctica, under the command of John Barrow.
  Updated 12.28.06
• Ninty Degrees North: The Quest for the North Pole
  Author: Fleming, Fergus
  Publisher: Grove $ 26 ISBN: 0802117252 Date: 2002
  KirkusPW
  The acclaimed author of Barrow's Boys and Killing Dragons relates the epic story of the men who stopped at nothing to unravel the mysteries of the North Pole. In scintillating detail he tells of the wing governments and fantastic eccentrics who, despite their heroic failures, often achieved massive celebrity as they battled to reach the top of the world.
  Suggested Reading: Travel Tales
  Updated 7.3.02
• Give Me My Father's Body: The Life of Minik, the New York Eskimo
  by Harper, Kenn
  Publisher: Steerforth $ 24 ISBN: 1883642531 Date: 2000
  Library Journal
  In a story that is peopled with well-known explorers, including Robert Peary, Give Me My Father's Body tells the tragic tale of Minik Wallace, "a live Eskimo specimen," who was orphaned in turn-of-the-century New York.
• The Ice Museum: In Search of the Lost Land of Thule
  Author: Kavenna, Joanna
  Publisher: Viking $ 24.95 ISBN: 0670034738 Date: 2006
  Booklist
  The author set out on a harrowing and exhilarating voyage of discovery from Shetland, Iceland, Norway, Estonia, Greenland, and Svalbard in search of this most haunting of northern places, the mysterious lost world of Thule.
  Suggested Reading: Travel Tales
  Updated 2.16.06
• Arctic Dreams: Imagination and Desire in a Northern Landscape
  Author: Lopez, Barry
  Publisher: Scribner $ 24.95 ISBN: 0684185784 Date: 1986
  Kirkus
  In a breathtaking exploration of a territory that is barely known, the author of Of Wolves and Men takes readers on a brilliant, moving odyssey into the Far North, on a journey of the mind and heart into a place that grips the imagination with the resonance of its unique and affecting grandeur.
  Updated 12.28.06
• Polar Dance: Born of the North Wind
  Author: Mangelsen, Thomas D.
  Publisher: Images of Nature $ 65 ISBN: 1890310034 Date: 1997
  LJ
  A pictorial work by a noted wildlife photographer.
  Updated 12.27.06
• Frost on My Moustache: The Arctic Expolits of a Lord and a Loafer
  Author: Moore, Tim
  Publisher: St Martins $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312253192 Date: 2000
  Booklist
  In a welcome antidote to the Shackleton narratives and other manly survival stories set in the extremes, Moore writes with scathing self-deprecation about his misadventures in Iceland, Norway, and Spitzbergen (north of the Arctic Circle).
  Updated 12.28.06
• The Ice Master: The Doomed 1913 Voyage of the Karluk
  by Niven, Jennifer
  Publisher: Hyperion $ 24.95 ISBN: 0786865296 Date: 2000
  Booklist
  Based on the diaries of those who were rescued and those who perished, this is the chilling true story of the "Karluk's" doomed 1913 exploration of the Arctic and the heroic efforts of the ship's captain, the Ice Master, who traveled by foot through Siberia to find help. Now in paperback, this is one of "Entertainment Weekly's" 10 Best Books of the Year.
  Suggested Reading: Sea Stories
• Ida Blackjack: A True Story of Survival in the Arctic
  Author: Niven, Jennifer
  Publisher: Hyperion $ 24.95 ISBN: 0786868635 Date: 2007
  Booklist
  From the author of The Ice Master comes the remarkable true story of a young Inuit woman who survived six months alone on a desolate uninhabited Arctic island in 1921.
  Updated 12.28.06
• Trial by Ice; The True Story of Murder and Survival on the 1871 Polaris Expedition
  by Parry, Richard
  Publisher: 0345439252 $ 23.95 ISBN: 0345439252 Date: 2001
  Kirkus
  This true story of Arctic exploration details the unsolved shipboard murder committed in 1871 that led to accusations of foul play and a dramatic inquiry. The author draws on new evidence and recounts the amazing story of a killer who boarded the Arctic explorer "Polaris"--and got away with murder.
  Suggested Reading: Sea Stories

 

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