Books are amazing. Just think-in reality a book is a rectangle of bound paper covered in printed words. Yet this simple object and the words within allow the reader to be transported to different times, fantastical places, and situations you would never interact with in the real world. Dear reader, did you know that the brain actually thinks you are experiencing what you are reading? If you are experiencing something in real life or just reading about it, the same areas of the brain are active. Article link: (https://www.oedb.org/ilibrarian/your-brain-on-books-10-things-that-happen-to-our-minds-when-we-read/) How cool is that! Books really are portals that allow us to escape our everyday lives and engage in a world that is completely different.
In the past month my reading journey has taken me to the cold extremes of the polar north, a planet inhabited by dragons and dragon riders, a decaying cemetery ship in the void of space, and the darkness of our own human mind. Join me, dear reader, as I share these journeys with you in my reading recommendations list for this month.
The Terror by Dan Simmons
I have a small spot reserved on my bedroom bookshelf for my ultimate favorite books. (The other books are ordered by genre and series). It is very unusual for me to add a book to this shelf of ultimate favorites. The book had to have some meaningful impact on me. It had to make me think or capture my imagination in a way that completely obsessed my thoughts. Dear readers, this book: The Terror, has joined the ranks of The Princess Bride, The Phantom of the Opera, The Lord or the Rings, and The Symphony of Ages series on my special shelf of beloved books.
“The men think it is no animal,” says Fitzjames. “They believe its cunning is something else, is preternatural, supernatural, that there is a demon out there on the ice in the dark.”
The Terror is a fictional retelling of The Franklin Expedition. Dan Simmons uses historical fact and Inuit mythology to weave a tale of survival, courage, betrayal, and (of course) terror. As if starvation, bitter cold, and disease were not enough for the stranded crews of the ships Erebus and Terror to contend with; they are also stalked by a mysterious creature that lurks out on the ice. Despite the dire circumstances, the crews of both ships show remarkable strength in their battle for survival. They face trials within and without dealing with mutinous and murderous crew members, scurvy, negative degree cold, starvation, and disease. Through all of this turmoil they are constantly hunted by “the thing on the ice”, a cunning creature that they suspect to be supernatural in origin. The characters were very real and well written. I felt attached to all of them-even the villainous ones. The setting was breathtaking and the author does well making you feel that you are in the far north in all of it’s icy beauty. The horror scenes were rewarding. Honestly, I loved the creature as much as the crew. The mayhem it caused was so much gory fun.
Why this book ended up on my favorites shelf is because it has unlocked an obsession in me about The Franklin Expedition. As soon as I finished The Terror I went and compiled a list of all kinds of non fiction books about the real people and the real expedition. I have a lot to read through and am looking forward to it. The Terror delves deep into matters of the spiritual, especially towards the end. It was truly a book that captures the mind. It will live within me forever.
If you find you enjoy the book, it was also made into a TV miniseries that we also have on DVD. It was really well done!
Click HERE to request The Terror
Click HERE to request The Terror DVD miniseries
Mindhunter: Inside the FBI’s Elite Serial Crime Unit by John Douglas and Mark Olshaker
I am a huge true crime fan. I love a good mystery. Perhaps what draws me most to these gruesome tales is the question “why?” Why did this human commit such an atrocious act? What also has fascinated me are those almost mystical psychological profilers, the people the detectives go to when they have hit a wall. Sometimes it sounds like they are pulling things out of their butt like, “your suspect will be in his early 20s. He has brown hair and blue eyes and works as a mechanic. He is getting over a recent breakup. You will find him in a grey t-shirt eating a blueberry pie. He will smell of pineapple.” Ok, maybe I am exaggerating the things they come up with, but that is what it sounds like to me. I am always asking “how could they possibly know that!?” Well, if you are like me and asking those questions then Mindhunter is the book for you!
In Mindhunter, John Douglas takes you through some of his most memorable cases in his time as an FBI Criminal Profiler. He takes you through his process to help better understand what goes on in people’s minds and why they do the things they do. John Douglas is also responsible for developing this branch of the FBI and putting it into practice. It was interesting to see how this science evolved into what is used today. While I was reading this book I started trying to use what he taught to predict what the suspect would be like in the true crime shows I watch. I was correct on the first one! If you like psychology and true crime, I would highly recommend giving Mindhunter a read.
Click HERE to request Mindhunter: Inside the FBI’s Elite Serial Crime Unit!
Cold Eternity by S. A. Barnes
I read a lot of horror novels. Usually I find them good fun and the scary stuff doesn’t really scare me. This one, however, caused me to have to leave the bedroom door open a crack for the course of me reading it. It has been a long time since a horror novel has creeped me out like this one did. That is a good thing! If you also like to be scared, I recommend giving Cold Eternity a try!
Halley is in some big trouble. She has gotten her self in some political hot water and now both sides of the political spectrum of the future are hunting for her. She has no choice but to lay low and hope that everything will blow over. The perfect opportunity comes along when she is offered a job as a security guard on a dilapidated cryo ship. The ship is The Elysian Fields. When humans first started living in space they ran into problems of what to do with the dead. Throwing the bodies into the atmosphere like so much trash posed a hazard. Thus cemetery ships were created. The Elysian Fields was different from these other ships. Instead of being a place of the dead, people (usually the wealthy and famous) were cryogenically frozen in the hope that they could be thawed someday and have their illnesses cured. The cryogenics never worked, but the ship still exists and still needs to be maintained.
Besides Halley, the only other living person is the guy who is constantly busy keeping the ship from falling apart. She never sees him, only talks to him on screen. Soon she starts seeing things on her security monitors. Things that should not be there. Everyone on this ship should be dead, right? There should be no patients roaming the halls. Halley starts to become more on edge when the ship’s very attractive holographic tour guide starts to act off. Could he be malfunctioning? Or is he trying to warn her?
Click HERE to request Cold Eternity!
In the Kingdom of Ice by Hampton Sides
In the course of reading every book on polar exploration that I can get my hands on, I had read many references about The Jeanette. These references were always in the context of “we do not want what happened to The Jeanette to happen to us!” This led me to think, “that must have been pretty bad. Maybe I should find out what happened to The Jeanette.” Hence, I picked up a copy of In the Kingdom of Ice to discover what was so bad about The Jeanette expedition. I understand now.
The Jeanette expedition decided to approach the Northwest Passage problem from a new direction, literally. Scientists in those days (mid-late 1800s) had some misconceptions about what was up with the North Pole. A leading theory was that there was a belt of ice that surrounded an open polar sea. If you could get through that belt of ice, you would be able to sail comfortably over to Asia or Europe. Believing this theory, Captain De Long decided to try taking the back way of the Northwest Passage. He believed that if you sailed around Alaska and got through that ice belt it would be smooth sailing the rest of the way. Following unproven theories led to the tragedy that unfolded.
This story does not have a happy ending, but it is a good read. I greatly enjoyed the crew and was surprised by them. The Jeanette expedition was the first American polar expedition. The crew was made up of a sampling of immigrants from many diverse backgrounds. There were many from different parts of Europe, two Chinese men, and two Native Alaskans. What surprised me was that even with language barriers these men got along so well. I loved reading about the good times they had and how they worked together through hardship. Not everyone made it out, but I was happy that at the end of the book the author included a chapter on where each of the survivors ended up that was quite interesting. If you are down for a good solid real adventure story I recommend checking out In the Kingdom of Ice!
Click HERE to request In the Kingdom of Ice!
Dragonsblood by Todd McCaffrey
I have been reading through The Dragonriders of Pern series for awhile now and feel the need to talk about Dragonsblood. Why do I need to talk about it? This is possibly my favorite book in the series so far. It had everything I wanted: dragons, prophecy, time travel, original colonist characters returning, and so much more.
This is possibly the most tragic book in the series that I have read as of yet. A fatal disease has infected the dragons and has started killing them off in large numbers. The bond between a dragon and its rider is strong. Losing your dragon is like losing a part of yourself, leaving you empty. Dragonsblood follows Kindan the Harper and Lorana, a newly bonded dragonrider as they try to race the clock to find a cure for what is plaguing the dragons. Though Lorana is a new dragonrider, she quickly shows her worth with her prior experience as an animal healer and her ability to communicate with any dragon anywhere at all. This ability does come with a downside, Lorana can also feel the death of each dragon and this takes a great emotional toll on her character.
Kindan and Lorana discover that the secret to curing the plague lies in the past. They must decipher the clues left by the early colonists if there is any hope of saving the dragons and all of Pern. The book swaps back and forth between perspectives of the early colonists who are setting this all up and the people in Pern’s present who are looking for a cure. The stakes are also very high as Thread starts to fall and dragon numbers drop dangerously low, putting the lives of all who live on Pern in danger.
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