Three books about winter

Some people like to read books appropriate to the seasons (summer books in summer, and so forth). I prefer the opposite. In the dead of winter I like to read books about sun-baked deserts, and on a sweltering day I like to bury myself in a book about freezing temperatures.

1. Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage
Alfred Lansing
Like many people, I have nurtured a lifelong fascination for Antarctica. Endurance is one of the earliest books written about Shackleton's ill-fated (yet amazingly casualty-free) journey. Shackleton and his 28-man crew were stranded on Antarctica for nearly two years after their ship was caught and eventually crushed by ice in the Weddell Sea. This incredible tale of courage and leadership is as unforgettable as it is unmatched.

2. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
C. S. Lewis
"Always winter and never Christmas," that's the forlorn state of Narnia when the Pevensie children first encounter it. Travel with the Pevensies as they discover a lamp post in a mysterious snowy woodland grove, and travel across the land in the struggle to defeat the Snow Queen.

When I was a kid I read my Narnia books half to death. Although now I cringe at the clunky Christian imagery and mythology, but Lewis' world-building is legendary, and for good reason.

3. Smilla's Sense of Snow
Peter Hoeg
This thriller is rare in that it features a strong female protagonist who is also an expert in a STEM career. The eponymous Smilla is a Greenlander and glaciologist living in Copenhagen. When a neighbor boy ostensibly falls from the roof of a nearby home, Smilla's "sense of snow" clues her in to the fact that he was not the only person on the roof that night.

Not gonna lie; the book takes a pretty weird turn at the end. It's gripping fun, though, and set entirely in the Nordic land of winter.

(It's hard to believe this book turned 20 last year. Dang, I am getting old.)