5 Polar Book Pairings [Nonfiction November]

Week 1 (My Year in Nonfiction) | Week 2 (Book Pairings) | Week 3 (Stranger than Fiction)

This week, pair up a nonfiction book with a fiction title (or another nonfiction!). It can be a “If you loved this book, read this!” or just two titles that you think would go well together. Maybe it’s a historical novel and you’d like to get the real history by reading a nonfiction version of the story. Or pair a book with a podcast, film or documentary, TV show, etc. on the same topic or stories that pair together.
Link up at What’s Nonfiction.

For this week’s topic, I’m taking a polar approach. (It was going to be an Arctic approach, which is primarily where my interest lies, but then I decided to add one Antarctic pairing.) Indulge me for a moment so I can use all the relevant cold emojis. 🌨️🌬️🧊🐻‍❄️🥶

The Karluk Disaster

One of my niche interests when it comes to Arctic exploration is the Karluk disaster. In 1913, the Karluk became trapped in ice for over five months before finally sinking. Expedition members then spent months on a bleak rocky island before finally being rescued. I previously wrote about the six Karluk books I have in my Arctic collection.

For today’s pairing, I’ve selected two nonfiction titles: Jennifer Niven’s The Ice Master and Robert A. Bartlett’s The Karluk’s Last Voyage. Niven’s book offers the most comprehensive look at the Karluk‘s final expedition to date, a valuabe read even if it may stretch artistic license at times. We shall see how the forthcoming Empire of Ice and Stone holds up to it! In contrast, Bartlett’s book offers a first hand account of his experience as captain of the Karluk, including what happened after he departed to seek help.

The Northwest Passage

The search for the Northwest Passage and the lost Franklin expedition loomed large throughout my childhood, as we often learnt about it in school. It’s a fascinating bit of Arctic exploratory history. Here I’ve paired Ken McGoogan’s comprehensive work of non-fiction, Dead Reckoning: The Untold Story of the Northwest Passage, with Ed O’Loughlin’s epic work of fiction, Minds of Winter. Dead Reckoning offers a through and in-depth look at the history of Northwest Passage exploration. Minds of Winter threads a modern storyline that begins in Inuvik, with chapters set throughout history and about different real-life figures, all of which come together in an epilogue.

Arctic Men

The nonfiction title in this pairing, Icemen by Mick Conefrey and Tim Jordan, was a lucky find while library browsing. Icemen gives you ten snapshots of a paritcular explorer or historical moment throughout Arctic history, such as the Arctic balloon expedition of 1897. Ian McGuire’s The North Water is a vicious tale – the most graphic I have ever written, in terms of violence, sex, and language. But if you can make it through the first chapter, then you might enjoy this well-crafted Arctic survival story.

Arctic Women

Now we get to the pairings that include books on my TBR. My mom and I read the nonfiction title Ada Blackjack: A True Story of Survival in the Arctic by Jennifer Niven for Family Reads a few years back. There’s a bit too much in there about the men who were with Ada during their attempt to colonize Wrangel Island, but Ada’s story is worth a read. Greer MacAllister’s novel The Arctic Fury, about an expedition of women who search for the lost Franklin expedition, is on my TBR.

Antarctic

My polar interest predominantly lies in the Arctic, but I do have a handful of Antarctic books on my TBR. So here is a pairing for that: the classic work of nonfiction, Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage by Alfred Landsing and a much newer fiction title, All the White Spaces by Ally Wilkes. All the White Spaces features a trans man stowing away on an Antarctic expedition after WWI, and has a horror survival plot. 👀

Share your #NonFicNov posts for this week in the comments, or recommend me a pairing of media.