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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
Sense of Place Stars: Antarctica & the South Pole
Page Modified: August 19, 2008
Fiction and Nonfiction Titles
Annotations are from Advance, the Ingram Book Magazine, unless noted.
Fiction
- Antarctic Navigation
Author: Arthur, Elizabeth
Publisher: Knopf $ 25 ISBN: 0679418954 Date: 1995
BooklistPW
This story of an expedition to the South Pole, led by a young, ardent, complicated American woman, is a novel whose authenticity, storytelling force, and metaphorical richness immerses readers in the world of Antarctic exploration. It illuminates both the meaning of the century now ending and the power of the human spirit to navigate the new and the unknown.
Updated 11.14.05 - The Birthday Boys
Author: Bainbridge, Beryl
Publisher: Carroll & Graf $ 18.95 ISBN: 0786700718 Date: 1994KirkusPW | ALA Notable
A haunting novel of courage and human endurance, this brilliantly fictionalized account of Captain Scott's doomed expedition to the South Pole is at once hair-raising and beautiful. "A masterly achievement, not to be missed by anyone who cherishes a strong, meaningful story beautifully told".--"Publishers Weekly".
Updated 11.9.05 - Ice Reich
Author: Dietrich, William
Publisher: Warner $ 24.50 ISBN: 0446523399 Date: 1998
A Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist pens an electrifying and absorbing debut thriller pitting an American adventurer against Nazi scientists in the frozen hell of Antarctica.
Updated 11.21.05 - White-Out
Author: Marshall, James Vance
Publisher: Soho $ 23 ISBN: 1569472246 Date: 2000Booklist
The only survivor of a secret World War II British naval mission to Antarctica struggles for life and sanity in this harshest of environments. This is a paean to the natural beauty of Antarctica as well as a memorable story of courage, of the triumph of the human spirit, and of a transcendent love.
Updated 12/15/00 - Antartica
Author: Robinson, Kim Stanley
Publisher: Bantam Doubleday Dell $ 24.95 ISBN: 0553100637 Date: 1998
Kirkus
LJ
PW
BL
Beneath its ice and frozen wastes, Antarctica contains great riches of mineral wealth. Antarctica tells the story of the greedy conflict of nations and political extremists who battle for control of the planet's final frontier.
Suggested Reading: All Stars - Choosers of the Slain by James H. Cobb (1996)
- The Ice Limit by Douglas J. Preston (2000)
- Icefire by Judith Reeves-Stevens (1998)
- Ice Station by Matthew Reilly (1999)
- Subterranean by James Rollins ( 1999)
- Tempest Down by Jeff Rovin (2004)
Action & Adventure, Suspense & Thrillers:
Nonfiction
- The Crystal Desert: Summers in Antarctica
Author: Campbell, David G.
Publisher: Houghton $ 21.95 ISBN: 039558969x Date: 1992BooklistPW
The Crystal Desert is not only one of the most eloquent books ever written about Antarctica, but one of the best portraits of a place ever published. It is a story of life's tenacity in the coldest and most alien of continents--a chronicle of events during the desperately short summer when the sun sets only briefly.
Updated 11.14.05 - Water, Ice & Stone: Science and Memory on the Antarctic Lakes
Author: Green, Bill
Publisher: Harmony $ 23 ISBN: 0517587599 Date: 1995Booklist
Part history, partly a record of self-discovery, and suffused throughout with a radiant sense of the hidden, inexhaustible beauty of the world, this lyrical book gives Bill Green's personal account of the time he spent alone and in the company of other scientists, probing the waters of the lakes of the Antarctic's dry valleys.
Updated 11.14.05 - A First Rate Tragedy: Robert Falcon Scott and the Race to the South Pole
Author: Preston, Diana
Publisher: Houghton $ 25 ISBN: 0395933498 Date: 1998PW
A vivid account of one of the century's great misadventures--Robert Falcon Scott's doomed British expedition to Antarctica of 1910.
Updated 11.21.05 - Terra Incognita: Travels in Antarctica
Author: Wheeler, Sara
Publisher: Random $ 25 ISBN: 067944078x Date: 1998PW
In a beguiling tale of polar adventure, readers gain a "visceral understanding of the mysterious power the poles have exerted in the human imagination, and the desolate beauty that resides there amid the glaciers and the icebergs and penguins" ("The New York Times").
Updated 11.21.05
For Younger Readers
- Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World: Shackleton's Amazing Voyage
Author: Armstrong, Jennifer
Publisher: Crown $ 18 ISBN: 0517800136 Date: 1998
Bulletin Horn Book Kirkus PW PW | BBYA | ALA Notable | VOYA NF Notable
Armstrong vividly recreates an extraordinary story of adventure and survival: The early 20th-century expedition of Ernest Shackleton and the crew of the "Endurance", who attempted to be the first to cross the Antarctic continent from one side to the other. Archival photos.
Grades: 5-8 Category: Nonfiction - Black Whitenss: Admiral Byrd Alone in the Antarctic
Author: Burleigh, Robert
Publisher: Atheneum $ 17.95 ISBN: 068981299x Date: 1998
Booklist Bulletin Kirkus PW
In 1934, Admiral Richard Byrd spent a season by himself in a small cabin in Antarctica, recording the weather and confronting life, completely alone, in harsh conditions. Robert Burleigh's text is supplemented with excerpts from Admiral Byrd's firsthand account of how he survived, and dramatic illustrations capture the courage of Byrd's amazing ordeal.
Grades: 2-7 Category: Nonfiction - Troubling a Star
Author: L'Engle, Madeleine
Publisher: FSG $ 19 ISBN: 0374377839 Date: 1994
PW
As she tries to stay alive after being left on an iceberg in the Antarctic, sixteen-year-old Vicky recalls the series of events that brought her to the bottom of the world and involved her in a dangerous mystery.
Grades: 4-7 Category: Fiction - The Race to the South Pole
Author: Matthews, Rupert
Publisher: Bookwright $ 17 ISBN: 0531182738 Date: 1989
SLJ
Grades: 4-6 Category: History - Braving the Frozen Frontier: Women Working in Antarctica
Author: Johnson, Rebecca L.
Publisher: Lerner $ 23.93 ISBN: 082252855x Date: 1996
Bulletin SLJ
Describes the day-to-day experiences of several women who work as scientists, helicopter pilots, snowplow drivers, and doctors in Antarctica.
Grades: 4-7 Category: Nonfiction
Hotlists
African American Fiction | Christian Fiction
2008 Excel Files: (download - print, sort, etc.)
Crime Fiction | Fiction | African American Fiction | Christian Fiction | Nonfiction Notables
Stars
Fiction: Jan-June | July-Dec Crime Fiction: Jan-June | July-Dec
Speculative Fiction Romance Historical Nonfiction | YA
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