Hot Hot Hot Hot HOT weather recommendations

[Karen from AustCrime]

It's currently 40+ degrees Celsius and it has been for days - and it looks like it will be for days more to come. It's also blowing a gale, year 8 of the drought and it's fire danger weather.

So I need distracting.

What books would you recommend that would make a reader feel like they are deep in snow / ice / and water :)

[D.R. MacMaster]

Where are you right now, Hell?

Sheesh, I'm up to my neck in snow.

And I suggest Ice Station Zebra by Alistair MacLean. Because it's obvious. ;)

[Karen from AustCrime]

We sometimes call it hell - but most people would check the map for Western Victoria, Australia :)

[D.R. MacMaster]

I forgot that you Down Under types have your seasons all backwards. You really should try to fix that. It's very confusing. And while you're at it, tell those damn kangaroos to stop hopping everywhere and learn to walk like regular animals, they look silly. :p

As for reading suggestions...

Perhaps try some non-fiction about the Battle of the Bulge, lots of frost-bite stories in that one.

Or Solzenityn's Gulag Archipelago. That's got a lot of winter in it.

In fiction, Stephen King's The Shining, that's snowbound.

Mordecai Richler's Solomon Gursky Was Here. Has lots of stuff about the Franklin expedition that'll chill your bones, and make you check your canned food for lead solder.

Or I could just tell you the story of how on January 2nd, I had to dig through a 5 foot hall wall of ice and snow left in my driveway by the snowplough. Or the recent -20 Celsius temps we've been having, or spending New Year's day in a blackout, because of a record storm that caused the 5 foot high snow wall, or seeing my entire street covered with a half-inch of slippery ice.

Canada, we're more than just snow, but you can't see it because of the snow.

;)

[Daniel Hatadi]

I've heard good things about Dan Simmon's THE TERROR. But it's too big for me to read. My eyes just glacier over after 300 pages.

[Karen from AustCrime]

Groan

[Karyn J. Powers]

Nevada Barr WINTER STUDY, Steve Hamilton ICE RUN, Dana Stabenow (Any and all as they take place in Alaska), Sue Henry (same as Stabenow). We just came off two weeks with below zero F temps in Wisconsin. Share some of that sun, please!

[Karen from AustCrime]

Hmmm - not a single one of these authors on MtTBR - isn't it frustrating. You think you read a lot and yet you never ever ever seem to catch up!

[Teddyree]

My recommendation is Ice Station by Matthew Reilly. It's pretty hot here in BrisVegas too and really, really muggy. Around 35, give or take a few degrees but the winds are coming straight from the oven...UGH
If you can't beat em join em - read something to really raise your temperature and turn up the aircon or sit in the pool. None of the above then buy a kiddie pool and fill it & top it up with a couple of bags of party ice LOL (poor mans substitute for swimming pool & aircon)

[Karen from AustCrime]

I think I'd kill for muggy - it's dry as dry here and there are massive dust storms everywhere :)

There's some water left in the dam, although I'd have to share that with the yabbies. Party ice would melt long before I drove home from the closest place that sells it (about 35 mins one way away - supposing the road is open from these fierce winds, or you can get above 40ks in the dust :) :) )

But Ice Station is here somewhere - I shall go excavating in boxes in the shed! Thank you for the suggestion, I'd forgotten I'd not read it yet.

[K Barrett]

If youy're still here try Forty Words for Sorrow by Giles Blunt . Takes place in Canada. Body found in an ice cave. You'll be stomping your feet to get the heat back into them.

[Karen from AustCrime]

I've read one of Giles Blunt's books - but it's not that one, that's an excellent suggestion - thanks.

(I think I'm slightly contrary but at the moment Martin Baker's Meltdown is really really appealing :) )

[Eoin Hennigan]

Karen is horrible in Sydney too, way too humid. i'd take dry heat any day.
right now I'm tucking into ice cream, failing that I'd recommend Scott Phillips' The Ice Harvest