Ok, I’ll admit it—just looking at the covers of these “icy” audiobooks is helping me cool off! Even if air conditioning is keeping you cool, we all have to venture out into the recent hot weather. Here’s a bit of audiobook listening to beat the heat.
Anna Kavan’s ICE features an ice apocalypse and plummeting temperatures—a good start to cool me down. But before you grab it, it’s worth looking into this 1967 science fiction/fantasy/dystopian classic. Jonathan Lethem wrote recently about the work in The New York Times. In this new audio release, Nigel Patterson engages with a passionate performance. ELEMENTALS: ICE WOLVES is a fantasy for the younger set—good for middle grade listeners and family listening.
These three thrillers each seem to have a cool heart. BEYOND THE ICE LIMIT is one of the Gideon Crew adventures from authors Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. And if you’d like a twist on Sherlock Holmes, Larry Millett’s SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE ICE PALACE MURDERS takes Holmes and Watson to Minnesota. And Swedish author Camilla Grebe gives listeners a chilly psychological thriller that features an ensemble of three narrators;
THE ICE BENEATH HER is read by John Lee, Katherine McEwan, and Justine Eyre.
If nonfiction cold is what you need, here are three explorations of the Arctic. You do have to love the title of Blair Braverman’s memoir, WELCOME TO THE GODDAMN ICE CUBE. Hampton Sides’s excellent IN THE KINGDOM OF ICE is narrated by Arthur Morey, who always makes nonfiction great listening. The newest release here is historian and Pulitzer Prize winner Edward J. Larson’s TO THE EDGES OF THE EARTH, about polar explorations.
There’s surely more heat ahead through the summer months, but some of this listening helps me at least think I can beat the heat!
