Through the pages of carefully selected books, you can be transported to Antarctica from the comfort of your couch, bed – or even the bath!
This month, we’re challenging our Antarctic Ambassadors to pick-up a page-turning book about the frozen continent – and we’ve compiled a reading list to help you pick the perfect one.
From adventure, historic fiction, memoir and a particularly famous cat, our 10 Polar Reads for Antarctic Enthusiasts is bound to have something to satisfy your travel bug.
1) The Last Cold Place: A Field Season Studying Penguins in Antarctica | Naira de Gracia
Have you ever wondered what it was like to live in Antarctica and study penguins? Follow along on the author’s journey studying a chinstrap penguin colony from parents building their rocky nests to chicks fledging and venturing out to sea. You may also learn a thing or two about the history of Antarctic exploration, climate science, and the author’s personal growth from living in the most remote part of the planet.
2) The Stowaway: A Young Man’s Extraordinary Adventure to Antarctica | Laurie Gwen Shapiro
Discover the remarkable true story of Billy Gawronski, a first-generation Polish teenager living in New York City, that took a leap of faith into the Hudson River and snuck onto an Antarctic expedition. Did Billy make it to Antarctica, or was he found out before he had the chance to see the frozen continent?
3) The Ship Beneath the Ice: The Discovery of Shackleton’s Endurance | Mensun Bound
Ernest Shackleton’s Endurance expedition is one of the most famous in the history of the continent. While he planned to cross Antarctica from a base in the Weddell Sea to the McMurdo Sound via the South Pole, these best laid plans went awry and the Endurance sank thousands of feet below the ocean’s surface. A century after the Endurance sank, marine archaeologist Mensun Bound began his search to find the remnants of the wreckage. This is Bound’s story.
4) South Pole Station | Ashley Shelby
Did you know that Antarctica is not just for scientists? The National Science Foundation (United States) also sends artists and writers to the icy continent to create works that share the wonder of Antarctica! This novel follows Cooper Gosling on her one-year assignment with the Antarctic Artists and Writers program as she forms relationships with an unusual group of polar scientists – or Polies – as she calls them.
5) Madhouse at the End of the Earth | Julian Sancton
This thrilling non-fiction work describes the Belgian Antarctic expedition (1897-1899) commanded by Adrien de Gerlache. With hopes to be the first to reach the magnetic South Pole, de Gerlache’s plans quickly went astray as austral winter began. When faced with the choice between turning back in defeat and pushing further into freezing waters, he chose to keep moving forward, ultimately trapping his crew in the darkness of polar night. What happens to the crew of the Belgica under the cover of darkness?
6) My Penguin Year: Life Among the Emperors | Lindsay McCrae
Lindsay McCrae is an award-winning cinematographer that spent 11 months in Antarctica recording the life cycle of an enormous (11,000-individual) emperor penguin colony. This memoir gives readers a glimpse into both the penguin and human experience of surviving winter in the harshest parts of the planet.
7) The White Darkness | David Grann
Henry Worsley was a British special forces officer that spent his entire life obsessed with Ernest Shackleton. He was even related to Frank Worsley, a crew member of Shackleton’s famed expeditions! These connections compelled Worsley to travel to Antarctica and succeed where his ancestor and his idol had failed, but did he?
Growing up in a Mormon family in rural Ohio, Andrew Evans always felt like the black sheep. He was bullied for being awkward, struggled with his sexuality, and was eventually shunned from his religious community, including his own family. After being ostracised from the only community he’d ever known, Evans decides to escape to those places he had only seen in the pages of National Geographic magazines as a kid. Follow his journey, primarily riding public transportation, to reach Antarctica.
– Save the date: Polar Pride Day on November 18th celebrates LGBTQ+ folks in Polar STEM.
9) Mrs. Chippy’s Last Expedition | Caroline Alexander
From the diary of Frank Worsley, Captain of Shackleton’s Endurance, this book catalogues the fateful expedition from the viewpoint of Mrs. Chippy, the ship’s cat. A wonderfully different viewpoint of this well-known expedition and well worth a read.
10) Antarctica’s Lost Aviator: The Epic Adventure to Explore the Last Frontier on Earth | Jeff Maynard
As of the 1930s, nobody had crossed Antarctica and seen its mysterious frozen interior. With significant financial freedom and no expedition experience, Lincoln Ellsworth announced that he would be the first to fly across Antarctica. Ellsworth hired Australian explorer Sir Hubert Wilkins to make his dreams come true, but ultimately even with Wilkins’ experience this dream was doomed. After a series of setbacks, including crew mutinies and repeatedly getting stuck in the ice, Ellsworth finally flew over Antarctica, but did he make it to the other side?
Have you read any of these books or do you have any of your own recommendations? Let us know on Instagram or Facebook! And don’t forget to download your Ambassadorship Challenge card here to find more tasks!
Happy reading!
**This list is based on internet rankings and reviews and not formally endorsed by Antarctic Ambassadors.