Have you Heard? Winter Wastelands and Wonderlands

Get in the winter weather spirit with these novels and nonfiction accounts of chilly locales and frozen tundras.

Read more: Have you Heard? Winter Wastelands and Wonderlands

Below you’ll find audiobook recommendations from the Plano Public Library. This is just a sample of the audiobooks in our collection, and you can visit a library location for assistance in finding personalized recommendations.

Adult:

Labyrinth of Ice: The Triumphant and Tragic Greely Polar Expedition by Buddy Levy, read by Will Damron. In July 1881, Lt. A.W. Greely and his crew of 24 scientists and explorers were bound for the last region unmarked on global maps. Their goal: Farthest North. What would follow was one of the most extraordinary and terrible voyages ever made. Print / Playaway / eBook.

In the Kingdom of Ice: The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeannette by Hampton Sides, read by Arthur Morey. A dramatic account of the ill-fated 19th-century naval expedition to the North Pole cites the contributions of German cartographer August Petermann, New York Herald owner James Gordon Bennett and famed naval officer George Washington De Long in the team’s efforts to survive brutal environmental conditions. Print / Playaway / Book on CD / eAudiobook / eBook / Large print.

Ice Ghosts: The Epic Hunt for the Lost Franklin Expedition by Paul Watson, read by Malcolm Hillgartner. The epic story of the Lost Franklin Expedition of 1845, whose two ships and crew of 129 were lost to the Arctic ice, with the modern tale of the scientists, divers, and local Inuit behind the incredible discovery of the flagship’s wreck in 2014. Print / Book on CD.

The White Darkness by David Grann, read by Will Patton. Henry Worsley was a British special forces officer obsessed with polar explorer Ernest Shackleton. So at age fifty-five, Worsley bid farewell to his family and tried to walk across Antarctica alone. Print / Book on CD / eAudiobook / eBook.

Burial Rites by Hannah Kent, narrated by Morven Christie. Set against Iceland’s stark landscape, Hannah Kent brings to vivid life the story of Agnes Magnúsdóttir, a servant in northern Iceland who was condemned to death after the murder of two men, one of whom was her employer, and became the last woman put to death in Iceland. Print / Playaway / eBook.

One by One by Ruth Ware, narrated by Imogen Church. When an off-site company retreat meant to promote mindfulness and collaboration goes utterly wrong when an avalanche hits, the corporate food chain becomes irrelevant and survival trumps togetherness. Come Monday morning, how many members short will the team be? Print / Playaway / eAudiobook / eBook / Large print.

Blood on Snow by Jo Nesbø, narrated by Patti Smith, translated from the Norwegian by Neil Smith. Gifted with an unexpected capacity for love, as well as a talent for murder, Olav, a “fixer” who works for Oslo’s crime kingpin, discovers that his boss might want him “fixed” due to the fact that he knows too much about his business–and has fallen in love with his wife. Print / Book on CD / eAudiobook / eBook.

White Plague by James Abel, narrated by Ray Porter. In the frozen waters of the Arctic, Marine bioterror expert Joe Rush races to save a submarine crew from a lethal threat. Print / eAudiobook / eBook / Large print.

Frozen in Time: an epic Story of Survival and a Modern Quest for lost Heroes of World War II by Mitchell Zuckoff, read by the author. On November 5, 1942, a US cargo plane slammed into the Greenland Ice Cap. Four days later, the B-17 assigned to the search-and-rescue mission became lost in a blinding storm and also crashed. Frozen in Time tells the story of these crashes and the fate of the survivors, bringing vividly to life their battle to endure 148 days of the brutal Arctic winter, until an expedition headed by famed Arctic explorer Bernt Balchen brought them to safety. Print / eAudiobook / eBook.

Giants of the Frost by Kim Wilkins, narrated by Edwina Wren. Taking a job on an isolated island in the Sea of Norway, scientist Victoria Scott wants a quiet place to finish her doctoral thesis. But Victoria isn’t prepared for the strange shadows outside her cabin window, the rumors of a murderous hag who sucks one’s soul during sleep, and the tales of mythic monsters lurking in the forest. Book on CD.

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Teen:

The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman, narrated by the author and a full cast. Accompanied by her daemon, Lyra Belacqua sets out to prevent her best friend and other kidnapped children from becoming the subject of gruesome experiments in the Far North. Print / Playaway / Book on CD / eAudiobook / eBook / Graphic novel / DVD.

The Call of the Wild by Jack London. The adventures of an unusual dog, part St. Bernard, part Scotch shepherd, that is forcibly taken to the Klondike gold fields where he eventually becomes the leader of a wolf pack. Print / Book on CD / Book on CD (Spanish) / Spanish / eBook / eBook (Chinese).

First Light by Rebecca Stead, narrated by David Ackroyd and Coleen Marlo. When twelve-year-old Peter and his family arrive in Greenland for his father’s research, he stumbles upon a secret his mother has been hiding from him all his life and begins an adventure he never imagines possible. Print / Book on CD / eAudiobook.  

Sun and moon, ice and Snow by Jessica Day George, narrated by Jessica Roland. Based on a Norwegian fairy tale and set in a land of eternal winter, a girl travels east of the sun and west of the moon to free her beloved prince from a magic spell. Print / Book on CD / eBook.

Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys, narrated by Emily Klein. In 1941, fifteen-year-old Lina, her mother, and her brother are pulled from their Lithuanian home by Soviet guards and sent to Siberia, where her father is sentenced to death in a prison camp while she fights for her life, vowing to honor her family and the thousands like hers by burying her story in a jar on Lithuanian soil. Print / eAudiobook / eBook / Large print / DVD.

The Smell of Other People’s Houses by Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock, narrated by Jorjeana Marie, Erin Tripp, Karissa Vacker, and Robbie Daymond. Growing up in Alaska in the 1970s isn’t like growing up anywhere else: Don’t think life is going to be easy. Know your place. And never talk about yourself. Four vivid voices tell intertwining stories of hardship, tragedy, wild luck, and salvation. Print / Book on CD / eAudiobook / eBook.

The Winter of Red Snow: the Revolutionary War Diary of Abigail Jane Stewart by Kristiana Gregory, narrated by Barbara Rosenblat and Jennifer Ikeda. Eleven-year-old Abigail presents a diary account of life in Valley Forge from December 1777 to July 1778 as General Washington prepares his troops to fight the British. Print / Playaway.

Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World: the Extraordinary True Story of Shackleton and the Endurance by Jennifer Armstrong, read by Taylor Mali. Describes the events of the 1914 Shackleton Antarctic expedition when, after being trapped in a frozen sea for nine months, their ship, Endurance, was finally crushed, forcing Shackleton and his men to make a very long and perilous journey across ice and stormy seas to reach inhabited land. Print / Book on CD.

What Beauty There Is by Cory Anderson, narrated by Dan Bittner and Emma Galvin. In the freezing Idaho winter, Ava Bardem lives in isolation, a life of silence. For seventeen years, Ava’s father, a merciless man, has controlled her fate. Living in poverty, Jack Dahl faces a stark choice: lose his brother to foster care or find the drug money that sent his father to prison. Jack’s and Ava’s fates become intimately—and dangerously—linked as Ava’s father hunts for the same money as Jack. When he picks up on Jack’s trail, Ava must make her own wrenching choice: remain silent or speak and fight for Jack’s survival. Print / eAudiobook / eBook.

Cold by Mariko Tamaki, narrated by Katherine Chin and Raymond J. Lee. Todd Mayer is dead. Now he’s some sort of ghost, hovering over his body, which has just been found in the town park, naked and frozen in the snow. As detectives investigate Todd’s homicide, talking to the very people who are responsible for how he died, Todd replays the events that led him to his end in the park. Georgia didn’t know Todd. But she can’t stop thinking about him. Maybe it’s because they’re both outcasts at their school, or because they’re both queer. It might also be because Georgia has a feeling she’s seen Todd somewhere before, somewhere he wasn’t supposed to be. Print / eAudiobook.

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Children’s:

The Very, Very far North by Dan Bar-el, narrated by Tim Campbell. As Duane, a polar bear, explores his new home he makes friends with the wide variety of creatures he encounters, despite their varied personalities. Print / Playaway.

The Popper Penguin Rescue by Eliot Schrefer, narrated by Dan Bittner. Long after Mr. Popper found his famous penguins a proper home, his distant relatives, Nina and Joel, move to a new house with their mother and find mysterious eggs in the basement. Print / Playaway.

Polar Bears Past Bedtime written and narrated by Mary Pope Osborne. Their magic tree house takes Jack and Annie to the Arctic, where a polar bear leads them onto very thin ice. Print / Playaway / eAudiobook / eBook / Spanish / Nonfiction companion.

Ice Whale by Jean Craighead George, narrated by Christina Moore. In 1848, ten-year-old Toozak, a Yupik Eskimo, sees a whale being born and is told by a shaman that he and his descendants must protect that whale, which Toozak names Siku, as long as it lives. Print / Playaway.

Odd and the Frost Giants, written and narrated by Neil Gaiman. In this wintry tale, an unlucky twelve-year-old Norwegian boy named Odd leads the Norse gods Loki, Thor, and Odin in an attempt to outwit evil Frost Giants who have taken over Asgard. Print / eAudiobook / eBook.

The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen. After the Snow Queen abducts her friend Kai, Gerda sets out on a perilous journey to find him. Print / Playaway / Book on CD / eBook (Russian).

Neversink by Wolverton, narrated by Emrhys Cooper. When owls threaten the puffins’ way of life on the small island of Neversink along the Arctic Circle, Lockley J. Puffin, helped by a hummingbird and a walrus, set out to save it. Print / eAudiobook / eBook.

The Quest of the Cubs by Kathryn Lasky, narrated by Fiona Hardingham. It is a time of trouble in the Northern Kingdoms because a group of power-hungry polar bears called Roguers has been snatching cubs from their mothers and killing those who resist; but Svenna is not about to relinquish her two cubs to that fate, so she agrees to go with the Roguers and serve Mystress of the Hands if her cubs, who have special powers, are allowed to stay with her cousin–but nobody is truly safe when a way of life is collapsing around them. Print / Playaway / eAudiobook.

Sweet home Alaska by Carole estby Dagg, narrated by Susan Denaker. In 1934, eleven-year-old Terpsichore’s father signs up for President Roosevelt’s Palmer Colony project, uprooting the family from Wisconsin to become pioneers in Alaska, where Terpsichore refuses to let rough conditions and first impressions get in the way of her grand adventure. Print / Book on CD / eAudiobook.

The sea in Winter by Christine Day, narrated by Kimberly Woods. After an injury sidelines her dreams of becoming a ballet star, Maisie is not excited for her blended family’s midwinter road trip along the coast, near the Makah community where her mother grew up. Print / Playaway.