Cold: Adventures in the World's Frozen Places

by Bill Streever

From avalanches to glaciers, from seals to snowflakes, and from Shackleton's expedition to "The Year Without Summer," Bill Streever journeys through history, myth, geography, and ecology in a year-long search for cold--real, icy, 40-below cold. In July he finds it while taking a dip in a 35-degree Arctic swimming hole; in September while excavating our planet's ancient and not so ancient ice ages; and in October while exploring hibernation habits in animals, from humans to wood frogs to bears.

A scientist whose passion for cold runs red hot, Streever is a wondrous guide: he conjures woolly mammoth carcasses and the ice-age Clovis tribe from melting glaciers, and he evokes blizzards so wild readers may freeze--limb by vicarious limb.

Genres: Nonfiction, Science, Travel, History, Nature, Adventure, Environment

304 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Late March in England: it definitely still counts as cold. Most years I don’t dare change over the winter clothes for summer ones until later in April, or even May. This interdisciplinary book was a perfect seasonal read, and would be a good companion piece to Winter World by Bernd Heinrich or The Water Book by Alok Jha. In 12 chapters spanning one year, Streever covers every topic related to the cold that you could imagine: polar exploration, temperature scales, extreme weather events (especially the School Children’s Blizzard of 1888 and the “Year Without Summer,” 1815), ice ages, cryogenics technology, and on and on. My favorite chapters were February and March, about the development of refrigeration and air conditioning and cold-weather apparel, respectively.

There’s also a travel element, with Streever regularly recording where he is and what the temperature is. Anchorage, Alaska is his home turf – a perfect place for thinking about the cold and how humans and other species prepare for it – but he also checks in from California, England and the Philippines. Although there is an environmentalist undercurrent, he doesn’t harp on about climate change; in fact, he pretty much only mentions it in the final chapter.

I learned plenty of great trivia: the whippoorwill is the only American bird that hibernates; Quebec postal workers grow more cold tolerant as winters progress (with lower heart rate and blood pressure); the otter has the most hair per square inch of any animal; the signs of hypothermia are “umbles”: mumbling, grumbling, stumbling and tumbling; and it was the late 1930s when science first noticed world temperatures had risen over the previous century.

Streever has a new book about wind coming out in July that I look forward to reading.

Favorite line: “Cold is a part of day-to-day life, but we often isolate ourselves from it, hiding in overheated houses and retreating to overheated climates, all without understanding what we so eagerly avoid.”

[Namrirru · Rating 1 out of 5]

Got incredibly annoyed with the arrogant, cavalier, condescending tone of the author. It got more and more grating until this passage which is when I stopped reading and seriously felt like burning the book:

Talking about Raynaud's disease of a "companion," "The disease is more of an annoyance than a serious threat. When I say this, I mean an annoyance for her. For me it is a curiosity. As we move down the mountain, I entertain myself by stopping intermittently to observe her recovery. At one point, her fingers are striped with mauve and pale yellow bands. Sadly, I am not carrying a camera. It occurs to me that Raynaud's would be deadly if it prevented someone from striking a match to start a fire or tying a bootlace or cinching down the harness on a dogsled..."

"My companion, her hands still numb from the Raynaud's is afraid of falling, rightfully scared because her numb hands will be little help in breaking the fall. I scurry ahead. Below the scree, I find a hollow of deflated soil that shaves a notch off the wind and nap while waiting for her to catch up."

What?!? A normal person, male or female, would have helped the person down the mountain to make sure she wouldn't fall. A normal person isn't "entertained" by other people's struggles. This guy's a total sociopath.

[Joy D · Rating 5 out of 5]

A combination of memoir, travelogue, science, and history, this book examines just about every aspect of the cold. It is organized by month and covers the course of a year. The author had traveled to northern Alaska, and in each monthly chapter he provides an update on his journey. These updates are interspersed with specific cold-related topics, such as its effects on human and animal physiology, how species have adapted to living in the extreme cold, specific expeditions in the Arctic and Antarctic, and the impact of global climate change.

Streever’s writing style is lively and engaging. He explains complex scientific concepts in terms easily understood by a non-scientist. I particularly appreciated the author’s accounts of wildlife that have adapted to survive in the cold, including hibernation, insulation, migration, heat exchange, freeze tolerance, and more. All are described in fascinating detail. I do not think I have read another book that mentions as many animals as this one!

The author combines scientific explanations with vivid storytelling, creating a balance between informative content and fascinating narratives. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in the natural world and the capacity to endure and thrive in extreme cold. Recommended to science enthusiasts, cold climate adventurers, and fans of captivating non-fiction. It sheds light on the beauty and complexity of the world's coldest places. I loved it.

[Becky · Rating 5 out of 5]

What can I say about Cold?

I bought it on a whim. The snow was coming (this was back in November) and I wanted something seasonal to read. It heralded my return to chilly Nebraska from the warm South.

It was everything that I wanted Mary Roach’s books to be but felt they weren’t, which is to say more science, less forced humor, more cohesive.

Occasionally in my status updates I complained about the authors interjections. In the beginning there were times that I felt that they detracted from the story. They seemed detached and out of place. They weren’t adding anything. By the end, though, it seemed Streever had worked out a good formula. They were strengthening the book, no longer convoluting it, and at times they even leant poignancy to the message.

It was a fascinating book and wonderfully arrayed. It’s an in-depth overview of literally EVERYTHING cold: lessons on how animals have adapted to arctic environments, the problems Alaskans face when building homes, the history of the refrigerator, the Ice Trade that crossed the Atlantic, the desperate push to be the first to the North/South pole, and the quest for Absolute Zero. I learned more about permafrost, ice, glaciers, and the Pleistocene that I would have thought possible in what I consider to be a medium sized book. In fact, I wish there was more, and I do have to thank Streever for the absolutely wonderful suggested reading section in the back. It was an excellent presentation of science to the public.

I don’t think that I will ever feel cold the same way again.

[Alex]

Kerry and I were walking outside (roughly 30° F) and I started telling her how this made me appreciate just how much colder it could be and she said “if you tell me that it’s not cold outside right now I’ll kill you.” So there you have it. Learned how certain animals supercool their blood and survive freezing (crazy), and came away with a new appreciation for how weather works and how ice has shaped the earth. Alaska sure sounds nice.

A note on the writing. Mr. Steever had the arrogant and supremely annoying habit of describing basically every animal in this book as some form of “stupid”. This muskox that can thermoregulate different parts of its body and has evolved social behavior to conserve herd energy? Looks dumb doing it. How about this wood frog that can survive being frozen solid for months? Idiot.

Steever also includes passages that just make him seem like an asshole. He describes skiing with a friend with Raynaud’s who loses function in her hands and fears falling, and then he zooms on down the hill to take a nap and wait for her to catch up. What?

I grew tired of Steever’s repeated lambasting of Mr. Greely’s underestimation of the Schoolhouse blizzard - I understand that it was a huge disaster, but given that forecasting even today is far from perfect, maybe give it a rest? Alas.

[Diana · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read Bill Streever’s book “In Oceans Deep” last year. It had similarly low ratings on Goodreads, but was a 5 star book for me. I decided to check this one out as a result, and was left wholly disappointed. It isn’t even really about the cold. He could’ve written a fascinating novel with a topic like this, but instead he churned out a completely snooze-worthy book.

[Emily · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not having very good luck with NYT Notable Books this year; I found Cold just barely engaging enough to finish. On the plus side, it has occasional interesting facts about animals that actually freeze during the winter (not just hibernate) and about the effects of extreme cold on human physiology and behavior.

In the debit column, however, I must say that it is fuzzy and repetitive. Certain events, like an early attempt to air-condition Westminster for James II, are referenced again and again in an attempt either to tie everything together for the lazy reader or to make the book longer. At other times, the author will say something vague like "It is said that a quarter of a million German soldiers died of frostbite and hypothermia" in regard to events that are probably well-documented enough to permit a more solid statement. The author repeatedly describes his own experiences--say, climbing a small peak in Scotland--but avoids saying anything concrete about himself, his life, his companions, or what caused him to travel to the location in question. The effect, to me, was like reading about paper dolls. He tries to structure the book around his experiences in the months of the year, but the result is more or less stream-of-consciousness.

This might be worth reading if you're into reading poetic books about natural phenomena; for my money, the Nova presentation Arctic Passage (constantly repeated on our PBS station) was a far more enlightening and evocative exploration of the cold.

[Liz Nutting · Rating 5 out of 5]

For now, at least, I live in an extreme environment, defined by Wikipedia as one exhibiting "harsh and challenging environment conditions...far outside the boundaries of what a human can comfortably tolerate." In my case, I live in extreme heat, in a region that exceeds 40°C (104°F) "with regular frequency or for protracted periods of time." As Palm Desert's average daily high temperature hovers between 102° and 107° for at least four months out of the year, I think it qualifies.

The irony is that I hate being hot. Even 80° feels outside the boundary of what I can comfortably tolerate. I much prefer 10° to 110°. I am an enigma to my friends and colleagues, desert rats who have actually chosen to live here because of the heat (and they are enigmas to me, so we're even). I joke about moving to Alaska (which I'll admit would probably be too cold even for me, so I'll settle for a summer in San Francisco). In Bill Streever, author of Cold: Adventures in the World's Frozen Places, I have an ally, someone who loves cold even more than I do. (He really does live in Alaska.) This book is a love letter to cold by someone who knows cold intimately, but who is not snow-blind by his love of snow.

In the Reader's Group Guide at the very end of Cold, Streever describes his book as a "science travelogue." It is an apt description. His physical travels range from the North Slope of Alaska in -20° to Palawan, Philippines, where it is 82° in November, from a tunnel deep in the permafrost of Fairbanks to the a mountain top in Scotland. But it is his travels through time and topics that really display the brilliance of this book. Starting on July 1 in Prudoe Bay (where it was 52°) Streever meanders through seven hundred million years of geological history in no particular order, describing ice ages and glaciers that shaped continents, recounting the history of air conditioning and refrigeration, explaining the hibernation or migration of various animal species, and offering sartorial advice for the well-dressed polar explorer.

All of which is rendered in language that is lyrical and evocative. Take this passage, describing a walk on a frozen lake in -20°: "We walk out onto the lake. The snow screeches under our boots, as if we were walking on Styrofoam while wearing Styrofoam boots. It is so cold and dry that our boots kick up little clouds of snow that the breeze carries along the surface of the lake, like dust clouds one might kick up on a desert sand flat." Anyone who has unpacked a new TV out of its box would recognize that screech of foam on foam, even if she had never experienced snow itself. The reader hears the snow, feels the dry cold air be sucked into her nostrils, watches the powdery white dirt devils float out over the lake.

But Cold is a science travelogue, and Streever excels at making the biology, chemistry and physics of cold intelligible to the lay person. Why does the snow under his boots sound like Styrofoam?

Sound is nothing more than changes in air pressure....As sound waves travel past snow, they momentarily increase the air pressure, forcing air into pores between snowflakes and ice crystals. As the pressure of the sound waves drops, the air moves out of the pores. The air is moving in and out a hundred times per second at a low pitch, five thousand times a second at a medium pitch, and eighteen thousand times a second at a high pitch, near the edge of human hearing....At warmer temperatures, it is more of a crunching sound, but near zero the pitch increases. It becomes more akin to the sound of fingernails on chalkboard. The crystal structure is stronger. What we hear is the sound of ice crystals being crushed and torn. The screeching is the sound of hydrogen bonds unbonding under the weight and movement of our skis.

Do you want to know why wool is warmer than cotton? What happens to the skin as frostbite settles in? How a ground squirrel's body changes during hibernation? How weather works? Even if you don't think you care about any of these mysteries now, two pages into Cold you will be hooked. High school science was never this fascinating.

Streever ends the book in June, back on the North Slope in 60° temperatures with a clear explanation of the science behind global warming, without pointing fingers or waxing political. In the 19th century, when the theory of global warming was first put forth, it was much wished for by the shivering scientists predicting it. After spending a metaphorical year exploring the ins and outs and ups and downs of ice and snow and frigid temperatures, whether one shares that wish or fears it, the reader at least can appreciate what would be lost if the cold places disappeared completely from the earth. And maybe my desert rat friends will appreciate my longing for temperatures in the lower double digits.

Which reminds me, Streever's next book is going to be about...wait for it...heat! Maybe by the time it comes out, I'll be wrapped in blankets looking out over a snowy landscape with hot tea in my mug as I read it.

[Jack Allen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Full of fun facts about the cold, but often rambling and unfocused. The discussion on absolute zero was the most interesting part.

[Becca Guillote · Rating 4 out of 5]

Streetcar is a bit jumpy in his descriptions, it’s best not to take the whole thing too seriously. But his writing is entertaining and the content very interesting.

[Fungus Gnat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bill Streever conveys his thoughts on cold in the form of a journal, marked off in the months of a year from July through June. Each of these chapters is further divided into passages alternating between his personal experiences, his experiences on various parts of the planet, but more in Alaska than anywhere else, and reflections on the experiences of explorers and scientists who had sought to be the first to the South Pole or to absolute zero, for example. This way of laying out his material keeps the human element in what is, looking back on it, surprisingly more a science book than anything else. If it was Streever’s intent to convey an appreciation, and some added respect, for cold, as well as how it has driven some and informs daily life for many others, he has succeeded, at least where I am concerned.

But with the human element comes all the dissatisfaction of frustrated attempts at accomplishment, and Streever is all too human. It’s difficult to decide which among an array of habits of his is most annoying. Is it the repetition – his apparent need to keep returning to the nearly-frozen hibernations of those ground squirrels, or the frost-bitten-off limbs of various poor souls who did not have a proper respect for the cold? Or is it the man’s apparent psychological need to prove himself not entirely rational – no, not just prove himself, but boast about it? What am I to make of his tendency to forget the most obvious conventions to exercise care in preparing himself for a jaunt out of doors in very cold climates? Or in the almost gleeful curiosity he displays, to the exclusion of any other type of concern, over the various colors his Raynaud’s-afflicted hiking companion’s hands go through on one of those ill-prepared treks? Or is it the inconsistencies in his views of science, which he on one occasion feels the need to put in quotes (“Western science”)? He is, as I say, writing a science book, yet it seems he feels an almost overt need to apologize for that – to consign weather prediction, for example, to the bin of the impossible, given the unmodelable chaotic forces with which it must contend, while later in the book to express no trouble over the models that underlie predictions of climate change that he apparently accepts.

The end notes are helpful, though more precise matching to the text (or any matching, for that matter, finer than the chapter level) would have made them more helpful. The reading group guide is as inane as the average such addendum. Stupid discussion questions are preceded by an interview with Streever that is little more than an extended advertisement – half for the current book and half for his next one.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

As I read this nonfiction title, I kept wondering why science in high school (or college) couldn't have been this fascinating. Maybe it's because school texts are so dry and politically correct. I have no idea, only that this book made me wish I had paid more attention.

Simply put, this is fascinating. Streever is a scientist/environmentalist/researcher who explores the science of weather, as well as the history of man's fascination with it. This book compiles a year of research. He begins outside of Alaska, studying a caterpillar that is so frequently frozen that it takes ten years to go from pupa to moth. Ten years! He has numerous anecdotal stories with some heavy science sprinkled in, such as how water molecules change amid temperature changes. The pace is fast and snappy and makes all the details easily absorbed, without feeling like it's dumbed down or too deep.

One especially fascinating aspect of Cold is the stories of men and their search for the North Pole. I'm not sure why, exactly, men throughout history have been so interested in traversing miles of brutal cold to get there. He goes through notes and journals of many of these explorers, most of whom are spectacularly unprepared and most of whom die on the way. So few actually did make it. What's amazing is the descriptions of their journeys. Death was always present and it seemed the life of their companions was pretty cheap, as they would just keep going as members died off. See, I don't get it. I'd be at the nearest plush hotel, with some hot cocoa and maybe brandy, in front of a roaring fire. Why the cold?

Streever weaves the unassailable facts of global warming into the book, never too preachy but not backing off with the clear evidence of disappearing ice and changing weather patterns. He clearly cares about the issue and knows what he is talking about, as his facts are not biased or partisan in any way.
One caveat: this book is best read when you are warm, as the descriptions will have you chilled to the bone quickly.

[Bruce · Rating 5 out of 5]

Clearly some folks have trouble with an author exhibiting a personality and doing anything other than paint a comfortable story by numbers. Better keep it safe writers, or some folks are going to have a fit, throw down their toys and leave the sandlot. Don't dare personalize. Well, I'm glad a few readers didn't make it through COLD. That just makes me feel special. This is a fantastic book precisely because of the subtle yet complex narrative voice. No way is Streever going to settle for the print equivalent of a neutered TV documentary guide. Read this book and you walk with Streever, share his discoveries, encounter at every turn that "cold" is both science and subjective experience. I read this book over about 4 weeks through one of the coldest, snowiest winters in recent Chicago history. Mostly I read for about 20 minutes each morning and each evening riding the "L." Streever's style made that dipping in and out work - some books just don't go so well read that way. I was familiar with a lot of the science and also a number of the relevant historical stories: Byrd, Amundsen, Scott, Shackleton etc. Maybe that helped. What satisfied and inspired was the way Streever's mosaic approach (as oppose to the more common "faux naturalistic journalism.") the book is a conversation. I found the sudden explosions of geological, paleontological, and anthropological history particularly delightful. Much better than turning those aspects into a continuous tedium or isolating them in separated chapters. For the adventurous. Nobody else should bother.

[James Henderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bill Streever's book, Cold, is subtitled "Adventures in the World's Frozen Places". It read like a natural history of the climate of cold with almost everything you might want to know about cold from the scientific discovery of absolute zero to the development of high-tech clothing to augment if not surpass the use of nature's wool and fur to keep warm when it is cold. Using the calendar year - starting and ending in the summer - the author takes you on ever colder adventures and explorations of the nature and meaning of cold. He includes details of how animals cope with cold such as hibernation: what it is and how some animals use it while others use a variant of it to survive the cold of Winter. His story is one that expands to include the way cold climate has shaped our planet and gave this reader pause to consider the massive forces that have been unleashed to raise and lower the earth's temperature over the millenia. Having grown up in an area of the Midwest United States whose contours were shaped by the last major ice age I found this book a fascinating education in who and what cold had effected elsewhere over history. Streever interlaces his personal adventures with natural history and science creating an educational and entertaining story of the continuing presence of cold in our lives.

[Kristi Thielen · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Little Ice Age, Snowball Earth, lucky (and unlucky) explorers, cold weather forecasting and how the adequate lack thereof has caused terrible loss of life, and the Japanese ama divers (mostly women, since men can't handle it) who dive in waters so frigid, they'd kill most of us. Yes, it's all here and more, in 12 chapters, each corresponding to one month of a year the author spent in pursuit of cold.

I read this book not long after having finished writing storyboards for a museum exhibit about a Titanic survivor who credited the woolen long johns he was wearing for keeping him from freezing, after he swam to a lifeboat and huddled there until dawn. Turns out, he was right: each wool hair is covered with scales and coated with a layer of lanolin that repels water. Even when wet, there are air pockets between the wool's curls and these pockets insulate the wearer. Wool, even wet, can save you: cotton fibers hold water and are probably worse for you, in the cold, than naked skin.

Perhaps the most amazing information is about the remarkable adaptation of animals that live in very cold climates. How do they do it? Well, read the books and learn and be impressed.

P.S. Streever followed this book with a volume about - couldn't you guess? - "Heat." I hope to read it soon.

[Max Carmichael · Rating 1 out of 5]

Mr. Streever has some really interesting information to share about the cold adaptations of organisms, but the interesting parts are sandwiched between tedious inventories of cold-related topics that he simply glossed from historical sources in an apparent attempt to make his book encyclopedic.

But the most troubling and off-putting aspect of this book is the author's apparent lack of empathy or sympathy for any of his subjects. Critics have called his style "flinty" and "tough-minded" – I call it glib and flat. There are lots of scientists who love their work and care about their subjects - Streever doesn't seem to be one of them.

On the plus side, he does occasionally point out that scientists can learn from indigenous people, which is refreshing. But that's offset by his amateurish attempts to entertain the reader by repeating ad infinitum his spurious indictment of Adolphus Greely, a 19th-century bureaucrat in charge of the first U.S. weather service who, according to Streever, was responsible for the deaths of children in the Midwest because he failed to adequately predict a blizzard. Streever doesn't seem to care any more about the kids than about the caterpillars he condemns to death in his freezer, but he doggedly clings to his bizarre thesis that Victorian meteorology should have been an exact science.

Go figure.

[Bookmarks Magazine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cold, filled with obscure facts and fascinating anecdotes, is both entertaining and enlightening, and Streever's crisp, articulate writing style and easy-to-understand scientific explanations yield a compulsively readable book. However, Streever's loosely organized chapters and stream-of-consciousness, bloglike narrative keep him from dwelling for long on any single topic, and the Dallas Morning News took issue with his single-minded focus on the northern hemisphere. Some critics also objected to his views on climate change, but these complaints stemmed from differences of opinion. Streever's breezy, captivating romp through the frozen North reminds readers "that cold shapes continents, wins and loses wars, fuels madmen, inspires Nobel Prize-winning work, challenges us, curses us and blesses us" (Cleveland Plain Dealer). This is an excerpt of a review published in Bookmarks magazine.

[Brandon Bierley · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book reads like a hard drive desperately in need of defragmentation. There is good material, but it is separated randomly throughout the book, and then needlessly repeated. This book has no narrative or cohesive arc, and this is reflected in the absurd decision to organize the chapters by months - which hold no relevance at all to the material other than the author stating where he was on a given date, then diving back into his random and unorganized prattling on the topics that this book should have been organized around: polar explorers, scientists, global warming, and the Children's Blizzard of 1888 which he mentions every few pages like it's some kind of verbal tic he can't shake off. I realized about halfway through that no new information was going to be introduced, but it became a game to see how many times the author would repeat himself or change topics between pages. I wouldn't have believed it possible for a book to have ADD, but this one changed my mind.

[Dave Hoff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Review best left to Rebecca and other experts, but as one who experienced the Antarctic, it is a text book on how cold affects the earth, humans, animals, history and science. Author does well quoting Nansen (father of all successful expeditions) Amundson, Shackleton, and Cherry-Garrard who used Inuit knowledge to live. Scott who distained dogs and skis and died on the ICE. Richard Byrd whose publicity stunt in 1933 nearly cost the life of himself and his rescuers. The untruth of Byrd's failed North Pole flyover gave his pilot and those correcting the event much trouble. This book could be read for different reasons, but anyone wanting to know about cold and afraid to ask, at least look at it.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting, but I was really glad I've read a lot of background on some of the stuff he touches on briefly and tangentially, because I wouldn't have got much just from this. His style is transparent and sort of, IDK, unmodulated, which sometimes works - at its best, it's hypnotic and timeless - and sometimes is just banal.

Major >:/ for talking about a scientist in 1941 Yugoslavia who had his book's publication disrupted by World War 2 'breaking out'. Wiki tells me that Yugoslavia only got into the war in 1941 when it was invaded, but somehow I don't think that's what an American author was thinking of. That's the second example I've seen in recent months, and it's becoming a pet peeve.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Many, many interesting facts and stories. The author is just plain funny in a very dry, understated, unpretentious way. He reminded me a lot of John McPhee but funnier. His interest in the subject matter comes across as genuine which I found very refreshing.

I really enjoyed the scientific and historical digressions which made the book easy to pick up and put down. If you're looking for a unified story you'll be disappointed.

I had read Arctic Dreams by Barry Lopez and didn't particularly like it, it left me a bit cold. This is the book Arctic Dreams could have been.

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

Author Bill Streever tells a very informative story in an easy-to-read and enjoyable style. He has written the book in a series of related vignettes. A reader could easily start or stop reading virtually anywhere in the story and still have a very good read. The book is about the science, the history, the animals and plants, and the characters involved with "cold". You will learn a lot and have fun doing it. Bill Streever, from Anchorage, Alaska; has done a good of writing a very thought provoking and entertaining book, and I recommend it.

[Kate · Rating 1 out of 5]

I can't honestly say I read this, as after many months of carting it around I never finished it. But I gave it my best effort, and the book failed me. I wanted to learn all about cold in a clear, coherent manner. This book has lots of information, but it's presented in a stream-of-consciousness, folksy way that ensured that I wouldn't remember scientific details and wouldn't get absorbed by any of the anecdotes.

[Fabio Bertino · Rating 3 out of 5]

Un libro sul "freddo" nelle sue molte forme e raeltà. Scritto bene, molto documentato, ricchissimo di spunti e di informazioni: dalle esplorazioni polari, alla fauna e alla flora, alle località più fredde del mondo, alle caratteristiche "scientifiche" del gelo, alle problematiche legate al riscaldamento del pianeta etc... Un solo appunto: per essere scritto da una persona che in un certo senso ha dedicato al gelo tutta la sua vita, la scrittura manca un po' di passione.

[Dayna · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is exactly the kind of science book I like - anecdotal, but packed with lots of good information, wrapped around a central framing device (in this case, the months of the year and temperatures around the globe in those months). Loved it and can't wait to dive into some of the books listed as source material.

[Kerri Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is fantastic. And it felt appropriate, ending the 2013 reading season with Streever's engaging frozen stories while we were training and traipsing across the intriguing and inhospitable frozen Midwest.

Highly recommended. Oh so highly.


[Five timely stars and high hopes for never experiencing the true meaning of frostbite.]

[Jonathan Bein · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some science, some natural history, cultural anthropology, and plenty of arcane and esoteric information. If you are fascinated by history, science, technology, and the natural world, you will like this book. If you are obsessed with how the author has chosen to organize his work or his attitude towards his subjects, you may not be pleased.

[Damona · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was absolutely fascinating. the author covers everything from climate change to hibernating caterpillars to the number of Arctic explorers who succumbed to frostbite in an interesting and very readable fashion.

[Marie (UK) · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am sorry this book simply does not deliver what it promises. It is extremely short on adventure and long on temperatures across the world - not necessarily in cold places. Generally just dull dull dull

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entertaining read about many aspects of cold and how we all cope with it.