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Minds of Winter
Minds of Winter | Ed O'Loughlin
21 posts | 7 read | 1 reading | 15 to read
In a journey shrouded in mystery and intrigue, Sir John Franklin's 1845 campaign in search of the Northwest Passage ended in tragedy. All 129 men were lost to the ice, and nothing from the expedition was retrieved, including two rare and valuable Greenwich chronometers. When one of the chronometers appears a century and a half later in London, in pristine condition and crudely disguised as a Victorian carriage clock, new questions arise about what really happened on that expedition-and the fates of the men involved. When Nelson Nilsson, an aimless drifter from Alberta, finds himself in Canada's Northern Territories in search of his brother, he meets Fay Morgan by chance. Fay has just arrived from London, hoping to find answers to her burning questions about her past. When they discover that their questions about their pasts and present are inextricably linked, the two will become unlikely partners as they unravel a mystery that traverses continents and centuries. In a narrative that crosses time and space, O'Loughlin delves deep into the history of Franklin's expedition through the eyes of the explorers themselves, addressing questions that have intrigued historians and readers for centuries. What motivated these men to strike out on dangerous campaigns in search of the unknown? What was at stake for them, and for those they left behind? And when things went wrong-things that couldn't be shared-what would they do to protect themselves and their discoveries?
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review
Robotswithpersonality
Minds of Winter | Ed O'Loughlin
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Panpan

Well that was gigantically disappointing.
There were hints of a story I wanted to read: a mysterious, possibly cursed object with a long history of doomed adventure, investigated in the present day by a pair with their own secrets/possible dark pasts, the promise of answers to both historical and contemporary mysteries; 1/?

Robotswithpersonality 2/? maybe even magical realism/ghost stories in the possibility of appearing and disappearing land and people in the far North, which even today seems foreboding despite being no longer a place unmapped/unexplored. 9mo
Robotswithpersonality 3/? Unfortunately the present day framework was a collection of bare snippets with seemingly needless drag out of distrustful banal reveals between two strangers. The looks back in the past too often dragged on - trying to each be their own story in adding to the MacGuffin's mystique. It made it hard to care about any set of characters when you know you're just passing them by and looking for the clue buried inside the anecdote. 9mo
Robotswithpersonality 4/? I'm not a polar exploration historian so I have no context for how much the author completely made up or just reported verbatim from history, so it kind of loses its liveliness if one's left to wonder if this is mostly torn from a textbook. There are any number of melodramatic conversations which obviously the author would have had to extrapolate, but as interludes between men obsessed with exploration and ambition and the women left behind, they all start to blur together. 9mo
See All 9 Comments
Robotswithpersonality 5/? The link from the modern woman to the grandfather was the most intriguing, but we didn't get near enough of it. 9mo
Robotswithpersonality 6/6 The book seems to mourn the loss of an age of exploration, of mystery, to the extent that it tried to both leave the mystery unsolved and give the most baffling, unsatisfactory answer to it at the same time. In modern times looking back, exploration is associated with conquest, invasion and resource stripping, I'm afraid there was no romance left to recapture, and the more fantastical fiction floated was too fragmented to enjoy as an alternative. 9mo
Texreader That‘s so disappointing! Love the cover 9mo
Robotswithpersonality @Texreader Exactly! Serves me right for being seduced by a cover. It's always a risk, me experimenting with historical fiction, but the synopsis definitely played up the mystery plot in a way I don't think the book makes good on. 🙎🏼‍♂️ 9mo
Texreader Oh I would have grabbed it by the description too! So glad for your honest review. 9mo
Robotswithpersonality @Texreader It makes me slightly happier to have read it knowing I saved someone else from doing so! 😅 9mo
5 likes9 comments
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Robotswithpersonality
Minds of Winter | Ed O'Loughlin
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Polar explorer math. 🤦🏼‍♂️ Or is that accounting? 🤔

8 likes1 stack add
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Jaimelire
Minds of Winter | Ed O'Loughlin
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Pickpick

I had bad insomnia last week. This brick of a book made it a little less painful. Great novel about arctic explorers. Begins with the doomed Franklin expedition and moves forwards from there, including two present day Canadians looking for answers to a generations-old mystery.

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BookishTrish
Minds of Winter | Ed O'Loughlin
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VeganCleopatra This background calls to me. 🙂 7y
BookishTrish @VeganCleopatra It's a park near my house. And it's covered in snow which is unusual. 7y
Suet624 Perfect photo. 7y
66 likes3 comments
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mjdowens
Minds of Winter | Ed O'Loughlin
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Let me just read the first chapter of this book I got about three weeks ago.

211 pages later......😳

JazzFeathers 😂😂😂💪👍👍 7y
50 likes1 stack add1 comment
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Penny_LiteraryHoarders
Minds of Winter | Ed O'Loughlin
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Pickpick

It‘s blurbed as “ambitious”. Yes. I agree. Very good but then got bogged down by its length. My first Giller Prize longlisted title. ⭐️⭐️⭐️

rabbitprincess Oh, this is on my to-read list! Didn't realize it was longlisted. 7y
Penny_LiteraryHoarders @rabbitprincess I got the chunkiest one out of the way first! 🙂 7y
51 likes1 stack add2 comments
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BookishTrish
Minds of Winter | Ed O'Loughlin
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Lunch break in the sun! The stranger reading beside me is taking notes in the margins of The Subtle Art ofNot Giving a Fuck. Does that mean the book's not working? #legitquestion

OSChamberlain 😂😂😂 I guess it‘s not! 7y
Lcsmcat 😂😂😂 Well, it is a subtle art? 7y
CouronneDhiver 😂😂😂 7y
58 likes5 comments
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Penny_LiteraryHoarders
Minds of Winter | Ed O'Loughlin
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Starting the first in the Giller Prize longlist. I had taken this out from the library in the summer, but wasn‘t able to get to it. So far it‘s been quite good.

DreesReads I liked this! 7y
Penny_LiteraryHoarders @AudreyMorris great! I‘m liking it so far too! 7y
Melissa_J I've got this one on my TBR so I can't wait to hear what you think of it. 7y
42 likes2 stack adds4 comments
review
DreesReads
Minds of Winter | Ed O'Loughlin
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Pickpick

Finished this late last night. I really liked it and I understand the ending, but I found it frustrating. Also, who was Johnson? Who did he work for and why? What really happened to Morgan? I guess the author couldn't answer questions about real people...

RealBooks4ever How frustrating! I want answers! 😡 7y
16 likes1 comment
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DreesReads
Minds of Winter | Ed O'Loughlin
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I'm halfway through, and this book is a little confusing with the leaps through time and space and different narrators. But there are clues connecting all these parts, and I think it's all going to come together in the end. I am really enjoying this!

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DreesReads
Minds of Winter | Ed O'Loughlin
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Next up for fiction! I had never heard of this before finding it on the new fiction shelf. I am so in the mood for a long book 🙂

ReadingEnvy I have this on my pile so I'll look forward to your thoughts! 7y
ErickaS_Flyleafunfurled This is right in my wheelhouse!! So happy you made me discover this!!!! 7y
14 likes1 stack add2 comments
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Penny_LiteraryHoarders
Minds of Winter | Ed O'Loughlin
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Here's the problem when you return a book to the library when it's open! I have piles of books to read but these two were perched there, all in their brand new glory. I can't walk away! 😊

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Quercus_USA
Minds of Winter | Ed O'Loughlin
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Happy Publication Day to Ed O'Loughlin's MINDS OF WINTER. Pictured here with the chronometer that forms the central thread of his book, longlisted for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction!

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Quercus_USA
Minds of Winter | Ed O'Loughlin
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"An exhilarating romp through the age of polar exploration.... Minds of Winter is a story of death and glory, loss and triumph and, ultimately, the mighty power of the imagination in the face of unrelenting struggle." -Winnipeg Free Press

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MeaMck
Minds of Winter | Ed O'Loughlin
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Is there an unwritten rule that in every novel based on the Franklin expedition Sophia Cracroft must attend a ball during which she lusts after Ross or is it just the two I've read, I'll have to dig a little deeper and try a third 😬

Enjoying the book so far though! ❄️💙❄️

BookishTrish What was the other book? 7y
7 likes1 comment
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Quercus_USA
Minds of Winter | Ed O'Loughlin
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Congratulations to Ed O'Loughlin, MINDS OF WINTER longlisted for the Walter Scott Prize!

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hollytucker
Minds of Winter | Ed O'Loughlin
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"Complex tale of historical intrigue about 19th century polar explorers, the strange disappearance of Sir John Franklin Artic expedition in 1845". Historical fiction. Love the cover!

rabbitprincess Ooh, I'll have to check that out! I've been on a Franklin kick lately, including my current read: 8y
hollytucker @rabbitprincess it looks pretty good! 8y
LeahBergen Ooo! Sounds good. 8y
VioletBramble I love books on polar exploration. This one sounds good. Great cover. 8y
27 likes4 comments
review
Quercus_USA
Minds of Winter | Ed O'Loughlin
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Pickpick

"A tour de force juggling act of narrative legerdemain" -Kirkus Reviews

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Quercus_USA
Minds of Winter | Ed O'Loughlin
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Pickpick

"The scope is truly epic, taking us literally from pole to pole and covering 175 years of history." -Quill and Quire

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Quercus_USA
Minds of Winter | Ed O'Loughlin
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Minds of Winter was chosen as Quercus' feature title in Publishers Weekly Adult Spring 2017 books!

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Quercus_USA
Minds of Winter | Ed O'Loughlin
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"The novel is a tapestry of time and place, a study of human nature, and a celebration of exploration and adventure" -ALA_Booklist, starred review