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Christiane Ritter went to the arctic circle in 1933/34 to spend the winter with her hunter husband in the hut above (On Svalbard, a big island above Norway). She describes this adventure very matter of factly, what it takes to get through each day and the changing environment as the sun disappears. I found it fascinating and have become mildly obsessed with the idea of going to Norway but not quite this far North!

Very interesting and full of amazing detail and descriptions.
I was quite uneasy about some parts but could respect what they needed to do. Also full admiration for her determination.

This looks rather good. It's a Pushkin Press translation which always appeals:)

This book was so good! Mostly, the author shares what it was like to live as a 1930's housewife on the isolated arctic island of Spitsbergen, in a tiny 10x10 hut with her husband and their companion. She describes what months of straight sunlight and then months of night will do to the human psyche. They make due with few provisions and the battle to survive off the frozen land. A much more poetic and oldschool Life Below Zero of sorts. 🏔🏔🏔🏔

Thank you so much for this awesome #jolabokaflodswap package, Amber! You picked the perfect book, I can't wait to start it. Love the little melt away Santa's and the card is ADORABLE!! 💙❄💙
@Alfrazier21
@MaleficentBookDragon

Thank you so much @TrishB for my fab birthday presents!! 😃 Both of these sound so good, I can‘t wait to read them. 👍

Thank you so much @TrishB for my fab birthday presents!! 😃 Both of these sound so good, I can‘t wait to read them. 👍

Read this for #LMPBC #groupv #memoirs. This was interesting, and I'm grateful for having read it. It's not something I think I would have picked up on my own! I liked the mix of historical perspective and a unique experience. However, I've never been super into man vs nature, so the conflicts of her story weren't super interesting to me

(Trying to catch up on reviews today, as I'm home from work with blood pressure issues.)

I was excited to get this #LMPBC book back yesterday. I‘m curled up this morning with my tea reading all your comments @rjsthumbelina @Roary47 @ImperfectCJ

I had never heard of this one before #lmpbc. I liked it quite a bit. It's a different style of memoir than modern memoirs, less about the author and more about her experiences. She lets the reader know what she's thinking without paragraphs of analysis and navel-gazing. While some descriptions were opaque to me, overall Ritter paints a vivid and compelling picture of life in the Arctic.
@Bookwormjillk @rjsthumbelina @Roary47

I'm trying to read, but she keeps staring at something I can't see just over my head and it's freaking me out. Cats.

I actually read this a few days ago, but have had a week! I was hoping for more landscape descriptions. I appreciated the complete descriptions she did provide and the adventure and danger that was discussed. #LMPBC #GroupV

This is a memoir from a very brave woman who spent a winter in the Arctic in the 1930‘s. I was really impressed by her attitude and resourcefulness. #LMPBC

This will go in the mail to the next reader this week.

90 years ago Ritter set out to join her husband for a year in the Arctic. She's a driven, brave woman, adaptable, courageous & resourceful. She both finds ways to bake cakes & cook seal liver many different ways with one small furnace and a handful of dry ingredients! She observes the polar landscape allows us to dream of its beautiful, menacing vastness & unique light. She writes wonderfully on the respect nature deserves if we're to survive.

Page 1 and I love it already #bookmap

Starting this gem today sent by the lovely @Oryx January has been a month of reading only books recommend to me my others ( and not just books that match my sofa!)

Thank you so much @Oryx I‘m looking forward to reliving my travels through this one. I really miss those landscapes 🥲. You‘re so kind to have sent it. Big cheers from me 👏🏼

Feels very decadent to eat chocolate Yule log, while the woman in my book eats seal liver...
This book is a memoir of a woman who spends a winter in Spitsbergen in 1934.

Santa and Rudolph are looking after #hiselderliness reads. #bookreport
All Standing “very interesting. It‘s about the potato famine and they took a lot of Irish to Canada. But they wanted to make more money so they put so many in the boat they had to stand up the whole way” 😳
One Man Caravan “I would say that wasn‘t a good book but then I learnt a few things so I guess that makes it good doesn‘t it?” (That may be the definition of so-so)⬇️

It took a while for me to get in to this book but as soon as the woman arrived in the polar night I found it hard to put down and the last couple of chapters left a lump in my throat. This is the story of Austrian housewife Christiane Ritter, who accepts the invitation of her researcher husband Hermann to spent roughly twelve months living with him and hunter friend Karl living in a tiny hut on a remote island in the Norwegian Arctic. I loved it.