Books to cool you down
Books can be very helpful on hot summer days. Hold them over your head for an instant piece of shade, spend time relaxing with one on a hammock, take shelter into a nice cool bookshop…
Reading is the best cooling aid there is, especially if you grab one of the following. There’s fog, chilly moors, spooky goings on and freaky characters…
Foggy Isle of Skye- The Storykeeper
Spooky Scottish Island surrounded by fog and mystery. Talk of fairy folk and changelings. A remote destination. Audrey is there to collect stories on the island’s stories involving fairies, legends and more. Audrey starts to look more closely at events. But an outsider finding out stories is one thing; one asking too many questions is another.
Iceland and its legends – The Sealwoman’s Gift
Now this is a fascinating read. Spooky and set in the 1600s. It’s the ancient but true tale of how an Icelandic family was kidnapped by pirates and taken to Northern Africa. It’s not just the landscape and setting which chills here but the story – it’s a real life horror story which chills in so many ways.
Even the cover with its rough seas and crashing cold water waves makes you feel a bit chilly.
Painting of The Sealwoman’s Gift in Waterstone’s Gateshead
A summer camp in the Ariondacks, New York – The Last Time I Lied
When someone tells a lie in a murder mystery book, well that’s chilly…and when the entire scene plays out in a summer camp, a place that is supposed to be happy and sunny and nice…well you just know it’s going to end bad.
You will not want to go to a summer camp after this! Brrr
An island in Ireland – an asylum in a rural place, miles from anywhere – The Darkest Place
Even the title provides a shade or two of darkness. Then this quote from the book just sums up the entire setting and feel of the book in one fell swoop:
‘Island of the Lost was the isle’s name long before the hospital was built. In winter, they say the fog falls so heavy there that you can’t see your hand in front of your face. Storms rage so forcefully you can be blown from the cliffs. Once St. Christina’s was built, the name took on a new meaning. Very few who went into that place ever left.’
Ontario – Moon of the Crusted Snow
The premise of this one starts off well – What happens when a small northern Anishinaabe community goes dark, gets cut off from the world…? It’s about isolation and survival in more ways than one. There’s the snow, the remoteness of the village and the lack of food supplies. It’s also about a group of First Nations people as they struggle with the outsiders, the white people who come in and start to try and dictate what should go on.
A story about feeling lonely, cut off, an outsider…and that’s without the snow and inability to reach the village…
Where have you been recently in a book – somewhere as chilling as this lot?
