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Title: Ice Diaries
Subtitle: An Antarctic Memoir
Author: Jean McNeil
Narrator: Bridget Wareham
Format: Unabridged
Length: 13 hrs and 27 mins
Language: English
Release date: 08-29-17
Publisher: ECW Press
Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Artists, Writers, & Musicians

Publisher's Summary:
A decade ago, novelist and short story writer Jean McNeil spent a year as writer-in-residence with the British Antarctic Survey, and four months on the world's most enigmatic continent - Antarctica. Access to the Antarctic remains largely reserved for scientists, and it is the only piece of earth that is nobody's country. Ice Diaries is the story of McNeil's years spent in ice, not only in the Antarctic, but her subsequent travels to Greenland, Iceland, and Svalbard, culminating in a strange event in Cape Town, South Africa, where she journeyed to make what was to be her final trip to the southernmost continent.
In the spirit of the diaries of Antarctic explorers Robert Falcon Scott and Ernest Shackleton, McNeil mixes travelogue, popular science, and memoir to examine the history of our fascination with ice. In entering this world, McNeil unexpectedly finds herself confronting her own upbringing in the Maritimes, the lifelong effects of growing up in a cold place, and how the climates of childhood frame our emotional thermodynamics for life. Ice Diaries is a haunting story of the relationship between beauty and terror, loss and abandonment, transformation and triumph.

Members Reviews:
Five Stars
it was extremely interesting

McNeil's journey
I am an experienced Antarctic veteran. This is a memoir of an Antarctic experience by a newcomer. It is crammed full of rich prose. In the spirit of Wild, by Cheryl Strayed, McNeil withholds no secrets. This kept me reading. Her descriptions of the landscape are unique and unexpected, like the Antarctic. Many times I read them and said "yeah, thatâs how it is," or, "Iâd never thought of it that way." She devotes a good portion of book to revealing the characters she became close to. They are convincing in their own uniqueness. In a parallel story she shows the turmoil of her pubescent youth, and how she escaped it. Although compelling, I didnât quite get the reason for this structure. It does show her strong character though, and makes you root for her. In the end she is telling the reader how the Antarctic changed her. Anyone who has been there under similar circumstances knows theyâve been changed, but most are not sure how. Her book joins the ranks of others that recounted visits to Antarctica by observers â not scientists and technical staff. Iâm comparing this book to Antarctica by Gabrielle Walker, and Terra Incognita by Sara Wheeler. Wheelerâs is the best, but McNeil ties with Walker. All these books reveal a place where nobody belongs and from where no one really leaves.

Evocative and memorable
âThe trick about Antarctica is knowing when to leave ...â
Iâve long been fascinated by the thought of visiting Antarctica, and in the absence of any possibility of visiting, at present, I have instead devoured books by those who have visited and lived on this vast icy continent. This book is easily one of the most memorable and evocative I have read â both a travel story as well as a personal memoir. Moving from her past growing up in Canada, to time spent in Antarctica as year as writer-in-residence with the British Antarctic Survey, Antarctic, Jean McNeil.