Conversations at The Compass

[Joy D]

Many of the airline flights go over the North pole, depending on where you're going from and to, which can change the miles and flight directions. I think trying to find a map will work better than using airline flight paths.

[NancyJ]

That makes sense Joy. I read Disappearing Earth for our (horizons?) challenge a couple years ago. Kamchatka was a very memorable location. I hope you like the book

I’m going to start with a book in Toronto that is in my priority list Run Towards the Danger: Confrontations with a Body of Memory. There’s a chance that I’ll be able to get to another Canadian book with the second direction.

For now, I’m keeping tracking notes for both challenges on one thread. There are already a lot of threads in this folder and I need to have a central place to see crossover possibilities,

[Joanne]

Booknblues wrote: "Joanne wrote: "Fran or anyone else, can you confirm for me that Vietnam is SW of Michigan? The flight pattern tells me nothing, as it goes up over Canada. Does not make sense to me."

This one show..."

Thank you Fran! I have a book on hold, due back the 9th, so I should be able to get it in before month end!

[Jason]

I am starting in Georgia. I received NE. I am flying to Iceland. Not sure what city yet. I will determine that as I read the book.

Burial Rites - Hannah Kent

Tagged 448 times as Iceland

[Theresa]

Jason wrote: "I am starting in Georgia. I received NE. I am flying to Iceland. Not sure what city yet. I will determine that as I read the book.

Burial Rites - Hannah Kent

Tag..."

I am also in Iceland - Reykjavík: A Crime Story - a recently published book cowritten by Ragnar Jónasson, a leading nordic noir writer, and Ragnar Jónasson, who at the time of writing and promoting the book just happened to be the Prime Minister. My goal revolves around reading crime fiction. Will be interested in what you think of yours.

[Jason]

Theresa wrote: "Jason wrote: "I am starting in Georgia. I received NE. I am flying to Iceland. Not sure what city yet. I will determine that as I read the book.

Burial Rites - [author:Hannah Kent..."

Awesome. I don't know anything about this book. I found a list online "100 Best Inspirational Books that Will Make You Want to Travel the World" and I'm seeing if I can only read from that list. After taking out the kids books and the ones I've already completed, its less than 100 books but it should be plenty.

[Joy D]

Hope you enjoy Burial Rites as much as I did, Jason. It is top rate historical fiction in my book.

[Rachel N.]

I plan on heading SW from Detroit to Dallas, Texas. I don't really care how far I travel. I'm mainly trying to get books off my tbr.

[NancyJ]

Fran, Do you think Last Chance to See by Doug Adams could work for Compass? (They also made a series of shows for BBC many years ago which I didn’t see.) They traveled to Madagascar, Zaire, Australia, New Zealand and China, plus a couple others. They went home in between, so it’s not one journey from one country to another. I would try to identify which country (countries) dominate the book.

What do you think?

[Joanne]

Jason wrote: "I am starting in Georgia. I received NE. I am flying to Iceland. Not sure what city yet. I will determine that as I read the book.

Burial Rites - Hannah Kent

Tag..."

Looking forward to your review on this one Jason-it is on my TBR

[Jason]

Joy D wrote: "Hope you enjoy Burial Rites as much as I did, Jason. It is top rate historical fiction in my book."

Your 5 star rating and the first line of your review “Historical fiction at its finest!” Has me excited for it.

[Theresa]

Jason wrote: "Theresa wrote: "Jason wrote: "I am starting in Georgia. I received NE. I am flying to Iceland. Not sure what city yet. I will determine that as I read the book.

Burial Rites - [au..."

I think that's a great idea, Jason! You can do some google diving into places you are not familiar with while reading the books.

[Linda C]

My direction was N from near Rochester, NY - no major cities directly north. I kept going north along the eastern shore of Hudson Bay and across the Northern Passage and ended up on the Northwest shore of Greenland. I have a book Girl in Ice set on fictional "Taararmiut Island off Greenland's northwest coast" p.7 of the book.

I used the farthest airport on the northwest coast as my spot (actually about a quarter of the way down from the top of the country). I put all this info on my tracking thread. Is this what we should do to record each book? Or is there going to be someplace else we need to put things? Do we need to review and post a review?

Just looking to make sure this info is easy for BnB to find. Also to make sure the location is usable for the game do we need to post here? Sorry if I missed this all being discussed somewhere that I missed.

[NancyJ]

Linda C wrote: "My direction was N from near Rochester, NY - no major cities directly north. I kept going north along the eastern shore of Hudson Bay and across the Northern Passage and ended up on the Northwest s..."

Linda,

Snow Road Station by Elizabeth Hay is on my list. It’s based on a real location of the same name, almost directly North of you in Ontario. It’s west of Ottawa.

Travelmath doesn’t recognize all the small towns, but if you google it, you can see its relation to Rochester on the map. I’d estimate that it’s 15-20 degrees from north. It’s closer to directly North than to North East. I didn’t find an exact bearing yet, but if the book is interesting to you, I’ll keep looking.

I think Ottawa would work too, it’s NNE (30 degrees) which I think Fran would OK. NE would be 45 degrees.

[Booknblues]

Linda C wrote: "My direction was N from near Rochester, NY - no major cities directly north. I kept going north along the eastern shore of Hudson Bay and across the Northern Passage and ended up on the Northwest s..."

I looked at a map and can see that Greenland's NW coast is N of Rochester. So you can use this book. It sounds interesting. I think somebody already mentioned White Heat which is in the same general area.

When you ask for a spin, I'm going to want to know where you are headed out from, but it doesn't hurt to double check to make sure.

[Linda C]

So, BnB, how will you be recording points and miles, etc? Do we just use our tracking thread? Do we post it all here when we finish a location?

[Theresa]

Linda C wrote: "My direction was N from near Rochester, NY - no major cities directly north. I kept going north along the eastern shore of Hudson Bay and across the Northern Passage and ended up on the Northwest s..."

This Cold Heaven: Seven Seasons in Greenland by Gretel Ehrlich is a fascinating collection of essays written by a woman who is obsessed with Greenland and its history, geography, people, and everyday life in a world dominated by ice. It is adventure stories, both past (she includes much historic info about Rasmussen and his explorations) and present - her own. Most of the book's essays are set on the Northwest and West coast of Greenland.

[Joy D]

Just wanted to post our mileage calculator from the Fly the Skies challenge, which may help for those places that do not have airports or are reached by non-straight-line flight paths:

Distance Calculator:
https://www.mapdevelopers.com/distanc...

BnB, I hope it is ok with you to use this one, since we used it before.

[Booknblues]

Joy D wrote: "Just wanted to post our mileage calculator from the Fly the Skies challenge, which may help for those places that do not have airports or are reached by non-straight-line flight paths:

Distance Ca..."

Joy, that one works nicely. I like that it shows the line.

If you can see an angle around 45 degrees it will be a NW,NE, SE, SW, NE direction. More horizontal or vertical are N,S,E, W

[Theresa]

Joy D wrote: "Just wanted to post our mileage calculator from the Fly the Skies challenge, which may help for those places that do not have airports or are reached by non-straight-line flight paths:

Distance Ca..."

Thanks for this, Joy! I thought we had used something like that for FtS but had not had time to look for it.

[NancyJ]

Joy D wrote: "Just wanted to post our mileage calculator from the Fly the Skies challenge, which may help for those places that do not have airports or are reached by non-straight-line flight paths:

Distance Ca..."

Thank you!!! I just couldn’t remember what it was called, and I’m on a new computer now.

This shows locations that don’t show up on the other tools I tried.

[NancyJ]

Linda C wrote: "So, BnB, how will you be recording points and miles, etc? Do we just use our tracking thread? Do we post it all here when we finish a location?"

The tool Joy posted shows Snow Road Station Ontario, which is North of Rochester.

I wonder if there are any books set in Prince Edward Ontario , not to be confused with Prince Edward Islands out East.

[Linda C]

Thanks for the book recommendations. I am going to use the one I mentioned in my first post. It is a fictitious place but gives a fairly precise location. And the air miles calculator shows an airport in the area, so I will use that for calculating miles.

[NancyJ]

My first book was Run Towards the Danger: Confrontations with a Body of Memory by Sarah Polley. 4 stars. She is a Toronto Film Director who has adapted movies from books or stories by Margaret Atwood, Alice Munro and Miriam Toews. I now have more Canadian books to read.

I wasn’t sure where to post everything, so I put it in a few different places

The instructions say to validate your departure location (my home?). I validated the arrival location instead since it’s linked to the book I read.

[Booknblues]

NancyJ wrote: "My first book was Run Towards the Danger: Confrontations with a Body of Memory by Sarah Polley. 4 stars. She is a Toronto Film Director who has adapted movies from books or stories ..."

I meant the next departure, which was Toronto for you. I think I'm good with you posting it all in the Compass Review thread. I was trying to figure out what would work best for us& I think that should be good.

[NancyJ]

Booknblues wrote: "NancyJ wrote: "My first book was Run Towards the Danger: Confrontations with a Body of Memory by Sarah Polley. 4 stars. She is a Toronto Film Director who has adapted movies from bo..."

Ok that sounds good,

[Saorsa]

I haven’t looked at the direction for this week. Every digit crossed that it doesn’t have „north“ anywhere in it. And despite the fact that I live just shy of the Arctic Circle, I’m not going to stress about directions beyond that.

Just to clarify though, Fran, I can’t go over the top of the earth for N, NE, or NW, correct? Because technically once you go over the top you are heading south? Like I said, I haven’t looked at the spin, but someone’s comment made me think it’s NE. That doesn’t give me much travel space, so I thought I’d check.

[Joanne]

Saorse-everyone gets there own direction. so your alerting Fran of your start [point will help her send you off

[Amy]

Jason, I know you already picked a book for Iceland that you were really excited about. But I just wanted to say that The Color of Ice by Barbara Lynn Probst was really terrific. Perhaps someone else will use it for Iceland.

[Booknblues]

Saorse wrote: "I haven’t looked at the direction for this week. Every digit crossed that it doesn’t have „north“ anywhere in it. And despite the fact that I live just shy of the Arctic Circle, I’m not going to st..."
Saorse, it was NorthEast. I hope you can find something which will work, if not you may request another spin next Wednesday.

You are correct that you cannot go over the top because then you change directions and begin heading south.

[Amy]

So your low tech girl just spent an hour, after reviewing her first Compass Trip book, and I think I figured some things out. Kind of proud of myself that I think I did it and did it right. Still have to go back and figure out the points, but I am close. Made a list of books that I want to read set between East and West and Everything in Between. Lets pray I don't get a N, NE, or NW. I am already pretty darn high, and I suspect Joy's latitude chart will not work in my favor. There's a lot of work involved in this challenge.... But I also knocked off a Play Harder Prompt, so I am starting strong....

[Booknblues]

Amy wrote: "So your low tech girl just spent an hour, after reviewing her first Compass Trip book, and I think I figured some things out. Kind of proud of myself that I think I did it and did it right. Still h..."

Yay! Amy, you did good.

[Saorsa]

I think I had a few too many helpers on this one. I’m at our cabin in Talkeetna with one of my sons. He is an alpine and wilderness guide and is taking groups out over the holidays. His pilot and one other guy who also flys were taking very seriously maintaining a true Northeasterly heading. I’ll tell you, that misses just about anything anyone ever wrote about. We kept on going and ended up in Canada (which is awesome, given the monthly tag), and we ran into Fort McPherson, in the Northwest Territories. For a tiny place in the middle of nowhere, it has some history. There were four Mounties who went on patrol in the early twentieth century and disappeared without a trace. There are a couple books on that topic. However, my son, the guide, is a biology major who is leaning towards med school. If he does that over wildlife bio, he wants to practice someplace remote. We actually found a book written by a nurse who, with his midwife spouse, spent six years at Fort McPherson. We ordered it so we can both read it. House Calls by Dogsled: Six Years in an Arctic Medical Outpost

As we were sitting around eating, one of the pilots was eyeballing the map and said that he believed Qaanaaq (Thule) Greenland would be in my path. He pointed out that it is still in the northwestern hemisphere quadrant. The pilots whipped out their phones, thumbed away at their aviation apps, and we discovered that it is definitely closer to northeast than north (Fort McPherson is absolutely dead on). There are a couple books, one Arctic expedition type and another about building a nuclear air base there. However, they didn’t look all that well written, and I love reading books with my kids. I know I’m giving up the miles, but I’d rather really enjoy the challenge so I don’t bail. Unfortunately, it said it will take at least two weeks for the book I ordered to come in. On the upside, while it’s not a very short read, it should be a quick one.

[Rachel N.]

Saorse I love how seriously everyone was about making sure you truly went northeast and that you found a book to read with your son.

[LibraryCin]

Saorse wrote: "We actually found a book written by a nurse who, with his midwife spouse, spent six years at Fort McPherson. We ordered it so we can both read it. House Calls by Dogsled: Six Years in an Arctic Medical Outpost..."

I love that you found something so specific in such a small place. And something that sounds really interesting, too! I hope you enjoy it.

[Joi]

Laughing at my S spin. Started in OR, made it 200ish miles to Vancouver Island, now headed South- do I dare just go to Seattle and make this the shortest miles ever? LOL

Either that or maybe San Fran?

[NancyJ]

I want to read Washington Black this month for the Canada tag. It seems to be set in multiple locations starting with Barbados. It also has Arctic tags. What would be the best location to use for compass? Would this fit the journey example discussed last month?

[Joy D]

NancyJ wrote: "I want to read Washington Black this month for the Canada tag. It seems to be set in multiple locations starting with Barbados. It also has Arctic tags. What would be the best locat..."

I read this book last year. It definitely involves a journey, starting in Barbados, traveling by lighter-than-air vehicle called a "cloud-cutter" to various destinations, including Virginia, Canada, England, and I can't remember exactly where in Africa. The protagonist does not travel to the Arctic that I can recall, but his mentor's father has done scientific research in the Arctic, which may be where those tags come from.

[Booknblues]

NancyJ wrote: "I want to read Washington Black this month for the Canada tag. It seems to be set in multiple locations starting with Barbados. It also has Arctic tags. What would be the best locat..."
I would second what Joy said it would fit with a journey. The start would be in Barbados, I believe.

[Joanne]

Fran, could you give your ruling on this one?

Leaving Ho Chi Min, travel to Madagascar

https://www.travelmath.com/distance/f...

Is it too SWS or would it work for SW?

[Booknblues]

Joanne wrote: "Fran, could you give your ruling on this one?

Leaving Ho Chi Min, travel to Madagascar

https://www.travelmath.com/distance/f...

Is it too SWS or would it..."

It looks good to me.

[Joanne]

Booknblues wrote: "Joanne wrote: "Fran, could you give your ruling on this one?

Leaving Ho Chi Min, travel to Madagascar

https://www.travelmath.com/distance/f...

Is it too ..."

Thank you!

[NancyJ]

Thanks Joy and Fran. It doesn’t work for this week, but maybe soon. If my spin was S, I was going to use a free ticket to go directly North to Barbados.

My other multi location books are Cloud Cuckoo Land and Last Chance to See.

[Booknblues]

Jen wrote: "Luggage tag #1: a lighthouse

Departing: San Francisco, California
Heading: North
Destination: Cape Disappointment, Washington
Distance: 738 miles


The Lightkeeper by Susan Wiggs. 3 stars, complet..."

Jen, could you do me a favor and put a link to your review in the Compass Reviews here:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

It will help LibraryCin shelve the books.

[Jen]

Oop so sorry, I put it in the wrong thread. I'll move it!

[Booknblues]

Jen wrote: "Oop so sorry, I put it in the wrong thread. I'll move it!"

No problem.

[Jason]

My goal is to travel once a month. I may do more but...

I am now leaving Iceland and traveling East to Moscow.

The Big Red Train Ride - Eric Newby

[Amy]

Good you - you are having a great spin about the world.... We are all finding such interesting places to land.

[NancyJ]

yes! I finally got a pure West direction, so I can easily find locations on the same latitude!

From Japan I can go West to:

Xian China - Mrs Pollifax - ready to go … OR

Turkey, Istanbul - There Are Rivers in the Sky, or Cloud Cuckoo Land - IF Turkey is a large enough part of the story.

The Mediterranean Sea! What Strange Paradise would have been perfect, plus it has a Canadian author.

Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal

Middle East - several countries, plus the north coast of Africa.

Atlantic islands off Portugal, Canary Islands, others - Are there any ocean or ocean life books, with research or activity set around here?

Any suggestions? I’d love to keep on this latitude for several weeks

[Holly R W]

NancyJ wrote: "yes! I finally got a pure West direction, so I can easily find locations on the same latitude!

From Japan I can go West to:

Xian China - Mrs Pollifax - ready to go … OR

Turkey, Istanbul - [boo..."

Nancy, I looked at some of my shelves for you. Mercury Pictures Presents by Anthony Marra begins in Italy and ends in California. I think you'd like it.