This is a wonderful non-fiction book that you can dip in to at a whim.

I was surprised to see not only words from snow-rich areas, but also words and stories relating to snow from areas with warm climate throughout most of the year.

This book is a gem! I wish it had been longer.

“Fifty Words For Snow” is a beautiful, simple and quick, yet educational and well-researched read. Perfect for those cozy nights this season to learn about cultures around the world, including some smaller, lesser-known ones to discuss either the climate, attitudes or rituals surrounding snow and winter and the words used to describe it.

My only complaint was the consistency in length of each word/chapter. Some had 3-5 pages, and some were a paragraph or even less.

Nancy Campbell's The Library of Ice is possibly my favourite modern book about the polar regions (with the exception of Jean McNeil's Ice Diaries) so my expectations for Fifty Words for Snow were high. Ultimately, it's a very different book; fifty very short essays on words for snow or other cold phenomena, spanning the globe from the expected locations - Alaska, Patagonia, Iceland, Russia - to the less expected - Hawaii, New Guinea, Ethiopia. I had the Kindle proof, and I think I'd have enjoyed the book more if I'd read the hard copy, which looks absolutely stunning; it's a book that you want to savour slowly, rather than just read. However, I loved many of these snippets of ice and snow lore. Some of my favourite bits: the Estonian 'ice roads', which form over the frozen surfaces of bodies of water, and which cars can only drive across if they follow a strict set of safety rules; keeping to speeds of between 25-40 km/h, with no stopping allowed, because changes to the car's rate of progress may cause a wave under the ice. Japanese tales of the snow woman, or 'yuki-onna', who is generated from a snowdrift and searches for human lovers. The snow artists who design snow for films, and 'les pisteurs' who monitor ski slopes in France for avalanches. The reason that pines remain evergreen when other leaves fall, told both through plant biology and a traditional Cherokee story. I thought Campbell's essays worked better when she let these fascinating facts stand on their own, rather than trying to draw them together into an awkward moral at the end, as she does with some of the pieces. But this is an interesting collection that would make a great gift. 3.5 stars.

A lovely winter read! I enjoyed dipping into this during my lunch break. Ea h story is well told and a pleasure to read.

Thankyou so much to Netgalley and Nancy Campbell for allowing me to read an Arc of this beautiful book.

This book goes through such a beautiful journey of the eloquent silence of snow. Nancy Campbells writing is poetic, tender and detailed. She guides is around the world, introducing us to the lores and history of snow, how its viewed and how such a beautiful thing has given birth to stories and tales.
Separating each definition is a beautiful illustrations of detailed snowflakes, absolutely stunning art.

A perfect book to dip in and out of and would make a lovely gift for any reader. You learn so much while also picturing the beautiful lands described.

I will say I feel like under some of the words there could have been a breakdown of how your pronounce it, as some I'm sure I completely butchered.

I don’t know what I thought I would get from Fifty Words for Snow — its description made me think that it would have something to do with how culture shapes language and how language then reflects culture in return; and further, how declining rates of snow will contribute to losses of culture and language — and as a resident of Canada, I thought there would be something for me to identify with here. But for the most part, there wasn’t much. Author Nancy Campbell — a poet and essayist — has lived and worked in Arctic landscapes, and with an interest in how climate change is impacting those landscapes (and the people still trying to eke out a traditional life within them) and with a partner whose stroke-induced aphasia has made her more attuned to “the complexity of language loss”, I was somehow set up to expect more from this. What there is: Literally, fifty words for snow from languages around the world, followed by an essay (from a paragraph to many pages) that gives some context for how the word is used (whether in everyday use, mythology/literature, or the sciences) , each accompanied by a gorgeous photo of a snowflake by Wilson Bentley (1865-1931, the first known person to take detailed photographs of snowflakes and record their features). What is missing: A through theme or analysis or overarching conclusion; this is more coffee table book than narrative nonfiction (and to be fair, I wasn’t promised more than a coffee table book).