Coming Into the Country by John McPhee
Publisher Comments When Richard Nixon signed the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act in 1971, eighty million acres were flagged as possible national park land. Field expeditions were tasked with recording what was contained in these vast acres. Under this decree, five men were sent into the sprawling, roadless interior of Alaska, unsure of what theyandrsquo;d encounter and ultimately responsible for the fate of four thousand pristine acres. Life and Times of a Big River follows Peter J. Marchand and his team of biologists as they set out to explore the land that would ultimately become the Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve. Their encounters with strange plants, rare insects, and little-known mammals bring to life a land once thought to be static and monotonous. And their struggles to navigate and adapt to an unforgiving environment capture the rigorous demands of remote field work. Weaving in and out ofand#160;Marchandand#39;s narrative is an account of the natural and cultural history of the area as it relates to the expedition and the regionandrsquo;s Native peoples. Life and Times of a Big Riverand#160;chorincles this riveting, one-of-a-kind journey of uncertainty and discovery from a disparate (and at one point desperate) group of biologists. Your price $13.95 Used Trade Paperback
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The Tutka Bay Lodge Cookbook: Coastal Cuisine from the Wilds of Alaska by Kirsten Dixon and Mandy Dixon
Synopsis In personal stories, evocative photographs, and recipes that are purposefully simple and designed for the home cook, Chef Kirsten Dixon and her family share fresh, rustic cuisine offering friendship, communicating passion, and bringing comfort and delight to the table. This recipe collection represents the cuisine at Tutka Bay Lodge, the Dixons' seaside lodge nestled within the curve of a quiet cove at the entrance to Tutka Bay, a deep seven-mile fjord in Kachemak Bay, Alaska. In oldworld tradition, Kirsten Dixon's family works together to craft a lifestyle that centers around three themes: the natural world, their culinary lives, and living a life of adventure. The cookbook is organized by sections for breakfast, lunch, appetizers, dinner, and the Cooking School at Tutka Bay. Among the one hundred recipes are Brioche Doughnuts with Cider Black Currant Marmalade, Hot-Smoked Salmon Croquettes, Grilled Oysters with Salmon Bacon and Pernod, Braised Short Rib Ravioli, and Wild Berry Chocolate Shortcake. "Seafood is the star of our cuisine here, as it should be. We certainly serve our share of ocean-caught salmon throughout the entire summer season. Halibut, cod, rockfish, shrimp, and crab also are served nearly daily. We are never too far from the garden in our cooking and many of our recipes include fresh-picked herbs or vegetables that grow well in Alaska. In addition, the wild berries, herbs, mushrooms, and sea vegetables inspire us to remember where on the Earth we live and how lucky we are," Kirsten says. Your price $26.99 New Trade Paperback
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Braving It: A Father, a Daughter, and an Unforgettable Journey Into the Alaskan Wild by James Campbell
Synopsis The powerful and affirming story of a father's journey with his teenage daughter to the far reaches of Alaska Alaska s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, home to only a handful of people, is a harsh and lonely place. So when James Campbell s cousin Heimo Korth asked him to spend a summer building a cabin in the rugged Interior, Campbell hesitated about inviting his fifteen-year-old daughter, Aidan, to join him: Would she be able to withstand clouds of mosquitoes, the threat of grizzlies, bathing in an ice-cold river, and hours of grueling labor peeling and hauling logs? But once there, Aidan embraced the wild. She even agreed to return a few months later to help the Korths work their traplines and hunt for caribou and moose. Despite windchills of 50 degrees below zero, father and daughter ventured out daily to track, hunt, and trap. Under the supervision of Edna, Heimo s Yupik Eskimo wife, Aidan grew more confident in the woods. Campbell knew that in traditional Eskimo cultures, some daughters earned a rite of passage usually reserved for young men. So he decided to take Aidan back to Alaska one final time before she left home. It would be their third and most ambitious trip, backpacking over Alaska s Brooks Range to the headwaters of the mighty Hulahula River, where they would assemble a folding canoe and paddle to the Arctic Ocean. The journey would test them, and their relationship, in one of the planet s most remote places: a land of wolves, musk oxen, Dall sheep, goldeneagles, and polar bears. At turns poignant and humorous, Braving It is an ode to America s disappearing wilderness and a profound meditation on what it means for a child to grow up and a parent to finally, fully let go. Amazon Best of the Month pick in Biographies & Memoirs for May Longlisted for Banff Mountain Book Competition in "Adventure Travel" category" Trade Paperback
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Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
Publisher Comments NATIONAL BESTSELLER — The mesmerizing, heartbreaking tale of an enigmatic young man who goes missing in the wild and whose story captured the world's attention.
“Terrifying…Eloquent…A heart-rending drama of human yearning.” New York Times
In April 1992 a young man from a well-to-do family hitchhiked to Alaska and walked alone Into the Wilderness north of Mt. McKinley. He had given $25,000 in savings to charity, abandoned his car and most of his possessions, burned all the cash in his wallet, and invented a new life for himself. Four months later, his decomposed body was found by a moose hunter. How Christopher Johnson McCandless came to die is the unforgettable story of Into the Wild.
Immediately after graduating from college in 1991, McCandless had roamed through the West and Southwest on a vision quest like those made by his heroes Jack London and John Muir. In the Mojave Desert he abandoned his car, stripped it of its license plates, and burned all of his cash. He would give himself a new name, Alexander Supertramp, and, unencumbered by money and belongings, he would be free to wallow in the raw, unfiltered experiences that nature presented. Craving a blank spot on the map, McCandless simply threw the maps away. Leaving behind his desperate parents and sister, he vanished Into the Wild.
Jon Krakauer constructs a clarifying prism through which he reassembles the disquieting facts of McCandless's short life. Admitting an interest that borders on obsession, he searches for the clues to the drives and desires that propelled McCandless.
When McCandless's innocent mistakes turn out to be irreversible and fatal, he becomes the stuff of tabloid headlines and is dismissed for his naiveté, pretensions, and hubris. He is said to have had a death wish but wanting to die is a very different thing from being compelled to look over the edge. Krakauer brings McCandless's uncompromising pilgrimage out of the shadows, and the peril, adversity, and renunciation sought by this enigmatic young man are illuminated with a rare understanding — and not an ounce of sentimentality. Mesmerizing, heartbreaking, Into the Wild is a tour de force. The power and luminosity of Jon Krakauer's stoytelling blaze through every page.
Your price $10.95 Used Trade Paperback
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Deeper Sleep a Kate Shugak Novel by Dana Stabenow
Publisher Comments Kate Shugak, a private investigator, has been working on a case for the Anchorage District Attorney involving the murder of a young woman by her husband, a man named Louis Deem. Deem has been the subject of investigations before, and hes never been convicted of a crime. But Kate and her on-again, off-again lover, state trooper Jim Chopin, who arrested Deem, are convinced that this time its different—and hell finally be punished for his actions.
When the jury returns a verdict of not guilty, Kate, Jim, and citizens of Niniltna, Alaska, believe Deem has gotten away with murder. And when, a few weeks later, two people turn up dead after an apparent robbery, Kate and Jim cant help but believe that Deem is involved…but what it takes to bring Deem to justice could tear them apart—if the real killer doesnt get to them first. Mass Market
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Alaska by James A Michener
Publisher Comments In this sweeping epic of the northernmost American frontier, James A. Michener guides us across Alaskas fierce terrain, from the long-forgotten past to the bustling technological present, as his characters struggle for survival. The exciting high points of Alaskas story, from its brutal prehistory, through the nineteenth century and the American acquisition, to its modern status as Americas thriving forty-ninth state, are brought vividly to life in this remarkable novel: the gold rush; the tremendous growth and exploitation of the salmon industry; the discovery of oil and its social and economic consequences; the difficult construction of the Alcan Highway, which made possible the defense of the territory in World War II. A spellbinding portrait of a human community struggling to establish its place in the world, Alaska traces a bold and majestic history of the enduring spirit of a land and its people. Your price $11.95 Used Trade Paperback
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Jimmy Bluefeather by Kim Heacox
Synopsis Old Keb Wisting is somewhere around ninety-five years old (he lost count awhile ago) and in constant pain and thinks he wants to die. He also thinks he thinks too much. Part Norwegian and part Tlingit Native ( with some Filipino and Portuguese thrown in ), he s the last living canoe carver in the village of Jinkaat, in Southeast Alaska. When his grandson, James, a promising basketball player, ruins his leg in a logging accident and tells his grandpa that he has nothing left to live for, Old Keb comes alive and finishes his last canoe, with help from his grandson. Together (with a few friends and a crazy but likeable dog named Steve) they embark on a great canoe journey. Suddenly all of Old Keb s senses come into play, so clever and wise in how he reads the currents, tides, and storms. Nobody can find him. He and the others paddle deep into wild Alaska, but mostly into the human heart, in a story of adventure, love, and reconciliation. With its rogue s gallery of colorful, endearing, small-town characters, this book stands as a wonderful blend of Mark Twain s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and John Nichols s The Milagro Beanfield War, with dashes of John Steinbeck thrown in. " Your price $9.95 Used Trade Paperback
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The Reader's Companion to Alaska by Alan Ryan
Publisher Comments The Alaskan frontier is revealed at its most inspiring and unforgiving, through the eyes of its awestruck visitors. An enraptured John Muir first glimpses Glacier Bay; Jon Krakauer marvels at the sight of a grizzlys footprints in the snow; Erma Bombeck comments on the “cruise from hell,” and more. Map. Your price $30.00 New Trade Paperback
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Klondike Fever The Life & Death of the Last Great Gold Rush by Pierre Berton
Publisher Comments In 1897 a grimy steamer docked in Seattle and set into epic motion the incredible succession of events that Pierre Berton's exhilarating The Klondike Fever chronicles in all its splendid and astonishing folly. For the steamer Portland bore two tons of pure Klondike gold. And immediately, the stampede north to Alaska began. Easily as many as 100,000 adventurers, dreamers, and would-be miners from all over the world struck out for the remote, isolated gold fields in the Klondike Valley, most of them in total ignorance of the long, harsh Alaskan winters and the territory's indomitable terrain. Less than a third of that number would complete the enormously arduous mountain journey to their destination. Some would strike gold. Berton's story belongs less to the few who would make their fortunes than to the many swept up in the gold mania, to often unfortunate effects and tragic ends. It is a story of cold skies and avalanches, of con men and gamblers and dance hall girls, of sunken ships, of suicides, of dead horses and desperate men, of grizzly old miners and millionaires, of the land its exploitation and revenge. It is a story of the human capacity to dream, and to endure. Your price $8.95 Used Trade Paperback
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