Reading the North

By Mattox Roesch (Unbridled Books, $15.95)

The blurb: Troubled Cesar leaves his gangbanging life behind in Los Angeles to help his Eskimo mother reconnect with her estranged family in rural Alaska. This debut novel is the account of two unlikely cousins and their parallel journeys as they struggle with the quirky challenges of life in Unalakleet.

Excerpt: "Go-boy picks me up on my second day in Unk and offers me either a boat ride upriver or another drive up the road. I guess this is what you do here -- ride -- and there are some things I didn't see yesterday. A couple gravel pits, a dump, a fuel tank field, and a brand-new jail a lot of guys in town are contracted to build. I say okay to the ride. We drive out of town a few miles in Go's wagon. On the way we pass the new jail's work site -- a big hole in the ground, bordered with piles of fresh sand and rocks, and I ask why such a small village needs a jail at all.

"'It's for the whole region,' Go says. 'But yeah, I doubt we'll need it much longer. Things have sure been getting better out here.'"

The Frozen Ship: The Histories and Tales of Polar Exploration

By Sarah Moss (BlueBridge Books, $13.95)

The blurb: "The Frozen Ship" is as much about the literature of polar travel, about why explorers continued to write even as they faced imminent death and why the public consumed these accounts. Moss did extensive research; 50 percent of the explorer stories and travel accounts in the book have not appeared in print since they were first published 50 to 200 years ago. She also covers the stories and history of women at the ends of the earth, rarely reported before.

Excerpt: "The voyage was relatively short, but Letitia had had enough. Weakened by seasickness and chaotic cystitis, about which she did not dare consult the ship's doctor, she broke down when the sailors' response to the sight of land was to drink themselves into oblivion. 'My 1st exploit on being lowered into the yawl, was to turn my back on the company and cry myself sick' ... But within a few days, Letitia was feeling much better, and becoming fascinated by her new life. She soon found herself 'in the family way' and took a particular interest in the babies she saw around Fort York. Her attitude to the Native Americans was not enlightened, but she was intrigued by difference, and this itself can be seen as an achievement for the product of a Victorian finishing school in Edinburgh."

Compiled by Mike Dunham, Daily News arts editor.