The Alaska Native Reader: History, Culture, Politics

Edited by Maria Williams (Duke University Press, $25.95)

The blurb: This anthology includes essays discussing an array of topics, including contemporary Alaska Native literature, indigenous philosophical and spiritual tenets and the ways that Native peoples are represented in the media. The majority of pieces were written especially for this volume.

Excerpt: "Here is another irony: Mount Susitna is perhaps the only geographic feature in the Anchorage viewscape that the public today readily links with Dena'ina traditions, the so-called Sleeping Lady. Tour guides often repeat a story they claim to be a Dena'ina legend about the mountain's origins. But according to Shem Pete and other Dena'ina elders, the name 'Sleeping Lady' derives from no Dena'ina name and the Sleeping Lady Legend is part of no Dena'ina language oral tradition.

"The Dena'ina name for Mount Susitna is Dghelishla, 'little mountain.' "

Beyond Road's End: Living Free in Alaska

By Janice Schofield Eaton (Alaska Northwest Books, $18.95)

The blurb: An adventurous couple come to Alaska from New Hampshire with dreams of living richly in the wilderness on $10 a day. Part love story, part adventure and part natural history, "Beyond Road's End" is a touching memoir of carving out a life in Alaska during the state's coming-of-age decade.

Excerpt: "In Seldovia, May mountains wear winter coats; town roads are bare. I drive Greenie and Ed hops aboard Big Red. At the mill, we load packs, down bedding, and the ice chest into the trailer. The three-wheeler fires into action. We roar to the switchback and claw up the white slope. Snow deepens but the three-wheeler chugs onward. I lean into Ed's back, bug his waist, and smile at our newfound ease. Max dashes ahead and circles back like a border collie to herd us home."