Sarah Palin and the Wasilla Warriors
By Mike Shropshire (St Martin's Press, $25.99)
The blurb: The story of the 1982 Alaska state basketball championship details how Sarah Palin and her teammates overcame odds on and off the court.
Excerpt: "When it came to the concept of entertainment and nightlife, Wasilla could offer little more than was available at Red Devil and Lime Village stuck back in the Kuskokwim Mountains. High school basketball would take center stage, and with practice about to begin in the late October chill and the snow already falling, the Wasilla Warriors were no different than the North Pole Patriots or the Ketchikan Kings.
"Every team was striving toward something that was more than a goal. It was a mission, and that was to fight their way -- Arctic Circle style -- into the event known as March Madness, the Alaskan state basketball championship games in the big tournament in Anchorage."
Obscured Views
Photos by Joe Kashi (Joseph Kashi)
The blurb: This collection of photographs was mostly taken in the Kenai area, principally through the frozen windows in the historic cabin that now houses Veronica's Cafe.
Excerpt: "Winters are long and often severe at Alaska's high latitudes. During much of each year, we see our world through the inherently obscured view out our windows.
"Physically, windows constrain and frame our view of the world, limiting what we can see and know of it. Windows bound, as well, what we allow ourselves to see and comprehend of ourselves and our environment. Like windows, photographs frame our view of the world and define what we have chosen to see of it. These photographs, then, are a metaphorical examination of one small part of our local world as experienced and of the difficulties in seeing clearly, without preconception."
Compiled by Matt Sullivan, Anchorage Daily News