‘The Salmon Way’ is a breezy, enjoyable jaunt through the Alaska state of mind
Amy Gulick, a veteran outdoors and travel writer, offers a peek into the cultural role salmon play in Alaska, and how the lives of humans and fish are intertwined.
Books
How one man’s passion for fly-fishing led to protecting Russian salmon rivers
Book review: “Stronghold” is thestory of one man, Guido Rahr, responsible for initiating and advancing the stronghold concept in the North Pacific, particularly on Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula.
In ‘Heart of the World,' a legendary scientist and outdoorsman confronts a fatal diagnosis
Book review: Ned Rozell’s book follows the story of Keith Echelmeyer, a UAF professor of geophysics, climber and backcountry maniac who showed through his death how to live.
Our book reviewers’ favorite reads of 2019
From poetry to fiction and true crime, these are the books that left the deepest impressions on ADN reviewers David James and Nancy Lord this year.
In Greenland’s ice, the world’s past, present and future
Book review: The timing could not be better for publication of “The Ice at the End of the World,” a comprehensive examination of European exploration and discovery in Greenland by historian and science journalist Jon Gertner.
Poet and naturalist Elizabeth Bradfield turns her vision south
Book review: Bradfield challenges not just the traditions of travel writing and our ideas of the place we know as Antarctica, but the forms and uses of poetry.
How clairvoyants and spiritual fads followed 19th century British Arctic expeditions
Book review: For diehards beset by Franklin Fever, “The Spectral Arctic” is yet another book that should be added to the list.
Launching a book on Alaska food, Julia O’Malley talks food trends and the surprising beauty of a Jell-O salad
“The Whale and the Cupcake: Stories of Subsistence, Longing, and Community in Alaska" is available now. O’Malley will sign copies at a release party Friday at the Anchorage Museum.
Scientific method meets 'A Wilder Time,’ in tales drawn from Greenland’s ice sheet
Book review: “A Wilder Time” is largely about the process of science — how it is to have a theory and proceed to test it, how science is always questioning, always re-evaluating and revising what we know about life.
5 Alaska children’s books perfect for gifting this holiday season
Those looking for gifts for kids can find some fine children’s books that take readers all across the Last Frontier.
After Tahlequah and her calf, an anthology dedicated to orcas and their world
Book review: Several Alaskan writers contributed to “For Love of Orcas," an anthology sparked by the story of an orca that carried her dead calf for 17 days around Puget Sound.
In ‘Shadowed Times,’ stories of an earlier — but not simpler — time
Book review: George Harbeson Jr.'s roots in Alaska are deep, and the stories in this slightly uneven but mostly quite good collection often hark back to an Alaska that’s slipped away in the age of the internet.
From Quinhagak to Scotland, archaeology reveals meaning in new book of essays
Book review: In “Surfacing,” Kathleen Jamie, a poet and nonfiction writer from Scotland, follows her fascination with archaeology and cultural histories to various sites around the world.
Tales of spectacular derring-do make ‘Flight to the Top of the World’ a fun read
Book review: With its flying machines, newfangled radios, grubby mechanics and Arctic backdrop, this would be a great steampunk novel — were it not an entirely factual account of journalist-celebrity Walter Wellman.
New history compares the two sides of the Bering Strait and the waters between
Bathsheba Demuth’s book is touted as the first-ever comprehensive history of Beringia, the lands and waters in and around the Bering Strait in both Alaska and Russia.
‘American Predator’ is a chilling, meticulous look into the life of serial killer Israel Keyes
Book review: “American Predator” isn’t easy reading. But by drawing from documents, court records, and interviews, Maureen Callahan produced a superb work of true crime writing.
50 years of patient observation is the foundation of a new book of wildlife photography
Book review: Tom Walker’s “Wild Shots” is an examination of a life that reveres other life, studies it in often uncomfortable circumstances, and achieves a blissful satisfaction with a realized image.
Lyricism of ‘Water Mask’ takes readers deep into Alaska, and into an inquisitive mind
Monica Devine, who lives in Eagle River, turns to memoir writing, sifting through the back pages of her life for stories and reflecting them outward onto Alaska and the world.
‘Monty Python’ alum takes on tale of doomed Franklin expedition in new book
Book review: Author, television host and all-around polymath Michael Palin has turned his attention to the story of the lead ship, turning out one of the most enjoyably readable books about 19th century British maritime excursions and the Royal Navy’s most famous nonmilitary failure to be had.
New collection brings together Alaska poet John Morgan’s impressive early work
Book review: A beautifully arranged collection, with a stunning cover by Fairbanks artist David Mollett, gives fans a retrospective of Morgan’s early work while serving as an introduction to new readers.