Alaska Books

This is an excellent book that shows how 'real Alaaskans' lived. All of the stories in the book are told from the perspective of the author when he was a child. We find out what he did with his brothers to pass the time when they lived in the middle of nowhere.

This book is filled with vivid and humerous detail in every story. You will die laughing as he talks about the outhouse, how he fought it, and how it defeated him. You will also laugh at their Christmas traditions, but will also want to adapt them for yourselves as well. Even in a tragic story about a fire, he finds a moment of humor.

And for those who love animal tales, he dedicates a story to each of the three dogs that he remembers, as well as a truly uniqe story of a purple parakeet. Each story he captures their essence so well that you feel like you knew that pet.

If you love stories about Alaska life, you'll love it. If you love to laugh, you'll want to read this. If you love stories about kids antics and thought processes, you'll love this book. If you like Dave Barry, you'll probably like this as well...

My daughter and I enjoyed reading this book last summer. I read it out loud to her as she was recovering from mono. The stories were unique and kept us intrigued. After each story, I would ask her if she wanted another, and the answer was always "yes". The stories revolved around episodes in the lives of five brothers who were raised in a house without water and electricity. This setting, and the outrageous antics of the boys, provided visual images that I never could have dreamed of! I recommend this book to those who want an "up close and personal" account of an active family living in a remote part of Alaska. I promise you that you have never read anything quite like this.

'Where Salmon come to die' gives an accurate account of what life is like in a remote Southeast Alaska (Department of Fish and Game) fieldcamp. This book contains wonderful desciptions of the pristine beauty of the land and its inhabitants; a beauty which has been lost in many other developped places. The accounts are based on the authors diary and on correspondences with his family. I verify that the story is true and believe I can do so, since I was the other person who lived with the author in that fieldcamp on Chichagof Island back in the fall of 1982.

We read reports of declining fish stocks, but seldom peerbehind the human drama in gathering these statistics. LeonKolankiewicz opens a window to the distant, mysterious, isolated and sometimes hostile world of data collectors on Alaska's raincoast in autumn. Migratory habits of spawning salmon never evolved to fit neatly within the convenience of Alaska's Department of Fish and Game workers. The salmons' final run to the place of their upstream birth, and death, coincide with brutally cold and damp conditions. Who might apply for jobs as data gatherers with the Department, and what might they think about when reaching this remote destination at the last American frontier? Here's your answer on 126 memory-filled pages. The book is a compilation of the author's letters to his parents in autumn 1982 while writing from his tent on the raincoast, in the company of bears and natural hazards. The majestic setting inspires a literary account with almost poetic quality. Leon's respect for the intended recipients of the letters imparts another worthy dimension to this book. He draws the reader into an intimate relationship with his parents. As parents, may we all be so thoughtful and compassionate to merit the lasting tribute paid by this author in his letters home. The real life adventure and purpose captured within these letters makes this book a worthy source of information for anyone thinking about writing home.

great photos by Tom Walker (wonderful wildlife photographer) that both adults and children enjoy ( so reading to my nephew is just as much fun for me!) the poems by Tom walker are very catchy (but once again not annoying for an adult to read over and over and over again!)

I bought this book (along with some other children's books about Alaska) when we visited the state four summers ago. Our son was 6 at the time. Wild Critters was his (and my) favorite!

It is sweetly amusing--with a photograph of a "wild critter" on one page and a short poem about it on the opposite page. A musk ox, fox, mountain goat, grizzly bear and many others are the subjects of these delightful poems. Each poem captures a quality that a young child--and the adult reading it--can relate to. For example, in a poem called "Back Seat Loonacy", the baby loon cries, " 'Are we there yet? Are we there yet?' Still the same old beat. No we are not there yet, why don't you try to eat?" My personal favorite is the poem for the Musk Ox, titled "Flower child". In part, it reads: "Few can understand me and some say I'm a slob. All they do is tell me, "Get a haircut, get a job".

The titles of the poems are amusing and inviting: "Pfine pfeathered pfashion" is about the ptarmigan and "The arctic waterbed" is about the polar bear, and so on. The photographs of the animals in their natural habitats are outstanding. They are either amusing (the grizzly trying to scratch his back on a post) or endearing (a baby caribou peeking around its mother).

I've emphasized the creative, delighful nature of this book, but it also teaches a small child much about the animals depicted: about how animals camouflage themselves, about how sea otters eat, about how fast a snowshoe hare can race across a field. An added surprise (which I loved because it's so subtle) is that each page number sits on a color imprint of the track of that particular animal.

I highly recommend this book to parents with children ages 3 and up. Even older children taking poetry in class can enjoy the simple, clever rhymes and use them as models for their own poetry.

In closing, I'll quote one of the most endearing poems--"Peekaboo caribou": "With nowhere else to go to hide from one another, I found the safest place to hide is right behind my mother". Enjoy.

Williwaw takes place in the Aleutian Islands of Alaska during World War II. The main action takes place during a freak, intense wind storm the eskimos call a "williwaw," it whips down off the coastal mountains and causes havoc, freak seas, etc. Gore Vidal, in this, his first novel (1946), creates a wonderful Joseph Conradian feel as tensions mount aboard a army transport ship making a weekly run. I don't want to spoil the ending. There is (I thought) a very CLIMACTIC moment when the tensions among the crew rise to their heights just as the williwaw hits, and - something happens. The serious tone and cool style of this book I found admirable. As a war novel I liked it as much as the ver different Joseph Heller's "Catch-22," and the lyrical, Tennessee Williams-like John Horne Burns' novel "The Gallery," while I liked it more so than Mailer's "Naked and the Dead" - which I liked for its themes and observations, I just wish Mailer could have (in my opinion) skipped the repetition and saved about 400 pages.

The copyright page of Gore Vidal's "Williwaw" notes that the novel was first published in 1946. In a preface Vidal describes the background of this novel. He served in the U.S. Army during World War II and, at age 19, became first mate of an army freight-supply ship based in the Aleutian Islands. He worked on this book while on night watch in port. "Williwaw" is similarly set in the Aleutian Islands during that war, and focuses on the passengers and crew of an army freight-passenger ship that is skippered by a warrant officer. The story follows the ship's perilous passage between islands. Vidal sheds light on the book's title in his preface: he defines williwaws as "sudden devastating winds that come without warning down from the island mountains."

Vidal has crafted a gripping wartime adventure. He masterfully charts the crew's struggle against the harsh, and potentially deadly, Aleutian environment. Equally compelling is the tension and conflict that build among the crew members. As the story develops, Vidal creates vivid portraits of the Aleutian Islands and the sea around them. The story is rich in details of the crew's daily life and routine on board the ship, as well as of their recreation in a seedy port town.

Overall, Vidal's prose style in the book is very clean and matter-of-fact; I found it a very effective mode for this particular story. His portrait of the wartime Army is full of satiric touches that are sometimes subtle, sometimes funny. Ultimately "Williwaw" struck me as having a dark, almost nihilistic vision of the human condition. But it's a darkness that I found thought-provoking, and not repellent. Through his plot and characters Vidal takes such basic concepts as love, religion, heroism, and justice and seems to strip them bare. "Williwaw" is, in my judgment, not only a solid adventure tale, but also a unique and compelling contribution to the canon of American war fiction.

I bought it for my daughter, who is a chef, after seeing it in Homer, AK. Will give it to her for Christmas and I know she'll love it.

I had the good fortune to stay at Winterlake Lodge this past summer. Kirsten and Carl Dixon have built, literally with their own hands, a slice of heaven in the wilderness. Kirsten's new book captures the majic and majesty of their home on Finger Lake Alaska. Her recipes and narratives make you feel you are there. Actually, I had a chance to see the publisher's proof of the new cookbook during my stay. I even had a chance to join Kirsten in her kitchen to prepare her recipe for Gruyere cheese puffs. I couldn't wait for the book to finally go to press. After reading it again, I definitely plan to go back to Winterlake Lodge. But, in the meantime, I'll have a chance to relive my experience by trying some of Kirsten's simple, yet outstanding, recipes. This is a great book for cooking afficionado's and for those who just want to learn more about the Alaska experience.

This book is a popular book up here (Alaska) and many of the stoves are in wide use in remote cabins. A very practical, hands on book for anyone interested in constructing their own economical wood stove. Quite thorough and well illustrated but somewhat dated as are most books in the do-it-yourself outdoors genre.

In this book the Author gives a good overview of stoves for heating a small space and excellent information on dealing with a wood stove as a sole heat source. Then, where he really takes off is on MAKING very simple stoves out of oil drums, old tins or used gas tanks. What had before seemed to me a difficult or near impossible task, was quickly transformed into a very do-able thing. For use as a cabin or garage heater, a stove to use in a large tent, or as the Author suggests, as an emergency stove, this is the way to go.

I've lived in Alaska for a long time and I've had the privilege of traveling to the Bristol Bay area and other parts of western Alaska a good number of times. The allure of this area for many is the trophy fishing, but one of the things that any visitor to this area comes away with is a vision of an area whose rare beauty goes beyond the fish that live in the streams, or the animals that stalk the land and that also attract hunters.

In addition, for the photographer, the land of western Alaska poses both opportunities and challenges. The opportunities of course are the many beautiful vistas. The challenges are capturing the spirit of a truly unique landscape.

In this book -- "Wood-Tikchik" and another volume "Rivers of Life", Mr. Ketchum succeeds where in my opinion no one else has in capturing the spirit of the land in the Bristol Bay and western Alaska regions. This is not merely a collection of pictures to grace a coffee table, this is a photographic record of a very unique land.

This is a book that will be treasured. I highly recommend you get a copy. Maybe more than one....it makes a great present.

Wood-Tikchik: Alaska's Largest State Park is an impressive and superbly presented compendium of Robert Glenn Ketchum's magnificent color photography showcasing the pristine natural areas comprising the largest state park in Alaska. A vast, river-laced landscape, Ketchum approached this project with a true artist's eye to visually capture extraordinary photographs of unforgettable Alaska mountain and tundra landscape. Also very highly recommended are Robert Glenn Ketchum's previous master collections of photographic excellence: Rivers of Life: Southwest Alaska, the Last Great Salmon Fishery () and The Tongass: Alaska's Vanishing Rain Forest

What a treat! Mickey shares the ups and downs of an amazing and amusing trek across the continent. Great read and very insightful...maybe I'll dust off my old Schwinn!

Mickey Thomas takes you on a fun journey with him to Alaska by bike. It's obvious that he had fun because the book is full of warm and sometimes ironic humor. The book is easy to read and hard to put down.

The story of the group's trip is well constructed. There are interesting characters, dramatic events, funny interludes, and suspenseful developments.

The book makes me want to read more of Thomas's cycling adventures.

Fascinating pictorial book about the sternwheelers that plied the lakes and streams of the Yukon River before, during, and after the Klondike Gold Rush.

The sternwheelers played a crucial role in development of the region and in the gold rush, especially prior to the White Pass and Yukon Route railroad, which was built in 1898-99. The WPYR provided a rail route from Skagway to Whitehorse eventually, but it was the connections with the sternwheelers that made the journey of hundreds of miles from Skagway to Dawson City much easier.

Eventually, highways and airplanes killed off the sternwheelers, bringing to an end this romantic era in the north.

This books lets you seem them in their glory days.

Gary Christenson

Stan Cohen's "Yukon River Steamboats" book has provided excellent historical and visual information about the early Steamboats on the Yukon River, and their environmental history of that time period.

The Archival Collections of the Mercer County Historical Museum, 130 East Market, Box 512, Celina, OH 45822, contains two gold rush diaries and two photograph albums, with ledgers, claims, and a packet of letters, from a group of 15 men from Ohio, who went on the gold rush 1898-1900. Their Steamer was the D. Armstrong, from St. Marys, Ohio. They mention nearly one hundred different steamboats, in their diaries.

In Cohen's book, he names several of the same steamboats: St. Michael, P.B. Weare,Sybil, Yukon, Susie, Monarch, Alice, Tyrrell, Sarah, Hannah, Oil City, Leah, Louise, and Jennie M. Cohen illustrated his books with excellent photographs. On page 110, he gave reference to Mr. William D. McBride of Whitehorse, who in 1949, compiled a list of boats for "Caribou and NOrthwest Digest" magazine. (Now, I am quest of a copy of that magazine."

This July (2000) I visited Alaska and the Yukon Territory, in quest of information about this 1898-1900 gold rush. People in Fairbanks,Wiseman, Anchorage and Dawson gave me excellent help. This past year, many Alaskans have corresponded with me, helping me with my research on the gold rush story.

Now, I am preparing a manuscript from these Ohioan's gold rush diaries. They spent the winter of 1898-1899 on the Koyukuk river and its tributaries. They spent the summer of 1899, on the Yukon, near Weare (Tanana). They spent the winter of 1899-1900 on the Chena and its tributaries. They often mention the Jennie M. and the Currier parties, in their daily diaries. They also mention members of the Str. Argo, Str. Illinois, Str. Kyle, STr. Winthrop, Str. North Star, Str. Luella, et. al.

If anyone would be interested in corresponding with me, about these diaries of the gold rush, and/or steamboats on the Yukon, I would be glad to hear from them.

I especially recommend Stan Cohen for providing this beautiful book. I also enjoy his book, "Klondike Centennial Scrapbook, with Candy Waugaman's Collection."

Joyce Alig, Director Mercer County Historical Museum, The Riley Home 130 East Market, Box 512 Celina, OH 45822

This book was very good and i would recomend this book to younger children. It has stories about an elite fighting force. It tells about the hardships of Ireland and one man's struggle. A very good book i would buy it