Alaska Books

Collecting the stories of the WEstern Union Telegraph Expedition in a colorfully dictated edition featuring Dall's accounts from 1866 through the gold rush of the Klondyke.

The tone and tenor of this excellent history of Alaska matches perfectly the subject it details: straightforward, lively, tough-minded, and sincere. She relates the history of the state from the first Russian fur trading stations of the 1700s through the most recent trends, including the building of the Alaskan pipeline and modern mining developments. Still considered a frontier up to the present day, Webb focuses on various "frontiers" throughout Alaska's history: the trader's frontier, the explorer's frontier, the miner's frontier, and others, including transportation (3 chapters), the military, and missionaries. Webb has a great feel for this vast land and for the people who have chosen to inhabit it; she obviously is concerned with the big issues, but she also includes the simpler human-interest concerns, such as what mail carrier Ed Biederman went through to deliver the mail in winter in the early 1900s. Her writing is vivid and the story of Alaska that she tells is interesting and informative from beginning to end. Highly recommended.

I must qualify that I am writing this review as an individual, and not as a representative of the State. However, I am blessed to have one of the best jobs in Alaska working in the Visitor Services section of the Sheldon Jackson Museum in Sitka. Having said that, this work is one of the most helpful, readable resources available for those with an interest in Yup'ik ethnology and material culture. Ms. Fienup-Riordan's respect for the Yup'ik people is evident in all of her work, and this book is no exception.

This book chronicles a 14 day research visit to the Ethnologisches Berlin Museum by Ms. Fienup-Riordan and a delegation of Yup'ik Elders. Written in a very readable narrative style, Ms. Fienup-Riordan successfully captures volumes of interpretive knowledge shared by elders in reaction to individual artifacts. The book is presented as a day-by-day, artifact-by-artifact journal of the research team's exploration of a very comprehensive collection of Yup'ik artifacts gathered in the early 1880's by Norwegian Johan Adrian. Readers will also be impressed with the books outstanding collection of artifact photos.

I am asking my wife for this book as a Christmas present. It would make a suitable addition to both an anthropologist's research library and any Alaskan's coffee-table book stack. Great job to all involved!

This dictionary was written by my uncle. He really researched this before he published it. He also dedicated this dictionary to my grandmother. He spent time in Kwethluk, AK and the Kuskokwim area. My mother is 100% Yupik Eskimo and my uncle is white and from California. My mom has to contact my uncle sometimes to get annunciations and spellings. It is pretty amazing! I am very proud of my uncle and hope you enjoy this dictionary.

Napoleon wrote this book from prison. [He had killed his very young son in a drunken rage. He does not discuss this in this book, but I found this interesting and wish he had included and discussed this.]

Napoleon writes about the emotional trauma suffered by Alaska Natives since the point of contact with whites. He movingly discusses the impact of various addictions, deaths, and diseases for which this population was unprepared that have had a dramatic negative impact on the physical, emotional and spiritual life of most Alaska Natives today. He also offers several suggestions on what can be done to begin the healing.

There are few male Alaska Native writers in the state. For those that want to understand their experiences, I recommend this book.

I picked up this book when I was a junior in high school and I still read it on occasion, now that I'm in college. It's one of my most favorite books in the world, I urge you to not be swayed by the target demographic age. Pick this book up, whether you're a kid or an adult. It's a book of healing that can be understood by any age group.

This book is about an angry kid with an alcoholic father named Cole who is abused and beats up a kid named Peter. Cole has to live on an Alaskan island by himself as part of Circle Justice. He changes with some wise help along with this experience on the island. I got into this book from the beginning! It's a page turner with a somewhat predictable ending, but a good read!

This is an excellent story about Cole, an angry abused boy, who was mad at the world and his personal journey of dealing with his anger and becoming a better person through Circle Justice or Restoration Justice. He beat up Peter to the point of causing him permanent harm and never took any responsibility for his actions until he faced death and began questioning his life. This is a story about helping others and how the Circle Justice system works which Native Americans practiced for years.

The idea is to restore the criminal to become a good citizen and not just punish them. Instead of jail or a detention center, Cole was banished to live for a year on an island in Alaska alone. At the end of the year, the Circle Justice group, made up of all those involved, would meet again and determine if he should go to jail or not. Cole had a traumatic experience while on the island and after just three days was hospitalized after being mauled by a spirit bear. After his rehabilitation he went back. Peter tried committing suicide twice and Cole learned much while on the island, including how many mistakes he made and wanted to make things right if he could.

I really liked this book a lot and had trouble putting it down. I was anxious to see what would happen next. There is no boring part in it. There are many themes running through this book such as abuse, justice, survival, anger, forgiveness, healing.

My little one had to do a book report on Touching Spirit Bear so we read it together and shared the ideas. What an excellent story, written in language that a 12 year old can understand and with an deep message of self responsibility and healing of the spirit.

I highly recommend this book!

What a moving incredible story. I went out and 4 more copies immediately to give to friends either working in child detention or who have problem teenagers. A must listen for anyone who cares about the troubled teens of today.

I am still in the process of reading this book but what I have read so far is really great. I am looking to travel to Alaska in 2009 and a travel consultant I have been talking to recommended that I read this book.

The book really gives a great insight into the ordinary every day Alaskan lives which has just made me want to see Alaska even more.

I recommend this book to anyone whether you want to see Alaska or not. It is just a great read.

We've been to Alaska twice and are planning our third trip soon. This is an extraordinarily capturing and surprising place. Our trips there avoid the touristy cruise ship or resort hotel thus allowing us to stay in towns much like Jenkins did during his 18 months there. This style allows you to be with and enjoy Alaskan residents.

What Jenkins did was is to involve himself far more deeply than our experiences and that made this book remarkable for us. I liked his writing style as it made for a comfortable read. Yes, there are errors, but they are few. What's memorable is that each of his chapters highlights some adventure or someone's personality. It's been some time since I finished it and yet I still think back on this work and recall much of it. Peter Jenkins left a series of images in my head that are going to be there for a long while. My only regret was that we missed Hobo Jim. An interesting guy (check out his web site). He will be on our agenda next trip.

I'm on the Amazon site as I am ordering some copies for friends. Looking for Alaska is a terrific book and a must read for any of you with a sense of wonder for the wilderness. It is easy to not only tout Jenkins's book but Alaska as well. Destination and book are tops.

I read this book before a trip to Alaska, and admittedly, ours was only a small boat cruise in the inside passage, so I knew I would experience only a part of Alaska from a tourist's vantage point. I wanted a bigger view of this remarkable state and hoped Jenkins would deliver that in this account of his family's 18-month residence in the state. It did - most of the time. I felt Jenkins took me to places I would never be able to go and gave me a true sense of the state. His was a journey based on the day-to-day interactions, discoveries, struggles and surprises of one who intends to know a place and its people more deeply. Jenkins creates a vision of the landscape and the people, and in its richest moments, this book is almost as good as the real thing.

But - it is too long (editing would have cured this), and poorly written (editing would have cured this as well). More than once, I puzzled over sentences that I wanted to correct. When speaking of the caretaker near a family living in the bush, we read this about the neighbor's disposition: "If the current one, Dave, was a bit grumpy one day, he'd try to tell Mike and Pete how to snow-machine the winter trail, except he'd never done it." Or this for example: " In the early morning, the kids' chores began. Eric wanted Mike and Pete to go across the lake about two miles. I went along to help; we were going to retrieve some doghouses to keep the team in."

I am quite willing to labor over a complex but beautiful sentence to get at the essence, but his is just plain bad writing. Too many examples like this slow the pace and distract the reader. At 434 pages, strenuous editing could have achieved more with less.

That aside, when Jenkins lets the landscape and the people speak for themselves, the reader gets a sense of the real Alaska. On the whole, I enjoyed it and felt it prepared me for the little bit of Alaska I was about to see. Just allow yourself enough time to wade through the verbal bush.

I have thus far reviewed more than 100 books. Of the 112, this is only the third audible book review I have thus far posted. That should tell you this book is special - it joins my review of Stephen King's On Writing and T.E. Lawrence's Seven Pillars of Wisdom as the best in its class. At surfreviewandreport dot com I will name this book as the 2006 Audio Book Extraordinaire - Bill Anderson.

Initially I found the monotone a bit of an annoyance. I wondered, "Why didn't he inject some emotion?"

Later I figured out why. Peter Jenkins correctly chose to have his words, not his voice, emphasize the the beauty and freedom that once predominated America and now exists only in Alaska.

I found his inclusion of brief statements by those whom he visited and of the honey-rocket to add unimaginable value! A literal stroke of genius!

Hobo Jim - I have been fortunate to listen to some of his music before. He reminds me of a cross between Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie, Bruce Springsteen and John Denver, seasoned with a dash of Arlo Guthrie and and of Phil Ochs. Aside from those guys and Sam Hinton, no other musician I have ever heard has made me so proud to be American nor more frustrated at how often each of us falls short of our potential to improve our world. Oh, but I digress. The little bit of Hobo Jim's live voisterous audience yodeling was far too short.

I do have two serious complaints: This book is far too short. I could listen to six months of this adventure. Also, it needs more interviews and sounds of Alaska.

Yes, the included audios of people and nature made this book my absolute all-time favorite audiobook. This book also is in my Top-10 list for books on Alaska and also for Adventures In The Far North, and it probably will be in my Top-10 Adventure Books list.

I found myself swelling with pride to hear that people in Alaska live a lifestyle intent on the old values of people and nature without the trappings of prejudice and demands for conforming to other's expectations that permeated America during the 50s, 60s and 70s, yet that also does not vilify or censor those who are not politically correct.

In other words, it seems Alaska is what America could have been if only we'd possessed the need for a honey-rocket and a rebellious Che-inspired balladeer who yodels and sings songs of heroism about guys named Redington.

Confused? Get download the audiobook and get listening!

The most remarkable thing about Peter Jenkins is how he got so many "real" Alaskans, often a highly reclusive lot, to open up to him and tell their life stories. Granted, his residual fame as the author of "Walking Across America" opened a number of doors for him, but very few people could, for example, trustingly follow a bush veterinarian and his family to the shores of frozen Chandalar Lake, fit in with them so well and paint such a vivid, affecting portrait of their lives. Mr. Jenkins is not only a good storyteller, but he also is a quite extraordinary collector of stories, due to this sense of trust that he seems to engender with his subjects.
In a genre rife with either "carpetbagger" authors who don't really get Alaska, or with indigenous writers lacking top-notch skills, Mr. Jenkins finds an effective middle ground. He did actually reside in Alaska for a time, and tried to live as the locals did, so he at the very least scratched the surface of what the place is all about. And, while he made a few silly factual mistakes, and his prose is not the most sparkling I've ever seen (I actually think that his daughter Rebeccah is the more lively and interesting writer), he is nonetheless effective in communicating the stories of those Alaskans whom he genuinely admires. Another five years or so up North, and I think he'd have truly gotten it right.

Preserving Alaska's Natural Wonder

Based on the 1960's journals kept faithfully by Dick Proenneck, an archetype of the Sierra Club's advocate, this book presents an amazing story with glorious color photographs. "I don't think a man knows what he can do until he is challenged," p. 211) concludes the man who hewed out a log cabin single handedly in the wilderness. This is a succinct statement of Proenneck's motivating philosophy of personal achievement. Readers follow his non-boastful narrative of trial and error during a remarkable 18-month sojourn in wild Alaska. His survival odyssey (physical and emotional) presents him as the quintessential Mountain Man.

Satisfied to rely on Nature to supply his basic needs (and more contemporary items being flown in at irregular intervals by a cheerful bush pilot, faithful Babe, Proennecke realizes his dreams of carving out a pioneer life in the wilderness near Twin Lakes. Several chapters are quite long but fall into natural, timely categories. I am always interested in How-to descriptions involving caareful planning and manual labor, so I found the BIRTH OF A CABIN chapter fascinating. Even many of his actual tools were made by his own hands, as he started from scratch; his rustic creation is now part of a State Park which tourists may admire 40 years later. The cabin, fireplace and chimney, and cache-on-stilts all bear testimony to his skill and craftsman dedication--proving that a determined man can carve out a hearth after his own heart.

A conscientious chronicler of his own activities (and thoughts) Dick used both his still and movie cameras to capture the cabin in various stages of completion, as well and the flora and fauna of the relatively unspoiled Alaska. With tongue-in-cheek humor he shares his attempts (successful and otherwise) to peacefully interact with the curious or persistent creatures who tried to share his digs and provisions. He seems to feel that critters are a lot like some people-- drawing stoic or amusing conclusions about his attempts to coexist. His gripes with the callousness of humans (seasonal hunters, flown in to bag moose, caribou and Dall sheep) indicate his deep awareness of the fragility of an environment and man's duty to preserve it intact as much as possible--not only out of respect for the animals that inhabit the area, but for future generations of tourists and residents. When he was flown out after his 18-month odyssey he realized that many of the smaller creatures would suffer Hand-Out withdrawal, now that Dick's Welfare was about to dry up. Hats off to a pioneering environmentalist who made us all Aware of Alaska's potential.

Sept. 2, 2008

One Man's Wilderness; ..... Well written, entertaining , I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys adventure in beautiful Alaskan Wilderness .....

Excellent book to read. I believe everyone will enjoy this and the story of this amazing person. Easy to read diary-like story of Dick Proenneke's 16-month life alone in a beautiful wilderness of Alaska. Page by page you'll be thrilled to continue on reading and it even gets better at the end. You'll probably stand up and clap your hands to this amazing man.

This book is written "by Sam Keith from the journals and photographs of Richard Proenneke" - so although I read it and visualized the events within as if it had all been written by Richard Proenneke, it wasn't. Sam Keith tells us in the preface: "Using Dick Proenneke's rough journals as a guide, and knowing him as well as I did, I have tried to get into his mind and reveal the "flavor" of the man. This is my tribute to him, a celebration of his being in tune with his surroundings and what he did alone with simple tools and ingenuity in carving his masterpiece out of the beyond."

I've seen the PBS presentation of "Alone in the Wilderness", which uses selections from the text of this book along with movie footage of Proenneke building his cabin and living there. Those selections are read by someone other than Proenneke, but the voice is a perfect fit to the text and image. Because the text is not exactly Proenneke's and the voice of the video isn't his either, our experience of the man is filtered though these interpreations. Sam Keith hasn't shown us any unedited examples from the "rough journals" he used to compose the book, so it's difficult to know how far this beautifully crafted language matches the character and psychology of Richard Proenneke.

It is an extraordinary book and was a great pleasure to read. I recommend it without reservation.

This book is great! As close to the wilderness as you can get. If you find you can never make it to Alaska, read this and you can say how close you were.

i love john green and all of his books. this is one of the best books i have ever read . dftba

I really enjoyed this book 1.) because it was funny, and 2) because the Miles character was more like my young self than any character I've ever read, and 3)I'm always interested in stories about how people 4) deal with grief, and 5)learn to accept their own fallibility.

Plus, it was funny (did I mention that? Because it was.) It didn't lose its sense of humor for the "After" section either, although the humor took a short break while the characters were saddest, and changed in tone to follow the tone of the story.

It was not a dark book. It was realistic, but full of hope. And funny.
The characters were juvenile (but did grow... realistically.)
It was still good to read as an adult (over 40.)

Including characters that smoked and drank and even had sex in a way I never did high school did nothing to keep me from being able to identify with them.

However, if you never felt like a reject or were bullied as a kid, you may not be able to identify.

Looking for Alaska is a great book for any age group. we all can relate to a girl that we fell in love with but something happened and we never ended up with them. the plot also is believable and nicely portrayed. the story telling is not as good as real Literature (Steinbeck,Hemingway,ext) but it is a young teen book so do not expect it to be.

I was a little surprised at this first novel by John Green. I read his second novel first, An Abundance of Katherines, and found it funny and pleasant. I didn't realize just how different and dark Looking For Alaska was going to be, or how much sexuality and drinking was in it. Maybe I am starting to forget what it was like to be a teenager, but I just feel like there was not a lot of this stuff going on in my circle. Or maybe I just was not paying attention. Or maybe it was just the feeling of shock at certain parts when I was listening to the audio book with my mother in the car. ... Maybe it's just me.

I liked what I thought was the general message of the book (although I am sure there is more than one message): Of being stuck in the labyrinth of suffering, trying to find a way out. Of how some people choose the quick way out, or some try to ignore they are in the labyrinth, or some keep surviving just knowing they will eventually find their way out whether they are ready or not. My only dislike was that, after the climax in the story, it lagged on for a bit. I wanted the characters to either move on or say the book was done.

The audio version (which, as I said above, is how i "read" this book) was read by Jeff Woodman. He did an excellent job of capturing the feel for the different characters; he had so many different voices to capture, and he did and then some! I definitely enjoyed listening to it.

Eighty-two days before: Someone on the Weber list recommended this book, and then I heard from another friend that it has a startling sex scene on pages 126-8, so I said to myself, why not, although YA fiction hasn't ever really entertained me (except for the novels of Lorena Mattingly Weber). Forty days before: I gave LOOKING FOR ALASKA a whirl. I didn't realize that "Alaska" was the name of the heroine; if I had, I would have left the book on the shelf. Last couple of weeks, in this year of Sarah Palin and hearing so much about the state of Alaska I remembered the book I had left unfinished and got it out again. Again I lived through the story of Pudge Halter, the nerdy narrator who makes a move from Florida to Alabama--I had to read that part over and over to understand what the significance of that move was--the author treats it like from the earth to the moon. All of a sudden in Alabama, at boarding school, the narrator gets two gorgeous girls to make out with him.

Dream on, Pudge! It just didn't seem realistic, nor did his habit of collecting the last words of famous people. I don't want to give away any spoilers here, but Alaska is too much of a free spirit to live for long, with her habit of burning the candle at both ends, and the ominous countdown - (three days before) - is leading to something bloody and strange. Like his characters, John Green revels in oddball names and quirky traits. As in American Pie, the sexy foreign student is used as a sort of Barbarella blow up toy with a comical accent. In some convincing way, the book is about learning how to avoid or transcend hate. The bullies who make Pudge's life a living nightmare at the beginning of the book are like futile nothings in the bigger picture of life that John Green produces. Kids love this kind of thing and so I must recommend this book heartily, even though I found his conception of "Alaska" annoyingly reminiscent of young Quentin Compson in The Sound and the Fury, and of Peyton Loftis in Styron's Lie Down in Darkness and I wish he had been able to take her out of the rich girl gone bad stereotype but no.

Michner writes about places most of us are curious about yet don't know much about. Alaska is our most remote state and this novel gives you a sense what it was like to brave the harsh conditions and establish settlements. I find Michner's characters a varied bunch in that they range from superficial to more in-depth interesting personalities. In general though they seem exist to portray the land in which they reside.
It isn't a masterpiece and somtimes the story drags. However it is a good way to delve into Alaskan life.

Another great epic from Michener. You may quibble over whether a wooly Mammoth would have really had those thoughts, but overall it's a highly interesting and informative book.

Perhaps non-Alaskans are more taken with Michener's portrait of the state than those of us who live here, since we experience its grandeur and special essence every day. Nonetheless, for a cheechako, the author does an admirable job of conveying facts and feelings about the 49th state. While there is always the danger with historical novels that readers will not know where facts end and fancy begins, the historical backdrop is well-researched and essentially accurate.

Like other Michener works of this variety, the book weaves the stories of several families over a number of generations, and in doing so illustrates how today's Alaskans often have unusual family trees and complex cultural traditions. Throughout the book he develops some of the same themes that run through the state today, including the struggle to break free from the almost colonial status we once enjoyed at the hands of marginal government officials and outside corporate interests, the pride of being apart and different, and challenge/blessing of a uniquely diverse population.

The reader may think that the characters are "larger than life", but not necessarily so. Alaska has more than its share of vivid, grand, and heroic citizens whose stories could fill many long cold nights. While no substitute for a first-hand Alaska experience, Michener's Alaska-sized novel is a wonderful way to experience the state at a distance, and undoubtedly has whetted many people's appetites to come and see for themselves.

it's a wonderful book that I have read before and have always wanted to own!!!

First, let me announce my bias: I was born and raised in Alaska.

When I saw this novel on the bookshelves when it first came out, I promised myself I'd read it even tho I had never read anything by Michener. Well, some 20 years later, I finally read it. And -- boy! -- do I wish I hadn't waited so long. It's a long book (close to 1,000 pages) and I was so engrossed that I almost lost sight of the real world for the duration.

Of course, being from Alaska helps. I could orient myself geographically with little trouble. I had the broad outlines of the history already. And the historical names were almost all familiar to me if not the details of their lives.

But what Michener did which I most appreciate about his novel is painlessly impart the details of history by interweaving it so tightly with his colorful fiction that it was hard for me during the reading to separate the two. Yet I'm sure I know what is historical and what isn't. It's a contradiction, I know. And a compliment to this man's storytelling skill.

I let out a satisfied "whew!" when I closed the book a final time and returned to reality. Then I suffered withdrawal symptoms for days, maybe weeks. I found myself gazing wistfully at some of his other large works in the bookstores. Did you know there's no Michenerholics Anonymous? I've just begun reading THE SOURCE. I couldn't help myself.