Category Archives: Book Reviews

Diagnosis: Mercury – Money, Politics, and Poison

Living in the North has its benefits and for the most part it’s a healthy place to live. One unique health factor is our overwhelming consumption of seafood, enjoying the highest per capita consumption of fish and shellfish of any state in the union. Seafood provides incredible nutritional value, with its high protein content, heart [...]

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Fast & Cold – A Guide to Alaska Whitewater

My friend Andy Embick has been gone now for a few years and he left behind many memories. As an avid kayaker and boater, a tangible remembrance for me is his book Fast & Cold – A Guide to Alaska Whitewater. While the book is out of print, anyone interested in kayaking or rafting Alaskan [...]

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Field Guide to Common Marine Fishes and Invertebrates of Alaska

A great reference for the marine biologist, fisherman, or scuba diver. The excellent color photos, written descriptions, and extensive glossary work together to make this guide very easy to use.”—John Hilsinger, Director, Commercial Fisheries Division, Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Juneau, Alaska

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The Future History of the Arctic by Charles Emmerson

As Emmerson says, “Our ideas of the Arctic – permanent, pristine, unchanging – will persist long after they have been overtaken by Arctic change.”

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Alaska’s Mushrooms – A Practical Guide

Harriette Parker is an Alaskan naturalist and authority on wild mushrooms of the north. Parker’s guidebook opens with tips on how to use her book, tools and supplies needed for hunting mushrooms in the wild, making sporeprints, useful advice on mushroom collecting safety, and protecting wild mushrooms as a natural resource.

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Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands

Alaska’s Aleutian Islands span some 1,200 miles across the North Pacific Ocean dividing the Bering Sea from the Gulf of Alaska to the south. An area rich in seafood, coastal communities in both Russia and Alaska depend greatly on the marine resources of this region. Terry Johnson, a Marine Advisory Program Agent in Homer, Alaska [...]

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Arctic Discoveries: Images from Voyages of Four Decades in the North

Based on his experiences in Alaska and the circumpolar north reaching back to the early 1960′s, John Bockstoce has arranged many of his photographs into chronological themes that detail Alaska, the North Pacific, Canadian Arctic, and North Atlantic. Arctic Discoveries presents these photographic themes based on Bockstoce’s travels working as a historian and archaeologist in [...]

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ANAN – Stream of Living Water

Anan Creek is internationally known as one of the most productive Pink salmon streams in North America, making it by default a unmatched location for viewing both Black and Brown bears. Anan Creek is located on the north shore of the Cleveland Peninsula, just south of Wrangell Island and north of Ketchikan. Wrangell resident Bonnie [...]

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