"An adventurous Depression-era couple answered a recruiting ad for teachers in Alaska. Dick and Milly Webbs' lifelong Alaska exploration is chronicled in their letters and photos depicting Indian and Eskimo villages, gold miners, bush pilots, and life in 1937-1960s-era Alaska. Having a baby meant a 90-mile dogsled trip. Managing reindeer herds, hunting walrus and whales, and doctoring Natives were only part-time duties! Ready for "civilization," they managed a budding aviation business in Nome. Later, in Fairbanks, they became entrepreneurs and toured the world promoting Alaska. Shortly before he died, Dick reread his letters and revealed secrets he had omitted when writing them."--Amazon.com

For six years Bailey Lockhart has lived alone in the Alaskan bush, supporting herself from the cockpit of a floatplane. She is the only white woman in a land owned by the local Ingalik tribe; her closest neighbor is a fellow bush pilot and activist named Kash. Bailey and Kash are drawn to each other, but their fiercely independent natures keep them apart. When two Easterners hire Bailey to pilot them into the bush, a series of events is set in motion that will upset the delicate racial balance of the land and lead to violence. As the truth behind the couple's arrival becomes apparent, the refuge Bailey has created for herself shatters. Forced to face the demons of her unresolved past, she is given a chance to free herself at last from the secret that haunts her. Marked by spare, resonant prose and imbued with an indelible sense of place, True North tells a powerful story of adventure and survival. It is a welcome debut by a gifted new voice in literary fiction.

Wes Emerson is at the pinnacle of his career. The Australian actor has more fame, money, and adoring women than he knows what to do with. Too much. What better place to decompress, than an exclusive lodge in Alaska's Far North? But when his brother backs out at the last minute, and a snarky New York nurse snags the vacancy, she challenges everything Wes knows of himself. ?Lena Hamilton didn't plan on a forced leave of absence from work, nor did she expect to wind up in Alaska. Trapped in the crossroads of ambition and self-preservation, the Manhattan trauma nurse has two weeks to decide the future of her career. When Lena finds herself at a remote lodge with THE Wes Emerson, her job is the last thing on her mind. While she can't control her body's response to the panty-melter, she'll be damned if she opens her heart.Fiercely independent, Lena is nothing like the women Wes is used to. She calls his every bluff, pushing buttons he didn't know he had. And as the growly alpha inside Wes begins to pace, Lena doesn't just rattle his cage, she bites back, making him want things he'd sworn off for years. When they land at the mercy of the Alaskan wilderness, Lena and Wes quickly learn Mother Nature doesn't pull her punches. They find their True North in each other, but can they make it out alive?

Melting sea ice and rumbling volcanoes. Sled dogs racing through unnamed valleys. These were the images that came to mind when Molly Rettig moved to Fairbanks, Alaska to work as a reporter at the local newspaper. An avid environmentalist, she couldn’t wait to explore the vast, untamed spaces that had largely been paved over on the east coast. But when her 72-year-old neighbor, Clutch, invites her on a tour of his gold mine—an 800-foot tunnel blasted into the side of his house–she begins to question many of her ideas about Alaska, and about herself. In Finding True North, Rettig takes us on a gripping journey through Alaska's past that brings alive the state's magnificent country and its quirky, larger-than-life characters. She meets a trapper who harvests all she needs from the land, a bush pilot who taught himself how to fly, and an archaeologist who helped build an oil pipeline through pristine wilderness. While she learns how airplanes, mines, and oil fields have paved the way for newcomers like herself, she also stumbles upon a bigger question: what has this quest for Alaska’s natural resources actually cost, and how much more is at stake? This is a book about all the ways wild places teach us about ourselves. Rettig writes both playfully and honestly about how one place can be many things to many people—and how all of it can be true.

For fans of Cheryl Strayed, the gripping story of a biologist's human-powered journey from the Pacific Northwest to the Arctic to rediscover her love of birds, nature, and adventure. During graduate school, as she conducted experiments on the peculiarly misshapen beaks of chickadees, ornithologist Caroline Van Hemert began to feel stifled in the isolated, sterile environment of the lab. Worried that she was losing her passion for the scientific research she once loved, she was compelled to experience wildness again, to be guided by the sounds of birds and to follow the trails of animals. In March of 2012, she and her husband set off on a 4,000-mile wilderness journey from the Pacific rainforest to the Alaskan Arctic, traveling by rowboat, ski, foot, raft, and canoe. Together, they survived harrowing dangers while also experiencing incredible moments of joy and grace -- migrating birds silhouetted against the moon, the steamy breath of caribou, and the bond that comes from sharing such experiences. A unique blend of science, adventure, and personal narrative, The Sun is a Compass explores the bounds of the physical body and the tenuousness of life in the company of the creatures who make their homes in the wildest places left in North America. Inspiring and beautifully written, this love letter to nature is a lyrical testament to the resilience of the human spirit. Winner of the 2019 Banff Mountain Book Competition: Adventure Travel

Travel anthology on Alaska.