Top Books for an Alaskan Cruise: Curated by an Alaskan Librarian

Tip of the Iceberg: My 3,000-Mile Journey Around Wild Alaska, the Last Great American Frontier by Mark Adams

This whole book is really a warning about climate change/global warming. The author, Mark Adams, uses humor, Alaska’s geography, and first-hand knowledge through self experience and interviews with experts, to craft his argument that climate change is a serious matter. Following the path of John Muir’s Harriman Expedition, Adams traveled to most of the cities & villages on the coast of Alaska using the Alaska Marine Highway ferry system. 

As an Alaskan, I think Adams’ narrative captures the people he met and the places he visited along his route with an excellent combination of humor and accuracy. One particular interaction Adams had with a character on one of the state Ferry boats stood out to me, as I’ve met similar characters on Alaska Ferries myself.

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The Yiddish Policemen’s Union by Michael Chabon

In the 1930’s there was a proposal to settle European Jewish refugees in Sitka, Alaska. Michael Chabon’s novel is a detective story that takes place in what the author imagines Sitka might be like if the proposal had actually happened. He reimagines Sitka as a dark and gritty place akin to the setting of a film noir. 

As an Alaskan, I tried twice to read this and DNF’d it both times. Perhaps it’s because I like Sitka so much and did not enjoy imagining it having a dark underbelly of crime.

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The Woman Who Married A Bear by John Straley

The Woman Who Married a Bear is a mystery novel by a local Sitka author. It is the first in the series of eight books about the fictional down-on-his-luck detective, Cecil Younger. Part of the book is set in Sitka and then Juneau, and while the book shows a seedy side of both cities, it’s more accurate than the seedy creation of Michael Chabon’s Sitka. Much of the book, though, takes place in a fictional place called Steller, which is based on any small Alaskan Village. Straley’s local knowledge and experiences of rural Alaskan villages makes even the fictional places in his novels believable. This particular novel, however, does contain all manor of triggers such as drugs, drinking, suicide and sex. 
In my Alaskan opinion, it’s a far better detective novel than the popular The Yiddish Policemen’s Union. I believe it depicts Sitka more accurately, both in appearance and in character, down to the behavior of the local ravens.

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Death at the Shipshape Bookshop by Greta McKennan

Death at the Shipshape Bookshop doesn’t technically take place in Juneau. It takes place in a fictional Southeast Alaska town called Ptarmigan Port. If you’re familiar with Juneau, however, you’ll recognize many local features, but of course given fictional names, in this novel. Greta McKennen, a local Juneau author, cleverly wound her imagination and inspiration from her hometown into this entertaining cozy mystery. It’s the perfect light vacation read for a Southeast Alaska summer.

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Fighter in Velvet Gloves: Alaska Civil Rights Hero Elizabeth Peratrovich by Annie Boochever, Roy A. Peratrovich Jr.

Fighter in Velvet Gloves recounts the true story about Elizabeth Peratrovich. As the story goes, this Alaskan Native Juneau woman shamed the white men of the Alaska Territorial Legislature into giving the right to vote to all Alaskan women. 

Today there are several memorials to her throughout downtown Juneau, which you’ll be able to find if you know where to look while walking around the city.

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TAKU: Four Amazing Individuals-Four Incredible Life Stories and The Alaskan Wilderness Lodge That Brought Them Together by Karen Bell, Janet Shelfer

TAKU was written by two ladies who visited Juneau via cruise ship, did the Taku Lodge excursion, and were so captivated by the story of the lodge and its former owner Mary Joyce, that they decided to write down the story. The authors clearly did an amazing amount of research on the various individuals in the story, what was going on in the world at the time, and how world events and character’s own personal histories led them to the lodge. And of course Mary Joyce’s story goes beyond the lodge. She went on to be a pilot, radio operator, dogsledder, and saloon owner. 

Taku Lodge provides one of the highest rated day trips throughout the tourist season in Juneau. Read this book and take the Wings Airways flight-seeing & lunch at the Taku Lodge excursion.

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Floor of Heaven: A True Tale of the Last Frontier and the YukonGold Rush by Howard Blum

If you visit Skagway you’ll inevitably hear the name Soapy Smith. You’ll see his old saloon, you might walk past his “telegraph office”, or you might take a nice walk out to his grave site. He was Alaska’s most famous con-man who lived in Skagway during the Klondike Gold Rush. He mined the miners through various scams and eventually died in a shootout on the Skagway dock.

Floor of Heaven is a historical fiction that follows Soapy’s path to becoming the infamous conman. Part of the story takes place in Juneau’s Treadwell mining town, as Soapy plied his trade there before ending up in Skagway during the Gold Rush.

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Nowhere Else to Go but Dyea by Nita Nettleton

During the 1898 Klondike Gold Rush, Dyea was a booming town just seven miles from Skagway in the neighboring bay. It was the launching point for those taking the Chilkoot Trail (the one that goes up and over the famous “Golden Stairs”). However, after the railway was built out of Skagway, turning the arduous journey to the goldfields into a mere three hour train ride, Dyea was abandoned.

Today, if you make the journey from Skagway to Dyea, you’ll find that the forest has reclaimed the old townsite, but you can walk trails that follow the old town’s former streets. It’s still the launching point for those wanting to hike the Chilkoot Trail, so you’ll also find a camp ground and B&B, and perhaps a few private homes of residents preferring to live outside the tourist-filled Skagway.

Nowhere Else to Go but Dyea is a fictional story of a man who shows up by Ferry in Skagway with nearly nothing left to his name but an abandoned cabin in Dyea. This novel, by a local author, is simply a cute story about learning to integrate into small town life in Alaska and the characters that make up the community.

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If You Lived Here I’d Know Your Name by Heather Lende

As a tourist you visit places and see them superficially, but you don’t often get invited into the inside spaces of locals. You don’t get to really find out what living there really means. Heather Lende’s book invites you into those inner spaces. She writes about her life as an obituary writer in the small town of Haines, and through her book you’ll sit at dining tables and get invited inside family spaces at their most vulnerable time. It also provides a glimpse of what life is like for those with infrequent and difficult access to goods and services like medical care and shopping.

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Of Bears and Ballots by Heather Lende 

Heather Lende served a term on the Haines city assembly. In this book of hers, she explains the hard lesson she learned of vehemently disagreeing with members of her small town while still needing to remain civil and friendly because of the interconnectedness of everyone in the community. You’ll not only learn about the bureaucratic process of a small city Assembly, but how locals have to balance personal relations while making hard decisions for their community.

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