After taking a cruise to the inside passage, we decided to return to Alaska for a more comprehensive land visit focusing on excursions involving scenery and wildlife. Therefore, we needed a book to point out the best of the best...as our time was limited. This book was invaluable in helping us plan that trip. I felt that " TopRated Alaskan Adventures" was my best choice in Alaskan adventure literature

This if a wonderful print of the families that once lived on King Island, Alaska. The stories and pictures presented can't be found anywhere else. This collection of memories and legends are printed in English on the left side, and in Eskimo on the right side of the book. Reading these stories gives one the ideas of how they lived, the great oral tradition, and how the language of the King Islanders look on paper. In the back are the original King Island family names, with the original pronunciations. This is a really good book!! (for kids and parents). I just wish that there were more of the stories and more of the pictures.

This book is about villages in Alaska and people giving their opinion of ANCSA.Me living in one of the villages he talks about, it's very interesting to learn about what people from 1000 miles away from me think about it.It's not the most exciting thing ever but it's pretty good.

As a "just for the fun of it" day hiker I found this book really useful. I traveled thru Southeast Alaska via State Ferry and found the hints and suggestions here right on target. The hikes/walks the author suggests are basic and easy but give you a great flavor of each town. I really like the "walking notes" section for each hike, this section gives special hints on what to look for in each walk. All of the local tourist info centers in SE towns have local walking maps but this book offers shorter and longer hikes based on how long you want to spend on the trail - which compliments local maps. The only drawback would be that the hand drawn maps don't really give you a sense of scale, nor do they have any landmarks listed as guideposts for the walks. This is a great book for both cruise ship and independent travelers. It is a great place to start exporing the port towns of SE Alaska.

Roy Minter's The White Pass: a Gateway to the Klondike involves the development of a railway from Skagway, up the White Pass, and through to Whitehorse, connecting the Pacific to the Klondike gold rush. Competing with the Chilkoot Pass at Dyea, both routes came up with innovative methods to transport people and goods, trying to be the most efficient and profitable route. In fact, the White Pass Railway was 175 km from start to finish when completed, which defied all odds that such a venture could even be completed, a railway connecting the Pacific to the Klondike. His book does an excellent job of explaining the difficulties and methodical process of building the railroad. Roy Minter, the author, has done an excellent job considering that this is his literary debut, his first published book.

In addition, the author uses a great variety of sources, which are easily identifiable by numerical notation. Each excerpt comes from separate parties, which means that there are minimal amounts of bias in the book. Any bias would have to come from some of the speculations the author makes about the excerpts, which is very unlikely.

The book was enjoyable, and I would recommend this book to anyone who has the interest in the history of the gold rush in the Klondike, and, of course, the transportation to get there. It was very interesting and informative, and taught me more than I would ever need to know about building the railway to Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada.
Since this is Roy Minter's first book, there is not much credibility, for not many people have heard his name before. However, the foreword by Pierre Burton helps a great deal, for he is a well-known historian and author of many great historic books. The name of a great historian draws extra attention and makes some of the content to be more credible, because of the approval of a brilliant historian.

The book generally stays on topic, going into a great amount of detail, more than what would be expected. The author explores areas not even thought of in other books, showing thorough research, everything based on the quality, speed and integrity of the railroad and its integrity, including many measurements. The meetings, rallies for funds, surveyors, competition with Dyea, and long winters, and many more things are all explained in colossal detail unimaginable to someone new to the subject.

In a few places, there are clear, legible and legitimate maps, which give an idea of the distance and the situation faced by the people building and organizing the railroad, like the distance covered. The maps also help to give a picture in the reader's mind of the problems at hand of the people trying to get to Whitehorse, with up to or more than one ton of goods.

In various sections, there are several pages together of pictures, which are captioned to the side or below. The pictures also aid the reader to visualize the scene of the railroad, the daily processes of many workers, and the difficulties, such as Tunnel Mountain. They also help in showing the monumental size of certain problems, such as the steepness of the grade, up the mountain, and some of the seemingly impregnable rock faces.

Willie & Sam is a well-written book for older children(6-10 years). It is a very informative look into logging in SEAlaska. A glossary is included for those not familiar with logging terms. Beautiful artwork. Some sentences can be a bit complex.

This is the second book in this series. I really liked it better than the first one. In this one Nathan Blaylock and his friend, Jim Riley are trying to find Nathan's son. Nathan has left him behind in the first book. They are still in the north land. Some of this is a little unbelieveable. This is supposed to envolve around the President of the US, Marta Kelly and Natan. Marta is looking to buy weapons to help her country of Panama. How do they finally meet? Nathan is about 30 miles from Dawson and he drives his dog sled within sight of Marta. Right in the middle of nowhere. Really now!!!!!!!! Nathan does pick up a couple of new friends in this one. Many Hat and Sweetness. You will be surprised who they are. He sill has his old friend Jim, whom I like and Doc Hennison, he is nearly hung and I which they would. I get a belly full of Doc pretty quick. Does Nathan find his son? Do the weapons get bought? Do Marta and Nathan make a couple? Have to read to find out but makes a pretty good story. Ending was a little sad. If you plan to read this one please read The Winter Wolf first.

If you want info for a canoe trip down the Yukon forget this one... it's for kids... unless, that is, you want it for the pictures, which are delightful.

As a Kate fan, I was very disappointed with this book. The author resorted to blatant stereotyping to force her plot, and as a result, I found her normal small errors about firearms, airplanes, and bush Alaska more annoying than usual. Ms. Stabenow has obviously never met a true German big game hunter, considered by many to be among the most ethical of hunters and respectful of the game they shoot.

I'm having a hard time with this one. After reading almost all the other Kate Shugak novels and enjoying this "Renaissance Woman", this one seemed pointless. A first-time reader would have a hard time figuring out what's going on, as there is no character development, and too many assumptions that her previous novels had been read. Kate's character has been complicated, trying to resolve her Native American heritage,her huge Native family, and "Bush" lifestyle with modern life that others take for granted. There was none of that is this book. Beautiful descriptions of Alaskan wilderness notwithstanding, I was left with a disquiet of pointless killing, and an ending that didn't satisfy.

Everybody keeps saying horrible things about this book, and if you asked me what I thought right after reading it, I would have agreed. However, looking back a few months later, I realize that this is a prime example of what happens when bad things happen to good people. It's a test of Kate Shugak's character - will she snap under the trauma of losing the only person she's grown to trust, or will our heroine somehow find a way to pick herself up and carry on? Though I don't believe this is one of Dana Stabenow's better ones, I think that rather than shaking off a loyal Shugak fan, this book has hooked me more firmly. I hate the fact that Jack died, but I can't bear to leave Kate dangling, not knowing if/how she copes. I also can't bear the fact that somebody got to my library's copy of Midnight Come Again before I did. ^_^

. . I count 18 books on my shelf about grizzlies and that doesn't count the ones I checked out of the library. No other book yet has given me the insight into grizzly behavior that this one has. Validation comes in the fact that Roland Cheek comes to the same conclusions in his book "Learning to talk Bear so the bears can listen" from an entirely different direction, that of a hunting guide. I agree that their are things to dislike about the book but someday we may look back on this book as amazing after the scientist have the money and time to catch up with this off the wall experiment. Remember many times in the past non-scientists have made the breakthrough's in animal behavior because they don't have to worry about their reputations. Publishing books about predators in the US is such a political thing . . I have to give any author who does it a hand for bravery. Remember, there are large groups of people who want us to remain totally scared of being in the wild and want to eradicate those horrible animals for us so we can feel safe.

Timothy Treadwell has realized his passion in life and has decided to take on the feat of not only educating himself, but the world around him. This is not a children's book nor an encylopedia. This is this story of a man who struggled to find his purpose, found it, and now wants to help others understand it.

I have never been an animal advocate until now. Timothy's beautiful narration of his adventures to the Grizzly Sanctuary have helped me to better understand the horrible turmoils of another species. His stories of Booble, Mr. Chocolate, and Timmy the Fox are those that convey the complexity of the wild and its' relationship with man. This book is meant to educate the layman through incredible photography and narration.

I highly reccomend this book to anyone with even a slight interest in grizzlies. The information is compelling and informational. Kudos to Timothy for telling his story through photography, scientific information, and beautiful narration.

Among Grizzlies is one of those books you will either love or hate, as the other reviews in this list illustrate. No, Tim doesn't have a death wish. And no, he is not faking it, although he does adorn his tale with a bit of artistic license. Just as hunters often exaggerate the danger of killing bears, and especially their own bravery and skill, Tim has accidently done the same thing in his story of his "pioneering" experiences living with them peacefully. He was far from the first to "achieve" this, just the first to write a book about it. Success in living with these grizzlies does require skills that are unusual; he learned them and you could too. An even bigger factor in success is the unusual tolerance of grizzly bears on coastal Alaska (and of black bears in most areas, especially outside Alaska) -- as Tim makes clear. Wandering among a herd of black angus cattle is riskier.

An example of his artistic license is writing of being the first person into an area he calls the Forbidden Zone -- without revealing that it was actually the site of a major clamming industry in the distant past, and is regularly visited by bear-watches. He writes about how bears chose to sleep near his tent, as though attracted to him -- without revealing that he is the one who chooses to camp where they would be sleeping anyway. Claims about the closeness of his relationships with the bears need to be taken with a grain of salt.

Tim does not pretend to be a scientist, but he makes many statements that could be mistaken as scientific. For example, the weight he gives for each grizzly is just a guess. When he writes about how big boars normally eat razor clams shell and all, whereas sows do not, he is apparently unaware that the few bears he watched closely for a few days aren't typical.

With all those limitations, why do I give the book a 5-star rating and 3 cheers? Because it has no more limitations than most adventure books on bears, while offering a wealth of insights about grizzly behavior that will be new to the general public. It's a wonderful book, written with great warmth. It paints a much more typical picture of bears than more sensationalistic books like Kanuit's "Alaska Bear Tales" ... and "Some Bears Kill". For although such books may be carefully researched, they focus on the relatively rare circumstances where a bear attacks someone, and even rarer cases where the person is killed. Bears actually spend very little time in aggression, even against each other. Most of their time is spent feeding. Even affectionate nuzzling or play commonly occupies more time than aggression, as Tim describes with great charm.

Tim is far from the only person to camp out with grizzlies on the coasts of Alaska. But he was the first to spend so many seasons (now 11) in the same areas, getting to know individual bears exceedingly well. He can identify over thirty bears by sight without having to put collars or ear tags on them. He has known some of these bears through three generations. Cubs trust him because their mother trusts him, because her mother did. There are only a small handful of people who have ever known bears so personally, and no one else who has known so many individual grizzlies so well.

If he seems obsessed with stopping bear hunting, think of how you might feel about dolphins, whales, gorillas or chimpanzees being killed for sport. Think of how you would feel if your dog or cat were shot. Once you know bears as individuals, it's hard to accept the idea that they have less right to live than to die for the kicks of anyone with a hunting license and a gun. Tim has done his best to "give back to the bears" by campaigning against hunting, and by trying to teach people that they can be as friendly as giant dogs.

If he can ever get past embellishing his experiences to make them more entertaining (perpetuating his own myths) and begin working more closely with scientists, he could play an invaluable role in grizzly conservation.