books about Alaska? (Fairbanks: loan, travel, homes)

[mal_flisk]

Breakup is actually pretty funny after you get past the woman getting devoured by the bear at the old copper mine in the beginning.

[Rance]

Sweet! Sounds good already.

*I am getting pea sized hail at my house right now.

[rotorhead]

I've seen a novel called something like "The Yiddish Policemans Union" reviewed on the Anchorage Daily News website lately, sounded interesting. Kind of an alternative history, based on some events that didn't come to pass in the real world.

I just finished Heather Lendes book "If you lived here, I'd know your name" and I loved it. Its not really fiction, since she writes all the obits for the local newspaper her book includes a lot of stories about people who have died and how they related to the community. Half the time I was reading it my face ached from grinning so much, and the other half was blurred with incipient tears. I definately recommend it.

[FishTAxi]

http://www.amazon.com/Tisha-Story-Te.../dp/0553265962

Tisha is a good one.

[wan2Batraveler10]

What? No Romance?!! Morning guys and gals. Being a rabid reader myself, I just know there has to be at least one book out there about romance in Alaska; or is that just another one of those myths that has been floating around about the 49th state all this time.

[mal_flisk]

Tisha might come close.

[monello]

A great read.

Heimo Korth has lived in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for nearly thirty years, eking out a subsistence living some 250 miles from the nearest road. He moved to Alaska at twenty, eager to escape an abusive father and unwilling to submit to the yoke of a nine-to-five job. For six years Heimo ("HI-mow") lived alone, trapping and hunting and flying out occasionally with bush pilots to sell his furs. But in 1982 Heimo married Edna, whom he met while walrus hunting on St. Lawrence Island, and she followed her husband to the wilderness. They have lived together since in this desolate place where the sun dips below the horizon in November and isn't seen again until January, where temperatures range from a balmy 80 degrees to 50 below. They and their daughters live a semi-nomadic life, moving each spring from one of their three cabins to another so as not to deplete the animal populations in any one area. Every summer they spend six weeks in Fort Yukon, population 750, stocking up on supplies and getting a small taste of civilization.
They have lived together since in this desolate place where the sun dips below the horizon in November and isn't seen again until January, where temperatures range from a balmy 80 degrees to 50 below. James Campbell, who happens to be Heimo's cousin, visited the Korths several times beginning in 2002. In telling Heimo's story Campbell juxtaposes descriptions of life in the Arctic--the logistics of carving up a dead moose, the efficient reuse of toilet paper as a fire starter--with stories of Heimo's boyhood in Wisconsin and discussion of the politics of land apportionment in Alaska. The result is a fascinating look at a lifestyle that is impossibly alien yet unexpectedly familiar: Heimo's teenagers tack Britney Spears posters to the walls of their cabin.
One begins reading Campbell's account with incredulity, wondering why anyone would choose to live in such an extreme environment and whether the Korths were wise to raise their children there. But reading the fascinating, sometimes heartrending story of Heimo and Edna's life one comes to respect them and their decisions. We are left hoping that Heimo manages to live out his days as he wishes, growing old in a wilderness few men before him have experienced.

[rotorhead]

Dang, gonna have to find that one. A bit too rugged for me, lifestyle-wise.

[paddleplay]

Let's also throw in "Coming into the Country" By J. McPhee.

Are there any good movies about AK?

I've heard of the TV show "Northern Exposure" but never saw an episode, is that one any good?

[Rance]

I liked the show...but it really does not reflect my area of Alaska. There is a movie "run away train" filmed along Turnagain Arm that was sort of good. I think most of the movies with an Alaskan theme...are filmed in Canada or Montana or Idaho.