Point Hope, Alaska: Life on Frozen Water

By Berit Arnestad Foote. 2009. The University of Chicago Press. 204 pages. $65 softcover. Available at www.press.uchicago.edu

This book is a window to the daily life and the environment of the Tikigaq, the Inupiaq people of Point Hope, as seen in photographs taken by young Norwegian artist Berit Arnestad Foote from 1959 to 1962. In Berit Foote’s days in Point Hope, 50 years ago, the ice covered the sea in October and did not clear until July. In recent years, however, the Arctic ice has been changing rapidly, and so are the lives of people in Point Hope and across the North. This book—a call to action as well as a work of art—provides powerful documentation of how profoundly the entire fabric of a community’s life and culture is affected by the ice that surrounds it.

Slick as a Mitten: Ezra Meeker’s Klondike Enterprise

By Dennis M. Larsen. 2009. Washington State University. 128 pages. $24.94softcover. Available at www.amazon.com.

Traveling the Oregon Trail in 1852, Ezra Meeker built his fortune in hop farming and brokering. When the Klondike Gold Rush began in 1898, Meeker, then in his 60s, ventured north, selling vegetables, dried foods and canned goods to mining camps and restaurants. Slick As A Mitten: Ezra Meeker’s Klondike Enterprise, Dennis Larsen recounts Meeker’s adventures as a pioneer businessman in Alaska and the Yukon.

Finding Alaska: The Life and Art of Shannon Cartwright

By Shannon Cartwright. 2009. Greatland Graphics. 80 pages. $19.95softcover. Available at select booksellers nationwide.

Shannon Cartwright has become one of Alaska's most popular artists, and Finding Alaska brings her personal story to light, with a selection of artwork from each of her 23 books published. Cartwright shares her story of moving to Alaska as a young woman in search of her future, and what she discovered along the way. Cartwright’s whimsical animal illustrations have been delighting collectors for decades. Recent releases include Bear Story: A Rhyme from A to Zzzz's, Train Story, Ol'556, and Up on Denali.