Six Teeth-Gritting Alaska Books I Read This Summer

They'll take you to the wild

The Author, smiling after a hard mountain climb

I worked as a summer camp facilitator this summer across seven rural Alaskan villages only accessible by six-seater planes. These places have no hotels, Airbnb's, or accommodation besides teacher housing. 

In every town we stayed in, I slept on the floor of a school or a flimsy air mattress in the storage closet of a youth center. 

I was having my Alaskan adventure, and it challenged me. I loved and hated it, but it was another puzzle piece in my wild life, and I wouldn't trade it for anything. 

Thankfully, since I often stayed in village schools, I had many books about Alaska to read. And they did not disappoint. 

Alaska, often called the "Last Frontier," has fascinated adventurers, explorers, and writers for generations. It's truly wild. For generations, people sick of society have journeyed to Alaska to test themselves against the wild. 

Many of them have written books. 

These are my favorite six that I read during my working summer. They're grit-your-teeth adventure narratives that offer the reader a glimpse into the life of someone living at the edge. 

Journey along and experience the thrill of survival, the wonders of nature, and the resilience of the human spirit. 

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On the Edge of Nowhere by James Huntington and Lawrence Elliott

James Huntington's memoir, On the Edge of Nowhere, is a poignant and terrifying account of his life in the remote Alaskan wilderness. Born to a trapper father and Inuit mother, James Huntington grew up in the wild and built a skill set that puts any modern outdoorsman to shame. 

He came of age in trapper camps with his relatives, catching animals and fish, hanging salmon to dry for the winter, and skinning the animals they caught to sell in the market. 

He brewed moonshine once before he became ashamed of what it did to people and switched back to trapping. 

He hunted Grizzly bears in the middle of winter by poking into their hibernation dens with a long stick before running back and firing with his rifle. 

This memoir offers a firsthand glimpse into actual Alaskan survival challenges, from hunting and fishing to dealing with the harsh elements. If you want to travel to a world different from yours, this is one of my favorite books to take you there. 

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Yukon Alone by John Balzar

I love books about people taking on crazy, objectively pointless challenges to scratch that human itch to be extraordinary. 

In Yukon Alone, John Balzar spends weeks on the trail covering the Yukon Quest, a dog race created by dog mushers who felt that the Iditarod wasn't hardcore enough for them. 

For context, this race starts in February and goes for one thousand miles through some of Alaska's most brutal backcountry. Mushers must prepare with thousands of dog booties, hundreds of pounds of dried salmon, and stoves to melt drinking water for themselves and their dogs. 

One mistake can cause death. Mushers go sleepless for days, out in temperatures that would make most of us scream. Yet they attempt this race year after year for minimal prize money or glory. 

This book blew me away. Balzar humorizes this challenging situation as he almost dies at the hands of reckless Alaskan bush pilots and subzero temperatures, making you slap your knee as he continuously asks, "Why the hell am I here?" 

This book is an homage to the real tough humans, not those posturing in gyms, but those suffering in the wild for minimal glory, all for the love of dogs and adventure. 

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Pilgrim's Wilderness by Tom Kizzia

Pilgrim's Wilderness is the true story of Robert Hale, a patriarch with fifteen children who pushed deep into the Alaskan wilderness in the late nineties to try to build a self-sufficient homestead. 

The charismatic and sociopathic Hale declared his family religious pilgrims and demanded that they and his neighbors call him "papa pilgrim." He treated his family like a cult.

Believing he was on a divine path, Hale went to war with the National Park Service over land boundaries, pissed off all the people in a nearby town, and was eventually arrested for reasons I won't spoil. 

Kizzia dives into the fascinating structure of the Hale family's life, their struggles with the Alaskan environment, and the shocking revelations that eventually came to light. You'll love this book if you're a true crime fan! 

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Fifty Miles from Tomorrow by William L. Iggiagruk Hensley

Fifty Miles from Tomorrow takes readers on a personal journey through the culture and history of the native Iñupiaq people in Alaska. 

Hensley shares his experiences growing up in the village of Kotzebue and witnessing the changes that the arrival of the modern world brought to the traditional way of life. 

He grew up in a subsistence family, depending on the plants and animals they could scrounge from the tundra. From those humble beginnings, he became a state legislator, fought for indigenous rights, and was one of the founders of the Alaska tribal corporation system. 

Hensley's memoir sheds light on indigenous people's challenges as they navigate the massive shift from their ancestral heritage to the modern world. 

The resilience and adaptability that his people have displayed are awe-inspiring. The changes he witnessed in his life will make your jaw drop. 

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Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey

The only fiction book on this list, Snow Child is a fusion of folklore and history. If you're looking for a happy read, this ain't it. 

Set in 1920s Alaska, the story revolves around a childless homesteading couple, Jack and Mabel, who live in the wilderness and must fight for survival. 

In a rare moment of happiness and whimsy, they build a child out of snow, only to be shocked when a real girl appears in the woods in the dead of winter. 

The more they try to take her in and care for her, the more she shrinks back from their aid. 

Ivey beautifully blends magical realism with the harsh reality of Alaskan frontier life. 

This book explores survival challenges and dives deep into love, loss, and the bond between humans and nature. Snow Child is a story of the Alaskan wilderness's transformative power and its hold on the human mind. 

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Ada Blackjack by Jennifer Niven

Ada Blackjack tells the incredible true story of Ada Blackjack, an Inuit woman who found herself trapped on an island alone after an expedition gone wrong. 

In September of 1921, Ada Blackjack was invited as a cook on an Arctic expedition to colonize Wrangel Island, a desolate, useless piece of land in the Arctic Circle, for Great Britain. 

They were supposed to prove they could survive there without help, with a rescue ship scheduled to resupply them a year later. 

The rescue ship couldn't reach them the first year due to ice. Shortly over a year into the expedition, Ada's male companions died, forcing her to survive alone. 

Ada faced horrific challenges as she fought to survive in one of the harshest environments on Earth. Even after her rescue, her tribulations were not over, as she was dubbed "the female Robinson Crusoe" and forced to deal with media attention that she did not want. 

Niven's book blends historical narrative with biography, highlighting the unbreakable spirit of a woman who defied all odds.