Love Whispering Alaska? Readers share 85 books like Whispering Alaska...

By Brendan Jones,

Here are 85 books that Whispering Alaska fans have personally recommended if you like Whispering Alaska. Shepherd is a community of 12,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of Lost Mountain

Richard Chiappone Author Of The Hunger of Crows

From my list on real lives of Alaskansā€”not the idiots on reality TV.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have lived in Alaska for forty years, working both as a construction worker and a college professor. I love Alaska, but not always the way it is depicted, particularly on reality TV. I hope the characters I create and the stories I tell will bring a more balanced view of everyday Alaskans, who are, after all, Americans too. The Hunger of Crows shows small-town Alaska through the eyes of four characters: two lifelong Alaskans, and two ā€œfrom Outsideā€ as we say here. Hopefully, it will provide a balanced view of this great place.

Richard's book list on real lives of Alaskansā€”not the idiots on reality TV

Richard Chiappone Why did Richard love this book?

Although I happen to know that poet Anne Coray intended this to be an environmentalist novel (a town threatened with doom by a giant mining operation), this beautifully written story set in the fictitious town of Lost Mountain in remote Western Alaska is an example of how Alaskans come together in the face of threats to the beauty and natural wonder of our great land. It may be about the land, but it is the cast of quirky characters that makes it human. 

By Anne Coray,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Lost Mountain as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The searing debut novel of poet and writer Anne Coray, Lost Mountain is an impassioned story of love, loss, environment, and politics against a landscape facing threat of destruction.

"Anne Coray, the author of three poetry collections, has brought her observational and writing skills to fiction that demonstrates both her attention to language and her passion for her home place. . . Lost Mountain is many things: a love story between the two main characters, a portrait of a small and isolated community, a mystery, a paean to salmon and lives that surround salmon, a not-very-disguised critique of a megamineā€¦


Book cover of A Thousand Trails Home: Living with Caribou

Richard Chiappone Author Of The Hunger of Crows

From my list on real lives of Alaskansā€”not the idiots on reality TV.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have lived in Alaska for forty years, working both as a construction worker and a college professor. I love Alaska, but not always the way it is depicted, particularly on reality TV. I hope the characters I create and the stories I tell will bring a more balanced view of everyday Alaskans, who are, after all, Americans too. The Hunger of Crows shows small-town Alaska through the eyes of four characters: two lifelong Alaskans, and two ā€œfrom Outsideā€ as we say here. Hopefully, it will provide a balanced view of this great place.

Richard's book list on real lives of Alaskansā€”not the idiots on reality TV

Richard Chiappone Why did Richard love this book?

Born and raised in remote bush Alaska, Kanterā€™s hypnotizing writing will take you with him across the remote tundra of his home territory as he hunts and lives among the great herds of caribou. Each short chapter is like a prose poem, beautifully written and evocative of the people and the place. A glimpse into historical, almost prehistorical, life in Alaska. 

By Seth Kantner,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked A Thousand Trails Home as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?


Bestselling, award-winning author of Ordinary Wolves, a debut novel Publisherā€™s Weekly called ā€œa tour de forceā€
Conservation-based story of changing Arctic from an on-the-ground perpective
Features full-color photography throughout

A stunningly lyrical firsthand account of a life spent hunting, studying, and living alongside caribou, A Thousand Trails Home encompasses the historical past and present day, revealing the fragile intertwined lives of people and animals surviving on an uncertain landscape of cultural and climatic change sweeping the Alaskan Arctic. Author Seth Kantner vividly illuminates this critical story about the interconnectedness of the IƱupiat of Northwest Alaska, the Western Arctic Caribou Herd,ā€¦


Book cover of Cold Mountain Path: The Ghost Town Decades of McCarthy-Kennecott, Alaska

Richard Chiappone Author Of The Hunger of Crows

From my list on real lives of Alaskansā€”not the idiots on reality TV.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have lived in Alaska for forty years, working both as a construction worker and a college professor. I love Alaska, but not always the way it is depicted, particularly on reality TV. I hope the characters I create and the stories I tell will bring a more balanced view of everyday Alaskans, who are, after all, Americans too. The Hunger of Crows shows small-town Alaska through the eyes of four characters: two lifelong Alaskans, and two ā€œfrom Outsideā€ as we say here. Hopefully, it will provide a balanced view of this great place.

Richard's book list on real lives of Alaskansā€”not the idiots on reality TV

Richard Chiappone Why did Richard love this book?

Chosen by National Public Radio as ā€œessential readingā€ for anyone traveling to Alaska, Kizziaā€™s lively, often humorous historical account of the remote copper mining town of McCarthy tucked beneath the Wrangel Mountains will astound you with its descriptions of bush country life in Alaska from 1938 to 1982. A book that begins and ends with the effects of a mass murder in a remote small town. Thrilling reading. 

By Tom Kizzia,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Cold Mountain Path as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In this history of life in an isolated ghost town, bestselling Alaska author Tom Kizzia unfolds a deeply American saga of renunciation and renewal. The spirit of Alaska in the old days-impetuous, free-wheeling, and bounty-blessed-lived on in the never-quite-abandoned mining town of McCarthy. While the new state boomed in the pipeline era, cagey old-timers and young back-to-the-landers forged a rough wilderness community that lived by its own rules.
 
As the T'ang Dynasty mountain poet Han Shan wrote in his Cold Mountain Poems, "If your heart was like mine, you'd get it and be right here."
 
The Wrangell Mountains developed aā€¦


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Book cover of The Ballad of Falling Rock

The Ballad of Falling Rock by Jordan Dotson,

Truth told, folks still ask if Saul Crabtree sold his soul for the perfect voice. If he sold it to angels or devils. A Bristol newspaper once asked: ā€œAre his love songs closer to heaven than dying?ā€ Others wonder how he wrote a song so sad, everyone who heard itā€¦

Book cover of Nobody Gets Out Alive: Stories

Richard Chiappone Author Of The Hunger of Crows

From my list on real lives of Alaskansā€”not the idiots on reality TV.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have lived in Alaska for forty years, working both as a construction worker and a college professor. I love Alaska, but not always the way it is depicted, particularly on reality TV. I hope the characters I create and the stories I tell will bring a more balanced view of everyday Alaskans, who are, after all, Americans too. The Hunger of Crows shows small-town Alaska through the eyes of four characters: two lifelong Alaskans, and two ā€œfrom Outsideā€ as we say here. Hopefully, it will provide a balanced view of this great place.

Richard's book list on real lives of Alaskansā€”not the idiots on reality TV

Richard Chiappone Why did Richard love this book?

This spectacular collection of award-winning short stories set in Anchorage is probably my favorite book of the past two years. Newton is the only one of these five authors whom Iā€™ve never met, so I can say with complete neutrality that these stories make up the most memorable depiction of urban Alaskan life anywhere: doctors with expensive float planes and more expensive mistresses, a disturbed suburban clairvoyant, even one historical flashback to the mudhole the city was founded upon in 1915. Hilarious at times, but also a reminder to me that Alaska has always attracted a certain type of misfit politely referred to as ā€œadventurous,ā€ but often seen as simply ā€œnuts.ā€ Myself included.

By Leigh Newman,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Nobody Gets Out Alive as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD

*A MOST ANTICIPATED book by Vogue, Literary Hub, The Millions, Good Housekeeping, and Oprah Daily*

From a prizewinning author comes an ā€œelectric...stunningā€ (Publishers Weekly, starred review) debut story collection about women navigating the wilds of male-dominated Alaskan society.

Set in Newmanā€™s home state of Alaska, Nobody Gets Out Alive is an exhilarating collection about women struggling to survive not just grizzly bears and charging moose, but the raw legacy of their marriages and families.

Alongside stories set in todayā€™s Last Frontierā€”rife with suburban sprawl, global warming, and opioid addictionā€”Newman delves into remote wilderness ofā€¦


Book cover of Stickeen: John Muir and the Brave Little Dog

Kim Heacox Author Of John Muir and the Ice That Started a Fire: How a Visionary and the Glaciers of Alaska Changed America

From my list on John Muir.

Why am I passionate about this?

Kim Heacox has written 15 books, five of them published by National Geographic. He has twice won the National Outdoor Book Award (for his memoir, The Only Kayak, and his novel, Jimmy Bluefeather), and twice won the Lowell Thomas Award for excellence in travel journalism. Heā€™s featured on Ken Burnsā€™ film, The National Parks, America's Best Idea, and heā€™s spoken about John Muir on Public Radio Internationalā€™s Living on Earth. He lives in Gustavus, Alaska (next to Glacier Bay Natā€™l Park), a small town of 500 people reachable only by boat or plane.

Kim's book list on John Muir

Kim Heacox Why did Kim love this book?

When Muir made his second great canoe trip in Alaska, in 1880, one of his canoe-mates, a Presbyterian missionary, brought along a little terrier named Stickeen. At first, Muir didnā€™t like the dog. But later, the two spent a cold, wet day exploring a massive glacier, and barely survived. Muir called it the greatest of his many adventure stories. The illustrations in this book are exaggerated, but stunning. You can almost feel the cold, and the elation man and dog feel at the end as they become fast friends.

By John Muir,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Stickeen as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

First published as "An Adventure with a Dog and a Glacier" in 1897 in "The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine" and then expanded into a book and published in 1909, "Stickeen" by American naturalist John Muir is one of literature's most enduring dog stories. Based on a trip he took to Alaska in 1880 with a dog Stickeen and their trek out on a glacier, this short memoir is one of Muir's best-known publications whose enduring appeal has resulted in numerous adaptations and retellings. This thrilling and heart-warming tale follows Muir as he sets out to explore a glacier with theā€¦


Book cover of Jimmy Bluefeather

Nancy Lord Author Of pH: A Novel

From my list on authentic Alaska by Alaskans.

Why am I passionate about this?

Iā€™m a long-time Alaskan (and former Alaska writer laureate) with a passion for my placeā€”its people, environment, and history. Iā€™ve always read widely in its literature and have watched it mature from superficial ā€œlast frontierā€ stories into a complex and diverse wealth of authentic and well-told stories. Since 2015 Iā€™ve reviewed books for the Anchorage Daily News and have made it my business to know and support the growing Alaska writing community. Alaska is particularly strong in nonfiction writing while fiction (other than mysteries and short stories) has been slower to develop, and Iā€™ve chosen to highlight five examples of novels that present truths through imaginative leaps.

Nancy's book list on authentic Alaska by Alaskans

Nancy Lord Why did Nancy love this book?

Set in Southeast Alaska, Jimmy Bluefeather honestly depicts both environmental and generational change.

A Tlingit-Norwegian canoe carver anticipates the end of his life while his grandson struggles with his own future and a whale biologist resists authority in favor of moral action. Heacox grounds his beautifully-written story in considerable research as well as with respect for cultural beliefs and practices.

The canoe carver in particular is well-drawn and memorable, with toughness, resilience, and humor earned from living close to the Earth and its waters, in a place of stories. A canoe journey carries the story into a wild landscape, questions about conflicts between economic development and the preservation of lands and cultural values, and understandings of human frailty and strength. 

By Kim Heacox,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Jimmy Bluefeather as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 13, 14, 15, and 16.

What is this book about?

Winner, National Outdoor Book Award

"Part quest, part rebirth, Heacox's debut novel spins a story of Alaska's Tlingit people and the land, an old man dying, and a young man learning to live."
-Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"A splendid, unique gem of a novel."
-Library Journal (starred review)

"Heacox does a superb job of transcending his characters' unique geography to create a heartwarming, all-American story."
-Booklist

"What makes this story so appealing is the character Old Keb. He is as finely wrought and memorable as any character in contemporary literature and energizes the tale with a humor and warmth thatā€¦


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Book cover of This Animal Body

This Animal Body by Meredith Walters,

Neuroscience PhD student Frankie Conner has finally gotten her life togetherā€”sheā€™s determined to discover the cause of her depression and find a cure for herself and everyone like her. But the first day of her program, she meets a group of talking animals who have an urgent message they refuseā€¦

Book cover of Badd Motherf*cker

Jackson Ford Author Of The Girl Who Could Move Sh*t with Her Mind

From my list on swear words in the title.

Why am I passionate about this?

Jackson Ford is the author of The Frost Files series, including The Girl Who Could Move Sh*t with Her Mind and Random Sh*t Flying Through the Air. He may or may not be the alter ego of author Rob Boffard, a South African author based in Vancouver, but he is definitely 100% a jackass.

Jackson's book list on swear words in the title

Jackson Ford Why did Jackson love this book?

Nothing wrong with a little bit of erotica. This one not only has one of the best titles of any book ever, it also has its tongue jammed firmly in its cheek. When your inciting incident is a jilted bride walking into a bar in Alaska, in her wedding dressā€”a bar that happens to be owned by eight brothers, one of whom is named Sebastian Baddā€“ You know you're in for a good time.

By Jasinda Wilder,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Badd Motherf*cker as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Your wedding day is supposed to be the happiest day of your life, right? Thatā€™s what they say, at least. I went into that day hoping Iā€™d get the happiest day of my life. What I got? The worst. I mean, you really canā€™t get any worse of a day without someone actually dying.     Soā€¦I may have gotten just a little drunk, and maybe just a tad impetuousā€¦    And landed myself in a dive bar somewhere in Alaska, alone, still in my wedding dress, half-wasted and heart-broken.    ***    Eight brothers, one bar.    Sounds like the beginning to a bad joke,ā€¦


Book cover of Sivulliq: Ancestor

Rosemary McGuire Author Of Rough Crossing: An Alaskan Fisherwoman's Memoir

From my list on Alaska by Alaskans.

Why am I passionate about this?

I grew up in a wilderness cabin in Alaska, surrounded by more wild animals than humans. For many years, I worked in the heavily male-dominated Alaskan fishing industry. I still work as a scientist in rural Alaska. I care passionately about the place, and the truthful stories written about it by people with deep roots and diverse backgrounds here.

Rosemary's book list on Alaska by Alaskans

Rosemary McGuire Why did Rosemary love this book?

This book tells of Indigenous resistance to white colonizers in northern Alaska and the fierceness of a motherā€™s love as she fights to save her daughter from kidnapping.

Lily Tuzroylukā€™s voice is fresh and utterly compelling. She writes of a place she knows. This book both broke my heart and thrilled me.

By Lily H Tuzroyluke,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Sivulliq as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In the spring of 1893, arctic Alaska is devastated by smallpox. Kayaliruk knows it is time to light the funeral pyres and leave their home. With her surviving children, she packs their dog sled and they set off to find family. Kayaliruk wakes with a bleeding scalp and no memory of the last day. Her daughter was stolen by Yankee whalers, her sons say. They begin chasing the ship, through arctic storms, across immeasurable distances, slipping into the Yankee whalers' town on Herschel Island, and to the enemy shores of Siberia. Ibai, an African American whaler, grew up in Newā€¦


Book cover of Still Points North: One Alaskan Childhood, One Grown-up World, One Long Journey Home

G. Elizabeth Kretchmer Author Of The Damnable Legacy

From my list on for escaping to Alaska.

Why am I passionate about this?

Iā€™m a huge fan of Alaskaā€”a landscape of unforgiving weather patterns, inaccessible terrain, savage animals, and undeniable pristine beauty. Iā€™m also a nature lover and spend as much time outdoors as possible, often hiking and marveling at spectacular vistas like those found in The Damnable Legacy. But Iā€™m also an avid observer of the human race and am fascinated by all sorts of behaviors: why we pursue our passions, how we love and grieve, and whether we can really change who we are at the core. 

G.'s book list on for escaping to Alaska

G. Elizabeth Kretchmer Why did G. love this book?

The initial hook in Still Points North was, for me, the opening and its description of the 4-seat plane that the author often flew in with her father. I flew in one when I went to Denali for field research for my novel, and it became not just one of those memories Iā€™ll never forget but also experiential data for my book. I also appreciated how the author so eloquently describes the landscape, comparing and contrasting life in the wilderness with life on the East Coast. But what most impressed me was her revelation, which coincides with the experiences of my novelā€™s protagonist, that relationships can sometimes be more frightening and challenging than Alaskaā€™s natural savagery.

By Leigh Newman,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Still Points North as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Part adventure story, part love story, part homecoming, Still Points North is a page-turning memoir that explores the extremes of belonging and exile, and the difference between how to survive and knowing how to truly live.

Growing up in the wilds of Alaska, seven-year-old Leigh Newman spent her time landing silver salmon, hiking glaciers, and flying in a single-prop plane. But her life split in two when her parents unexpectedly divorced, requiring her to spend summers on the tundra with her ā€œGreat Alaskanā€ father and the school year in Baltimore with her more urbane mother.

Navigating the fraught terrain ofā€¦


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Book cover of Vivian Amberville - The Weaver of Odds

Vivian Amberville - The Weaver of Odds by Louise Blackwick,

Vivian AmbervilleĀ® is a popular dark fantasy book series about a girl whose thoughts can reshape reality.

First in the series, The Weaver of Odds introduces 13-year-old Vivian to her power to alter luck, odds, and circumstances. She is a traveler between realities, whose imagination can twist reality into impossibleā€¦

Book cover of The Raven's Gift

Sean Schubert Author Of Infection: Alaskan Undead Apocalypse

From my list on to prove the apocalypse can still be fun.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have a passion for the written word and the art of storytelling. Though Iā€™m not a fatalist, Iā€™ve had a lifelong interest in stories and films about cataclysm and apocalyptic tales, regardless of scale. Films like Poseidonā€™s Adventure, The Towering Inferno, and all of the both good and bad zombie movies the years have produced were mainstays in my childhood. Seeing how ordinary people responded to extraordinary circumstances to overcome and sometimes succumb to their frailties have been driving influences for me. I try to reflect that point of view through the characters in my novels. I think those moments have a way of defining our own humanity.

Sean's book list on to prove the apocalypse can still be fun

Sean Schubert Why did Sean love this book?

Don Reardon crafts a tale of utter isolation and deprivation. Set in a remote Alaskan village that is suddenly and remorselessly struck with a virulent and deadly strain of influenza or some other similar malady. Quarantined from the rest of Alaska and the world, most of the inhabitants die from the illness leaving the survivors the grim, brutal task of surviving by whatever means possible. With no food coming into the village and winter firmly set upon them, living or dying becomes a question of what people are willing to do for and to one another.

By Don Rearden,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Raven's Gift as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

John Morgan and his wife can barely contain their excitement upon arriving as the new teachers in a Yupā€™ik village on the windswept Alaskan tundra. Lured north in search of adventure, the couple hope to immerse themselves in the ancient Arctic culture. But their move proves disastrous when a deadly epidemic strikes and the isolated community descends into total chaos. When outside help fails to arrive, Johnā€™s only hope lies in escaping the snow covered tundra and the hunger of the other survivors by making the thousand-mile trek across the Alaskan wilderness for help. Along the way, he encounters aā€¦


Book cover of Lost Mountain
Book cover of A Thousand Trails Home: Living with Caribou
Book cover of Cold Mountain Path: The Ghost Town Decades of McCarthy-Kennecott, Alaska

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