Pierre Berton's Klondike is the best book that I have read on the Gold Rush era. Michener's book Alaska was a good read but he exaggerates the truth in order to make a good story. When you are up there visit the local museums etc -- Skagway has a lot since it caters to the cruisers. I've been to Alaska twice but with more of an emphasis on the Klondike era. We went to the Yukon and up the Dempster to the Arctic Circle. Highly recommended trip. You'll learn a lot. :-)

If you like mysteries, Dana Stabenow writes some fun ones about Alaska. It's been awhile since I read her, but I seem to remember that her main character in the Kate Shugak series is Inuit.

There's another Alaska murder mystery series by John Straley, whose hardcore PI, Cecil Younger is a bit of a mess.

Those are the only Alaska books I've ever read, unfortunately.

Have a great trip.

Here is a link that might be useful: Dana Stabenow site

There's a terrific book (unfortunately I can't remember the name or author) about the dogsled teams that brought diphtheria serum during an epidemic in the early part of the 20th century. I believe it's now the route of the Iditirod. I wish I could be more helpful, but this book is really worth searching out. The stories of the men and especially the dogs were incredible.

I quite enjoyed reading Going to Extremes by Joe McGinniss. He lived in Alaska for a year in the late 1970s and explored the land and interviewed people and wrote this book as a portrait of Alaska at that time, when the oil pipeline was being built and everything was changing rapidly.

Drop City by TC Boyle

Drop by your library's children's room and spend a self-indulgent 15 minutes to read Togo about one of the dogs in the original serum dash which has become the Iditarod. The illustrations will make your heart ache-they are incredibly evocative. In one of the reading units at my school, there is a story about Balto, the more famous dog-but this story is a beautiful companion piece and, in reality, tells an even more harrowing story of the run.

Dead North by Sue Henry is a pleasant mystery featuring two mature women, each RV'ing it on her own (well, accompanied by their respective dogs)through the Canadian Rockies and then along the Alaska highway.

When I went to Fairbanks this last winter, I came home with a book of Eskimo legends Tales of Ticasuk by Emily Ivanoff Brown "Ticasuk." It contains several folktakes from her own Unalit culture.

Another good children's picture book is Raven and River by Nancy White Carlstrom: it tells the story of the spring thaw.

You might consider a popular science book on the aurora: the 2 lent to me by our Geospace program scientist were Majestic Lights, by Robert Eather, an auroral physicist and Aurora: the Mysterious Northern Lights, a popular science coffee table book by Candice Savage. Of the 2, I preferred the Eather book - it's a little old (1980's), but includes more science than the Savage book. Both cover the mythology and history of auroral science very well.

If you end up in Fairbanks, check out the university's museum. It's small, but gives you a good introduction to the different native cultures and regions.

I remembered two more books, both novel/novella length treatments of Athabaskan folk tales by native Alaskan Velma Wallis. The first is "Two Old Women", a survival story about two old women abandoned by their tribe during a famine, and the second is "Bird Girl and the Man Who Followed the Sun" about two people who leave their tribes to strike out on their own.

Here is a link that might be useful: Velma Wallis

The book that LaceyVail is referring to is called The Cruelest Miles: The Heroic Story of Dogs And Men in a Race Against an Epidemic by Gay Salisbury and Laney Salisbury

Wonderful book! I read it because I'm part Eskimo and my great-great grandmother was quite famous in the Nome, AK area in the late 1800/early 1900s when this story took place.

G-G-grandmother was known as Sinrock Mary, Reindeer Queen. Alaskan kids learn about her history class. She's known for her large herd of reindeer who legend says still exist on the tundra in ghost form.

Jodi-

I'll second Going to Extremes by Joe McGinniss. It's one of my favorite books.

Bringing this up for the person who was asking about books set in Alaska....