Nancy Lord

“The Snow Fell Off the Mountain” is an invitation to readers to turn back the calendar and imagine for themselves what Alaska’s coastal life might have been like in a simpler, more slowly moving time, not that long ago.

With fully realized characters and local flourishes, “Cold to the Touch” by Kerri Hakoda manages to provide more depth than many Alaska mysteries.

“Arctic Traverse” by Michael Engelhard is an exceedingly well-crafted work that combines travel with natural history, anthropology and cultural concerns.

In “Rivers and Ice,” author Susan Pope’s account spans five generations of Alaskans, investigating what draws people to Alaska and also what draws any person into, away from, and back to family.

The works of three Alaskans are featured within the latest “Alaska Quarterly Review,” including poets Sara Eliza Johnson of Fairbanks and Mistee St. Clair of Juneau.

Following up on his esteemed first novel “There There,” Orange has again brilliantly succeeded in enlarging and complicating what it means to be American.

In “Treaty Justice,” author Charles Wilkinson examines the Boldt Decision, a ruling in Washington state that continues to influence issues of Native sovereignty and resource allotments well beyond those borders.

Strong characters and plenty of “real” Alaska moments bolster the debut novel from D. MacNeill Parker, “Death in Dutch Harbor.”

Many old-time Alaskans have written memoirs, but few besides Elsa Pedersen have had the writing skills to bring their lives and times into such readable literary form.

Riddled with cliches and a bewildering story line, the book was popular with French readers, but doesn’t quite click in the state its story was set.

“Young Men Go North” will be a particular treat for readers interested in Alaska’s fisheries or history, but it should also appeal to anyone with a taste for lively storytelling.

Their lists include novels, memoirs, mysteries and histories as well as tales about boats, sled dogs and polar explorations.

The two books take different approaches — one very scientific and the other imaginative.

Volumes from Mary Mullen, Wendy Erd and Ann Fox Chandonnet provide a feast of precise details, language play, and commentary on the forces that shape lives and communities.

The book offers dual narratives: the author’s life as a transplant to Interior Alaska and her battle with acute myeloid leukemia.