Looking for unique Christmas gift ideas? Maybe you have a friend or relative who makes it difficult to find a present? Well, we have good news! ReadAlaska, Alaska’s largest book fair since 1993 will be at the Anchorage Museum on the second floor, the Friday and Saturday following Thanksgiving, November 29th and 30th. With thirty local publishers, authors, and photographers displaying hundreds of Alaskan books, most signed and personalized by local authors, finding unique and perfect Christmas gifts are now possible.
     Whether your friends like fiction or nonfiction or you’re buying for adults or children, you can’t go wrong with the right book. Gifts are available from impossible crime to fishing adventures, fantasy/sci-fi to romantic suspense. Whether you’re looking for a book on how to survive in the wilderness or surviving your in-laws, there’s a great selection for everyone.

     Impossible crime is a subgenre of mystery, where a detective has to solve how the crime was committed before he can track the perpetrators. Steven Levi, Alaskan author of impossible crime, will be showcasing his books including The Matter of The Deserted Airliner, in which a 737 lands in Anchorage with no pilot, no crew, and no passengers even though it was fully staffed and loaded in Seattle and never stopped. So where are the pilot, crew and passengers? When kidnappers ask for $25 million in diamonds, everyone knows space aliens aren’t involved. Now the detective has to figure out how the pilot, crew and passengers disappeared fast enough to stop the payment of the ransom and expedite their return.

    Robin Barefield from Kodiak Island will be promoting her book, Murder Over Kodiak, the tale of a floatplane that mysteriously explodes above the Alaska wilderness. Investigators begin digging into the lives of the five passengers and the pilot to determine who was the target of the bomb. Was it the U.S. senator in the midst of a hotly contended re-election campaign or her husband, a corporate raider with no shortage of enemies? Could the bomb have been meant for the cannery owner involved in a contentious divorce, or the refuge manager who has a long list of adversaries? Even the pilot could have been the target, since his girlfriend has violent tendencies and knows how to use explosives. Readers will anxiously engage in this page-turning mystery.

         Local Chugiak writer, E.M. Shue, will also be attending for the first time with her steamy romantic-suspense fiction novels beginning with her original Securities International series. E.M’s latest release, Accidentally Noah, is receiving 5-star ratings from Amazon readers and climbing the charts. Romance fans are sure to fall in love with the newest Caine and Graco Saga.
     For nonfiction readers, ReadAlaska offers true stories of bush flying mysteries and disasters by Gregory Leifer, the life and dangerous times of a sniper in Vietnam written under the pseudonym of T. Martin O’Neil (for good reason). Of course, the book fair has a wide display of Alaskana books and memoirs, including local Chickaloon author, Hilda Luster-Lindner. We even have pet friendly books. Dog lovers are sure to enjoy Road Trip With Remington Beagle by Valerie Winans, and those looking for spiritual inspiration will be sure to find a little something for the man or woman of faith too.
     Over the past 27 years, ReadAlaska also has presented a wide variety of children’s books ranging from Pre-K picture books to chapter books for older readers. This year, Anchorage author Brooke Hartman, current president of the Alaska Writer’s Guild, will be featuring her new release, “Dream Flights on Arctic Nights.” This beautifully illustrated book follows a child’s dreamy flight through the Arctic to discover the animals that live there. From the wolves prowling in the snow to the goats and sheep standing on the mountains to the walrus and sea lions lying on big glaciers, children explore Alaskan wildlife with a creative and poetic flare.
     The ReadAlaska Book Fair offers extraordinary Christmas presents. Even better, readers can meet local authors and have their books autographed and personalized. Buying local is the best option.  But, if you’re looking for local books and can’t attend the ReadAlaska event the Friday and Saturday after Thanksgiving at the Anchorage Museum, check out the latest website dedicated to Alaskan books at www.alaskanbooks.com where you can find local authors year-round. All Alaskan authors are welcome to submit their books to this website for inclusion.  Building community begins by buying local.

As a nation, we bid farewell to our wonderful First Lady, Barbara Bush.  Ms. Bush fought for literacy and childhood education.  There are thousands of memorials being spoken of her, and this note is just one of many honoring her life. 

        We thank you Ms. Bush for your grace and generosity to our world. 

Today's Alaska author is our very own neighbor currently living in Sutton, Alaska Ms. Ingrid D. Shaginoff.  Ms. Shaginoff's new book Chickaloon Wild is a memoir of an Athabascan family from the Chickaloon Village.  The memoirs are from her husband's parents, Johnny and Mary Shaginoff.  They were a very dynamic couple and some of the few elders in the 1990's remaining who spoke the original Athna language fluently, having grown up before the "white man" traveled the Talkkeetna Mountains.  The Athna language is used in the book with a Athabascan-English translation list located in an index at the back, based on Dr. James A. Kari's work.  Johnny Shaginoff was one of the elders Dr. Kari worked with to create the first Athna written language dictionary for the University of Alaska, Fairbanks' Alaska Native Language Center in 1990.  Mrs. Shaginoff's use of Athna language in her book brings authentication to the conversations.  The Shaginoff family's adventures in life are very interesting and will captivate readers who desire to know Alaska from an original history point of view.  The Shaginoffs  were some of the first guides assisting the US Army and US Geological Survey employees exploring the new frontier of Alaska from Anchorage to Copper Center along the Chickaloon-Knik-Nelchina Trail System.  They lived wild before land claims, then in accordance with homesteading rules homesteaded at mile 89 of the Glenn Highway along the Purinton Creek Trail, part of the Chickaloon-Knik-Nelchina trail system.  Later they lived in old Chickaloon, and eventually the family settled in Sutton, where Mrs. Shaginoff currently resides. 

Book Synoposis:  Chickaloon Wild
Imagine living deep in the Alaska wilderness where survival depends on your ability to hunt, fish, and gather. A place where as far as you can see is dense forest, rivers and sparkling lakes, set against a backdrop of majestic, snow covered mountains where the only sounds are those of nature; the caw of a raven, the lonesome howl of a wolf, or the sharp cry of the loon. In this place education means pulling the brush up around your snare to prevent the rabbit from going around it, or knowing to remove the scent glands from the beaver before you roast it. It means recognizing and following a track through thick brush. This is the ways of their Athabascan ancestors and the only way the Shaginoff family knew. With the Colonists moving into the Matanuska Valley as part of the New Deal their world is about to change forever.

Shadowing Dizzy Gillespie by David G. Brown is today's Alaskan author spotlight.  In celebration of Dizzy Gillespie’s 100th birthday, author David G. Brown (Deacon’s Crossbow) shares his intimate experiences and memoirs of this humanitarian, innovator, and magical musician. After a chance meeting in Georgetown, 1985, Brown had the opportunity to spend countless hours with Dizzy at performances, testimonials, all-night card-playing sessions, hotels, restaurants, and street corners.   Mr. Brown said, “Without question, the most remarkable man I have ever met. We shared tears and gut-busting laughs that are etched in my mind forever.

God bless John Birks ‘Dizzy’ Gillespie, who, by the way, wasn’t dizzy at all.”  Along with a book-load of anecdotes, there are select and unique photos spread throughout the pages of this memoir on one of Jazz's most famous musicians.

About the Author:  David G. Brown grew up and worked in Woonsocket, RI. He is the father of two sons, has two grandchildren, and lives with his significant better half, Maureen Hanlon. An avid reader and writer, he credits the Creative Writing program at Cuesta College (CA) and the Alaska Writers Guild for advancing his writing career. Mr. Brown freelanced for The Woonsocket Call, Castro Valley Forum (CA), and Edible East Bay (CA). He is the author of a true crime book, Deacon’s Crossbow, and his current writing project is an historical novel, Return of the Free Faller. Extra curricular activities include disliking "politricks," sports (especially fishing), music, creative writing workshops, and spending as much time as possible with his dog, Kaya. He now resides in Anchorage, AK.