The engrossing memoir of an American woman who accompanied her husband to Alaska's Pribilof Islands in 1879, just after American acquisition of the region. Libby was the first non-native woman to live on St. Paul, which lies just south of the Arctic Circle in the Bering Sea. As edited by Libby's granddaughter, the book is a plainly told and wonderfully evocative tale of a pioneering life in remote Alaska -- with much attention paid to the natural history of the Pribilof Islands. From her storm-bound arrival at St. Paul to her reception by the local population to her near-death of cold and malnutrition, it's a great story.  (ARC07, $16.95)

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Seven Words for Wind, Essays and Field Notes from Alaska's Pribilof Islands
Sumner MacLeish
NATURAL HISTORY •  2008 • PAPER  • 160 PAGES
With two maps and 23 black-and-white photographs, this small book is a vivid meditation on life in the remote Pribilofs. (ALA72, $16.95)

Tent Life in Siberia
George Kennan
Larry McMurtry
EXPLORATION •  2007 • PAPER  • 425 PAGES
Kennan's spirited account of his adventures among the people, little-known cultures and snow-capped volcanoes of Kamchatka and the Russian Far East, originally published in 1871. (RUS142, $14.95)