Looking for the perfect gift for that Adirondack reader on your list? Here are a dozen ideas:
The Adirondack Kids 20th Anniversary Edition (Adirondack Kids Press, 2020), by Justin and Gary VanRiper, revisits and expands on the story that started it all, when Justin, Jackie and Nick teamed up to protect a pair of loons (113 pages, $14.95, softcover, black-and-white photographs and illustrations, www.adirondackkids.com).
William J. O’Hern traces the history of the North Country logging industry in his latest, Adirondack Timber Cruising (North Country Books, 2020, 516 pages, $31.99, softcover, black-and-white photographs, www.amazon.com).
In Coming of Age in the Baby Boom: A Memoir of Personal Development, Social Action, Education Reform, and Adirondack Preservation (independently published, 2020), Howard Kirschenbaum looks back at the contradictions of an eventful life (312 pages, $16.95, softcover, www.amazon.com).
More than a dozen years after its original release, Rose Rivezzi and David Trithart have revamped their popular Kids on the Trail: Hiking with Children in the Adirondacks (Adirondack Mountain Club, second edition, 2020), adding new trails, new descriptions and colorful maps and photos (200 pages, $16.95, softcover, www.adk.org).
Lives Lived, Lessons Learned: Essays from the Adirondacks (RA Press, 2020) is a short, eclectic collection of writings by Mary Sanders Shartle, Chuck Gibson, Sandra Weber and other local voices (72 pages, $10, paperback, www.amazon.com).
Loon Landscapes (Willow Creek Press, 2020), by David C. Evers and Kate M. Taylor, documents this iconic diver in its habitats around the world, including in our own backyard (144 pages, $27.95, hardcover, color photographs, www.loon.org).
My Adirondack Vacations (North Country Books, 2020), written by Rob Igoe, Jr. and illustrated by Maggie Henry, follows a family as they climb a fire tower, paddle a lake, trek the Northville-Placid Trail and grab some goodies at Hoss’s (22 pages, $12.95, softcover, color illustrations, www.villagemerc.com).
The Notorious Life of Ned Buntline: A Tale of Murder, Betrayal, and the Creation of Buffalo Bill (TwoDot, 2020), by Julia Bricklin, revisits one of the most colorful liars to ever call the Adirondacks home (256 pages, $26.95, hardcover, www.amazon.com).
The Power Line (Outskirts Press, 2020), a novel by former Adirondack Life editor Christopher Shaw, follows the adventures of bootleggers, doctors and philosophers in and around Saranac Lake in the turbulent years following the Great War (310 pages, $18.95, softcover, www.outskirtspress.com).
Tupper Laker Jack Heinz’s thriller Six Spies in Saranac (Deeds Publishing, 2020) brings Cold War espionage to the Adirondacks (209 pages, $16.95, softcover, www.amazon.com).
A Sugarbush Like None Other: Adirondack Maple Syrup and the Horse Shoe Forestry Company (Maple History Press, 2020), by Matthew M. Thomas, is a thorough history of A. A. Low’s massive turn-of-the-century syrup operation (202 pages, $25, softcover, black-and-white photographs and illustrations, www.sugarbushlikenoneother.com).
Botanists Donald J. Leopold and Lytton John Musselman bundle the hundreds of Wildflowers of the Adirondacks (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2020) into this colorful and accessible field guide (348 pages, $24.95, softcover, color photographs, www.jhupbooks.press.jhu.edu).
