Albert Alletag—a New York City butler who dabbled in photography—captured this early-20th-century Whiteface Mountain resident with “keep out” and “hands off” scrawled on his cabin. The photo—perhaps cheekily titled Camp Welcome—appears in Adirondack Photographers 1850–1950 (Syracuse University Press), by Sally Svenson, along with the stories and work of more than 200 other photographers (195 pages, $29.95, hardcover, black-and-white photographs, press.syr.edu).
Also new to the bookshelf this year:
Bushcraft Topics (independently published), by Adam Nestor, offers survival skill how-tos, including several backwoods bed-building options, a step-by-step bark container primer and fire-starting hacks (150 pages, $24.99, softcover, color photographs, www.amazon.com).
Glenn L. Pearsall has released an expanded edition of Echoes in These Mountains: Historic Sites and Stories Disappearing in Johnsburg, an Adirondack Community (independently published) that adds more photographs and new research to the popular 2008 original (512 pages, $24.95, softcover, black-and-white photographs, available at local booksellers or by emailing glenn.pearsall.author@gmail.com).
Forty-Something: An Adirondack Tale (independently published), by Michael Keeler, with illustrations by Sara Keeler, alternates between a small lens—the engaging story of a city kid tackling the highest peaks in the Adirondacks—and the bigger picture of local history, geology and ecology (342 pages, $24.95, softcover, black-and-white illustrations and fold-out map, the-wild-supply-co.myshopify.com).
The latest edition of Hiking the Adirondacks (FalconGuides), by Lisa Ballard, includes 50 park-wide treks for every taste and skill level, plus notes on geology, wildlife, safety and more (340 pages, $26.95, softcover, color photographs and maps, falcon.com).
In Hurricane Canoe (Bogie Road Publishing), by Richard M. Brock, a pair of men weighed down by secrets become trapped in the Adirondack backcountry after a freak storm. Kirkus calls the thriller “an exhilarating exercise in suspense” (314 pages, $15.95, softcover, richardmbrock.com).
For a quirky mix of travelogue and regional history, pick up Matt Dallos’s In the Adirondacks: Dispatches from the Largest Park in the Lower 48 (Fordham University Press, 213 pages, $29.95, hardcover, black-and-white and color photographs, www.fordhampress.com).
Former river guide Rachel Vogel and illustrator Anthony Richichi follow their fun-filled romp down the Hudson, Raccoons Go Rafting (Saratoga Springs Publishing, 32 pages, $14.99, hardcover, color illustrations, www.amazon.com), with a new early-reader adventure: Nugget & Bandit’s First Winter, which joins the adventurous raccoon pair—trailed by their two squirrelly friends—on the slopes of West Mountain (Saratoga Springs Publishing, 83 pages, $12.99, black-and-white illustrations, www.amazon.com).
Survival Scout: Lost in the Mountains (Roaring Brook Press), by Maxwell Eaton III, is a lively graphic novel for middle-grade readers that Publishers Weekly calls “a thoroughly enjoyable wilderness-themed geek-out” (144 pages, $19.99, hardcover, color illustrations, us.macmillan.com).
Bestselling author Jennifer Ackerman takes a deep dive into the complex nature of owls in What an Owl Knows: The New Science of the World’s Most Enigmatic Birds (Penguin Press, 333 pages, $30, hardcover, black-and-white and color photographs, www.penguinrandomhouse.com).
What Wild Women Do (Dutton), a new Adirondack-based page-turner by bestselling author Karma Brown, follows the dual narratives of Eddie, a 1970s feminist trailblazer, and Rowen, a modern screenwriter who tries to untangle the mystery of Eddie’s deep-woods disappearance (320 pages, $28, hardcover, www.penguinrandomhouse.com).
Where the Styles Brook Waters Flow: The Place I Call Home (Bloated Toe Publishing), Lorraine M. Duvall’s fourth book of local lore, offers meditations on the past, present and future of the landscape she loves (210 pages, $20, softcover, black-and-white photographs, books.bloatedtoe.com).
A Woman’s Guide to Search & Rescue (Riverbed Press), a thriller by Mary Carroll Moore about two estranged sisters—one on the run from the fallout of a violent crime—opens with a plane crash and rescue from Panther Gorge (358 pages, $14.95, softcover, www.amazon.com).
