Book: If You Lived Here, I'd Know Your Name by Heather Lende

This was a marvelous book. Heather and her husband Chip grew up on the East Coast, and after college they went to Alaska on their honeymoon, and stayed. They now live in Haines (90 miles north of Juneau) and have five kids. Not counting the rather uninspired title, this is a beautifully written book. She writes of her neighbors, her family, and the stunning, majestic Alaskan landscape. The common thread in all of her stories is that people are much more important than material possessions, fame or money.

She is the obituary writer for the local newspaper; she runs daily; she cooks huge meals for dozens of people on all sorts of occasions; she smokes salmon. I wanted to go live there while reading this book. At one point, she decides she wants to learn how to pray the rosary even though she isn't Catholic, so she does. She and Chip adopt a child from Bulgaria. She forces herself to go hunting with her husband. She is a liberal activist but works hard at trying to understand the views of others. She writes gracefully, with honesty, compassion and wit.

One day, they go iceskating on Chilkoot Lake: "Dark spruce trees and white mountains reflect on ice as hard and shiny as a marble floor....The ice is absolutely smooth and clear and the air so cold that my breath makes frost on my eyelashes, scarf, and on the edges of my wool hat."

The next day, a friend falls through the ice on this lake. He grabs at the ice edge which breaks several times before he finally crawls out. He survives and gets home, telling his family, "I had a bad experience." Others are not as fortunate: they drown; they fall to their death; they are killed in car accidents or plane crashes. The author tells us their stories and so a part of them remains.

I found this book soothing as it reiterates what is important for us humans as we make our way though this life.