Take Good Care of the Garden and the Dogs: Family, Friendships & Faith in Small-Town Alaska

Heather Lende's new book includes quotes from her Episcopal prayer book, among other thoughts on faith. It is summed up in the quote, `"teach us to number our days". This is not a religious book per se, nor really a book on Alaska. It is a book dealing with being fully alive and loss - to go on... it is life overcoming being hit literally and figuratively by a truck. It is a book about people's hearts and souls that live anywhere on this earth. There is faith and love and death. If you have ever been the victim of an accident, which she was; run over by a truck, she tells your story. Many of us have been hit by that truck, if only emotionally, but those of us that have had recoveries in a nursing home, know that it is not the best place for anyone to ever be. Her story is deja vu to those of us that have been there. Her experiences are no exaggeration, but she is lucky as some are, to have a loving husband to hold her hand and wipe her clean and a community to come home to that nurses her back on her long road to health. So this is life overcoming, that accident, the death of loved ones- from funeral services to a Tlinget totem pole to heal pain. There are stories of living, the heart that hurts, the bereavement, the comfort. She coalesces such thoughts as: "the only thing we know for sure about life is that we will die, each time it happens most of us are surprised`. She has gone through a life changing event and describes her new outlook. But do not think this book is a `downer', it is a wonderful paean to existence and love and community. I cannot think of anyone who would not benefit by reading these reminiscences.

I have happy memories of reading Heather Lende's memoir If You Lived Here I'd Know Your Name that was published in 2005. Lende lets us see what life in small town Alaska is like- something that sounds much like life in my small rural farming community, yet decidedly more exciting at the same time. After reading this book I could imagine myself living in Haines, Alaska, writing for the local paper and raising my family all amid the beauty of the Alaskan outdoors. What I didn't realize was that while I was busy reading Lende's book, she was busy recovering from a terrible accident. While biking in April of 2005 Lende fell off her bike and was then run over by a truck. The result of this accident was a broken pelvis, and Lende was lucky to be alive, enduring months of hospitalization and rehabilitation in Seattle. (A downside to living in a remote Alaskan town is lack of medical care for extreme illness or injury). Take Good Care of the Garden and the Dogs picks up right where Lende's first book ends. We are treated to more anecdotes of the residents that Lende knows personally. And Lende is able to share her feelings on faith as she is confronted with the personal challenge of recovering from her accident and grieving the death of her own mother. Once again I am able to feel as though I know the people of Haines, Alaska, and Lende and her family. And as I ponder from time to time the type of writing that I would like to do, Lende's memoir sticks firmly in my mind as an example of how one writer can make ordinary life interesting and entertaining. My husband also read If You Lived Here I'd Know Your Name shortly after I did, also dreaming of an idyllic life in remote Alaska (apparently skipping the part about not having television reception). Seeing my copy of Take Good Care of the Garden and the Dogs resting on our coffee table, he instantly recognized Lende's name, and inquired about how far along I was in it. Lende's writing appeals to a wide audience - men and women, old and young. I am hopeful that she will continue to share more about her life in Alaska in the future.

I have been looking forward to reading this book ever since her first one: If You Lived Here I'd Know Your Name. I was not disappointed. I wanted the world to stop turning while I curled up in my favorite spot and read. I grew up in Haines but have not lived there for 27 years. Of course, that helped make it special but anyone who yearns for small town life experiences sprinkled with inspiration and stories of faith will enjoy this book. I cried, I laughed and in the end I felt like I was having a reunion with an old friend. Very enjoyable.