Wonderful Book about Life in Small Town Alaska

I spent about an hour browsing in teh "Title Wave", downtown Anchorage, at the end of our trip. One of the books I bought, and have just finished reading, is 'If You Lived Here, I'd Know Your Name", by Heather Lende. It is about life in Haines, a town of app. 2,500.

This is a wonderful book, and I highly recommend it. She paints an amazing picture of small town life and relates the connection to a sense of place one has living in the north (or any place that you call home and you earn a living in order to live in what you know is a remarkable place.)

Thanx for the tip - sounds like a wonderful book that is right up my alley. I'm going to stop at Borders on my way to a July 4th picnic today. With the weather here in PA today, might make for a short picnic and a long afternoon of great reading for me!

I agree it is a GREAT book. She also has another one coming out. I believe it is at the publishers now and writes a column for the Anchorage Daily News http://www.adn.com.

I just re-read my original post. It is VERY inarticulate, but I guess the meaning comes across. :)

I too loved Heather Lende's book. I enjoyed it so much that I postponed reading the last chapter for a few days because I didn't want it to end. :o (I've done that with only one other book.)

Another great Alaska book is "On the Edge of Nowhere" by Jim Huntington. It's a wonderful true story about how hard life was in the wilds of Alaska. Both of these books were mentioned here on the CC boards when we were planning our Alaska trip last year and I highly recommend them.

Helen

I spent about an hour browsing in teh "Title Wave", downtown Anchorage, at the end of our trip. One of the books I bought, and have just finished reading, is 'If You Lived Here, I'd Know Your Name", by Heather Lende. It is about life in Haines, a town of app. 2,500.

 

This is a wonderful book, and I highly recommend it. She paints an amazing picture of small town life and relates the connection to a sense of place one has living in the north (or any place that you call home and you earn a living in order to live in what you know is a remarkable place.)

Thanks for the tip. I just ordered it from Amazon for .73 plus s/h. It sounds like a fun book and I intend to pass it on to someone I know who lived in Haines for many years. Thanks again.

I just ordered the Heather Lende book from the library. Thanks. Amazon does have it: 58 cents plus 3.99 shipping.

Off to AK on 8/3.

for entertainment..............

tom bodett's "small comforts" and "as far as you can go without a passport".

he was a logger/carpenter/story teller when i first moved to tiny town. he's moved on but still a story teller.

Another good one is Arctic Homestead by Norma Cobb. Her family was one of the last homesteaders in Alaska in the 1970s.

Thanks for all of the great suggestions, everyone! I'll do some browsing of our local bookstore.

Cheers

Robin

for entertainment..............

 

tom bodett's "small comforts" and "as far as you can go without a passport".

 

he was a logger/carpenter/story teller when i first moved to tiny town. he's moved on but still a story teller.

Tom Bodett from Wait Wait Don't Tell Me on NPR?

thanks! just ordered the book from Amazon.com for .57cents! plus s&h

can't wait to read it and i'll pass it on........

Bonnie

Tom Bodett from Wait Wait Don't Tell Me on NPR?

and motel 666.

yes.

Thanks, I just ordered two books based on the recommendations in this thread.

http://www.addall.com/ is my favorite book search site.

just finished the book! it was great and showed life in a small Alaskan town.

can't wiat to go there!

Bonnie

Bonnie

isn't it great? Glad you liked it! I think you'll really like Haines itself, also. We were there several years ago and were very pleased we'd chosen there to stay on our road trip rather than Skagway. This year on our cruise I just got to waive as we sailed by :(

Loved the Heather Lende book too and I also postponed finishing it because I wanted to keep reading more! After reading her book, we decided to take a ferry to Haines on our Alaska cruise on July 20th! I'll be watching for her next book too!

I ordered Heather Lende's book from Amazon a couple weeks ago based on your recommendation. I've been trying to find books to get me really excited about my Alaska cruise so I ordered hers, James Michener's "Alaska" and a Alaska cruise planning guide- the name escapes me.

Alaska wasn't my first choice of graduation cruises but the timing, the price, and the logistics were the most sensible. (We're all tired of the Caribbean, can't afford Europe in the type of rooms we like to travel in, and don't have enough time off work to go to Asia.)

I've got about 15 pages to go in Lende's book and I've THOROUGHLY enjoyed it! Will be passing it on to DH, my mom, and mom's husband (all travelling on the same cruise) before we go so they can all enjoy.

THANK YOU! :)

I ordered Heather Lende's book from Amazon a couple weeks ago based on your recommendation. I've been trying to find books to get me really excited about my Alaska cruise so I ordered hers, James Michener's "Alaska" and a Alaska cruise planning guide- the name escapes me.

 

Alaska wasn't my first choice of graduation cruises but the timing, the price, and the logistics were the most sensible. (We're all tired of the Caribbean, can't afford Europe in the type of rooms we like to travel in, and don't have enough time off work to go to Asia.)

 

I've got about 15 pages to go in Lende's book and I've THOROUGHLY enjoyed it! Will be passing it on to DH, my mom, and mom's husband (all travelling on the same cruise) before we go so they can all enjoy.

 

THANK YOU! :)

A word of warning... have a box of kleenex handy for that last chapter. It's so touching and beautifully written you can't help but keep reading until the end.

Helen