Heather Lende, Take Good Care of the Garden and the Dogs: A True Story of Bad Breaks and Small Miracles

Take Good Care of the Garden and the Dogs: A True Story of Bad Breaks and Small Miracles

Heather Lende

Algonquin Books, Apr 19 2011, $14.95

ISBN: 9781616200510

Anchorage Daily News columnist Heather Lende was riding her bike when a Chevy pickup ran over her with one of the tires rolling over her lap. She has slowly healed encouraged by a retinue of health practitioners, family, and friends. This memoir focuses on healing in her hometown of Haines, Alaska where the townsfolk encourage their favorite columnist to return from the near dead to the living; her late battling mom acting from the grave as her model. The residents are a hearty eccentric group with people like Wilma praying with her feet and others as charming in a frontier way just like her. Realizing the irony of when she was nearly fatally hurt, Ms. Lende muses about musing over her tour of If You Lived Here, I'd Know Your Name and wondering if she should re-label her tour Take Good Care of the Garden and the Dogs: A True Story of Bad Breaks and Small Miracles. This is a terrific inspirational biography due to the wonderful look at the residents of Haines.

Harriet Klausner