Take Good Care of the Garden and the Dogs

“Here is the real thing - good old-fashioned American values coming from small-town Alaska. In a cozy chatty voice, Heather Lende tells stories of life in Haines, Alaska … Accepting life and rejoicing in the world are her preferred modes of thinking and feeling. She quotes with approval from Emerson, ‘the proper response to the world is applause.’ ” –Boston Globe–Boston Globe“Lende has a knack for subtly illuminating the remarkable in the commonplace, the transcendence in tragedy … Her voice, which alternates between folksy and formal, playful and prayerful, entertaining and elegiac, is reminiscent of Garrison Keillor, Krista Tippett, Tom Bodett, Kathleen Norris and Anne Lamott.” –Minneapolis Star Tribune“Lende writes emotionally, but never sentimentally, giving us the best Alaska memoir of late, maybe the best ever.” –Booklist, starred review–Booklist“The book is full of vivid characters (a librarian who collects overdue books in person) and strange, sad deaths. Lende is not one for looking back. She has a simple, chatty style most readers will find oddly comforting. Life does, in fact, go on.” –Los Angeles Times–Los Angeles Times“Here is the real thing – good old-fashioned American values coming from small-town Alaska.” –The Boston Globe“Lende writes emotionally but never sentimentally, giving us the best Alaska memoir of late, maybe the best ever.” –Booklist (starred review)“The book is full of vivid characters … [Lende] has a simple, chatty style most readers will find oddly comforting. Life does, in fact, go on.” –Los Angeles Times

Heather Lende has contributed essays and commentary to NPR, the New York Times, and National Geographic Traveler, among other newspapers and magazines, and is a former contributing editor at Woman s Day. A columnist for the Alaska Dispatch News, she is the obituary writer for the Chilkat Valley News in Haines and the recipient of the Suzan Nightingale McKay Best Columnist Award from the Alaska Press Club. Her previous bestselling books are Find the Good, Take Good Care of the Garden and the Dogs, and If You Lived Here, I’d Know Your Name. Lende was voted Citizen of the Year, Haines Chamber of Commerce, in 2004. Her website is heatherlende.com.