Heather Lende
Author of If You Lived Here, I'd Know Your Name: News from Small-Town Alaska
About the Author
Heather Lende has contributed to NPR's Morning Edition, the New York Times, the Christian Science Monitor, and the Washington Post, as well as National Geographic Traveler and Country Living magazines. She is a columnist for Woman's Day magazine and also writes an online column for the Alaska show more Dispatch. Her Web site is www.heatherlende.com. show less
Image credit: Photo by Phil Lende
Works by Heather Lende
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Statistics
- Works
- 4
- Members
- 1,107
- Popularity
- #23,220
- Rating
- 3.6
- Reviews
- 68
- ISBNs
- 17
- Favorited
- 5
There's nothing really wrong with it but I found it to be a complete bore. The author writes the obituaries for the local paper so many of her chapters revolve around the death of townsfolk. Where this could be a great opportunity to learn meaningful stories to me the chapters all fall flat and seemed like "Person X lived in a small town, was happy without a lot of money, loved the land" over and over and over.
There are some ruminations about faith and spirituality which felt disjointed. Surprising, since you'd think that type of exploration would work with the overall theme of death.
I also found the author never really told us enough about herself or her family. Even the chapter about adopting her daughter seemed cold and remote to me.
The interspersed snippets from the local paper were annoying too. I guess the details of the local church BBQ were supposed to seem charming but without context of the town they just seemed hokey and made up.
Do not recommend this one.… (more)