An Alaskan Life and Lovin' It

Take Good Care of the Garden and the Dogs: Family, Friends, and Faith in Small-Town Alaska by Heather Lende


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
It's not that death has no mysteries for someone who writes obituaries, it's that the writer has turned death' mystery into a way of meeting and celebrating life.
Lende survived a serious bike accident and went on to not just cope with life but to enjoy the good with the bad. Along the way she has written about her life in Haines, Alaska and her friends and neighbors--both the living and the dead. An Episcopalian, she draws on a great wealth of spiritual tradtion to tie life together.
I had enjoyed her first book If You Lived Here, I'd Know Your Name, which came out just before her accident, and I must say that I've enjoyed this one just as much.

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What's a body part or two

Rag and Bone: A Journey Among the World's Holy Dead by Peter Manseau


My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Manseau writes about what seems to be the need and fascination among many peoples and religions for religious relics. Even those religions which deny relics officially have some item or other that is venerated.
From the first chapter about the Catholic St. Francis Xavier's uncorrupted body in Goa, India to the Muslim hair from the beard of the Prophet in Kashmir to the tooth of the Buddha in Sr Lanka, we are told some of the stories, the background, and attitudes toward these relic.
This is a fine line between adoration of the articles and scoffing at the people who believe in them.

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