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Heather Lende

Goodreads Author

Born

in New York, The United States

Website

http://www.heatherlende.com

Genre

Biographies & Memoirs, Fiction

Member Since

February 2010

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/heatherlende

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Heather Lende and her husband Chip have five adult children and nine grandchildren. Heather is a hospice, library and radio station volunteer and served on the Haines Borough Assembly. She is the 2021-2023 Alaska State Writer Laureate, a former contributing editor at Woman's Day and a former columnist for the Anchorage Daily News. Her essays and commentary have been widely distributed. She has written over 400 obituaries for the Chilkat Valley News in Haines, AK and is the author of Of Ballots and Bears (2020) Find the Good (2015), Take Good Care of the Garden and the Dogs (2010), and NY Times bestseller, If You Lived Here, I'd Know Your Name (2005), all from Algonquin Books. She is happy to Zoom with book clubs. Heather is also the recipie ...more

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Heather Lende’s books

Average rating: 3.77 · 14,913 ratings · 2,222 reviews · 4 distinct works • Similar authors

	If You Lived Here, I'd Know Your Name 3.73 avg rating — 6,463 ratings — published 2005 — 17 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Find the Good: Unexpected Life Lessons from a Small-Town Obituary Writer 3.76 avg rating — 6,171 ratings — published 2015 — 12 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Take Good Care of the Garden and the Dogs: Family, Friendship, and Faith in Small-Town Alaska 3.88 avg rating — 1,600 ratings — published 2010 — 13 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Of Bears and Ballots: An Alaskan Adventure in Small-Town Politics 3.86 avg rating — 679 ratings — published 2020 — 9 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Heather Lende's Blog

Checking In

Joy is not made to be a crumb.- Mary Oliver

Hi,

I have been thinking of you. I have been in Tenakee for most of March, shoveling snow! So much snow, every day, and working on and on off on a couple of projects, a how-to write an obituary book, a collection of essays, and a novel.( Or at least I think it may be a novel, someday.)

But mostly I have been working on my soul and general well-bei

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Heather Lende wrote a new blog post Checking In Joy is not made to be a crumb.- Mary Oliver Hi,I have been thinking of you. I have been in Tenakee for most of March, shoveling snow! So much snow, ev Read more of this blog post »
Apr 02, 2026 12:13AM · like

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Quotes by Heather Lende (?)

“I have a friend who says we spend the first half of our life building it and the second half preventing it from falling apart. I’d rather be under construction when I die.”
― Heather Lende, Find the Good: Unexpected Life Lessons from a Small-Town Obituary Writer

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“People don’t gather after a death to mourn, but rather to reaffirm why life matters and to remember to exult in the only one we’ll ever have. We hold funerals, memorials, celebrations—whatever you want to call them—to seek and to find the heart of the matter of this trip we call Life.”
― Heather Lende, Find the Good: Unexpected Life Lessons from a Small-Town Obituary Writer

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“I wonder if to be human is to know that we can't ever banish pain and ugliness from the world, only learn from it and create something beautiful and good out of it ...”
― Heather Lende, Take Good Care of the Garden and the Dogs: Family, Friendship, and Faith in Small-Town Alaska

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Topics Mentioning This Author

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Pick-a-Shelf: 2009-04 - Travel - What will you Read in April?	33	127	Apr 15, 2009 10:21AM
The Seasonal Read...: Summer Challenge 2010 Completed Tasks (do NOT delete any posts in this thread)	3022	3288	Aug 31, 2010 10:39PM
The Seasonal Read...: Spring Challenge 2012: Completed Tasks -DO NOT DELETE ANY POSTS IN THIS TOPIC	2297	782	May 31, 2012 09:02PM
The Seasonal Read...: Winter Challenge 2012-2013: Completed Tasks - DO NOT DELETE ANY POSTS IN THIS TOPIC	2485	867	Feb 28, 2013 09:01PM
The Seasonal Read...: Summer Challenge 2013: Completed Tasks (DO NOT DELETE POSTS)	2503	773	Aug 31, 2013 09:04PM
75 Books...More o...: Annie's 2013 Challenge	43	24	Dec 29, 2013 05:38PM
Ladies & Literature: 50 Books in 2013	486	325	Jan 02, 2014 04:28PM

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