A review of the book on the right by Hal Needham

1. You've been all over the place/ had many different experiences. Just a
quick scan of the stories in Alaska Tracks, takes the reader to varied
places and experiences- 19,000 feet on Denali, along the Yukon, Eskimo
villages, White Mountains, Southeast, etc. etc. You've not only traveled to
these places, but have done so in so many different experiences- as park
ranger (I think you said), traveling for fun, doing science work for UAF,
etc.

This is more exceptional than you might think. Most of the stuff written on
AK (at least that one finds in the Lower 48) consists of Outsider-authors
spending time in AK so they can write a book, and although they think
they're "drilling into the real experience", observations from Barrow or
whatever other place they've flown to, just makes them sound like they've
scratched a little deeper beneath the surface than other tourists, but they
seem to remain tourists. Your long and varied experience in AK shines
through in this book.

2. You have a way of taking 6 or 7 pages of content and "trimming the fat"
so that we're left with the best 2-4 pages of very solid material in a
story. You are direct and to the point, but in a very descriptive way. I
don't feel like your work has any "filler" that I gotta get through to get
to the good stuff, it's all good stuff.

3. Your opening of AK Tracks is genious. Opening in Upstate NY and
reflecting on the "better side" of the Lower 48 (ie. its still fall in
October) shows that you have balanced perspective and you're not approaching
this thing like- "Alaska's the best place on Earth and that's all I know
about". You express thoughts and feelings we've all experienced- "Is AK
worth it?" Then your observations of NO TRESPASSING remind us all why we
love AK.

4. Your stories are short and simple, and varied. That holds great interest.

5. Probably my favorite thing you do is "shine the light on other people"
and the common themes of your writing is that someone else, not you, is the
hero. This is a rare quality of humility and makes me enjoy reading your
work all the more.

6. In short, and probably the biggest compliment I can give you is this. If
I had found this book before I moved to AK, I would have devoured every page
of it and honesty would have said something like, "This guy's the greatest
author ever!"

Blogger's note: Hal is my buddy, he's in the book, and he's living in Baton Rouge right now. And he's right on the mark.