inthecommonhours 's review for:

Here If You Need Me by Kate Braestrup

5.0

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ETA: Have since read several times, and still love it passionately. Great book. I personally want to make the HBO series of it:)
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You can subtract at least one star just knowing this was probably a case of "right book at the right time" for me. Also I haven't really read it yet---I was listening to it on CD.

I wondered if it would be engaging enough to keep me awake for my solo roadtrip to Flagstaff. I liked the first hour or so on the way there, but LOVED it on the long drive home, especially after taking the wrong turn onto 191 and ended up deep into Navajo Country with no road signs anywhere, especially after the guy I stopped to ask directions from tried to get in my car...

So now I want to actually read it. The past few weeks have dealt with so many of the big questions Braestrup's work and life deal with...evil, loss, pain. I love how she finds the philosophical puzzle much less engaging than the practical, "What do we do now?" I love her definition of what makes a miracle a miracle (one's gratitude), and I love the exchanges between her children and her.

I would describe the book overall as a love letter to the men and women of the Maine game wardens with whom she works, and to her late husband. I had no real idea of the work they do, and am in awe of it now.

I can imagine the film version, because her work supplies the drama and suspence, and her humor and perspective give them meaning.