This Much Country: A Memoir

Sled dog racer Pace debuts with an earnest chronicle of the ups and downs of a life spent living in the wilds of Alaska. After graduating from high school in Texas, Pace passed on a college scholarship and instead moved to Montana to live with Alfred, a guy she’d met online, then spent the summer of 2009 at the Denali National Park Sled Dog Kennels in Alaska. When Alfred left her for a co-worker, a devastated Pace moved to Alaska for good with a “head full of possibilities” and a “heart ready to accept them.” Living in a cabin and caring for a team of sled dogs, she writes of “figuring out who I was while being alone.” What she discovered was an inner strength to match her physical toughness and a love for dog sledding that led her on her “greatest” journey—the Yukon Quest and the grueling Iditarod sled dog races. Pace wonderfully captures the adrenaline rush of flying across a snow-covered landscape in 40-below temperatures, as well as the despair of later burying two of her beloved dogs in the frozen tundra (“I stroked Moose’s fur.... The last of his living warmth was still there, but he didn’t respond to my touch”). Pace is candid about life in the frozen north, and her self-awareness makes this a worthy addition to the outdoor adventure genre. (Mar.)