Cold Starry Sky

This is going to sound bad, but this was an excellent book to help me get through the insomnia caused by my husband's leukemia diagnosis. It was just dry enough, just interesting enough, just enough of a remove from my own life, that a single chapter would help me turn my brain off enough to get some sleep. Which is why it ended up taking over a month to read. (I also picked up The Hypnotist's Love Story during a round with insomnia and ended up reading until I finished it at 2 in the morning.)

Cold Starry Sky is the memoir of a woman who moved to Fairbanks, Alaska with her husband immediately after WWII. The book follows their first few years: trying to find gold, learning to survive winter, making friends, starting a family, and falling in love with their new home. It was interesting to read about the early frontier town, where the harsh conditions were a great equalizer.

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