Winterdance by Gary Paulsen

Goodreads synopsis: Paulsen and his team of dogs endured snowstorms, frostbite, dogfights, moose attacks, sleeplessness, and hallucinations in the relentless push to go on. Map and color photographs.

My rating: 4 stars.

Content warnings: PG-13. Swearing, violence towards dogs.

Thoughts: I grew up reading a picture book about the Iditarod. So when this book came up as a pick for a book club, I got pretty excited about it. It's something little me wanted to know more about, but as I got older and that book faded from memory eventually and the whole event slipped my mind.

But it's back now.

Paulsen is a great writer. After Hatchet and the rest of the Brian books I didn't really doubt that. But I was curious how non fiction would look. His writing is still like his fiction. It's engaging, entertaining (a little more crass, but the intended audience is older) and he makes the story feel real.

There was a surprising amount of emotional depth to the story too. There were a few things that struck me deeply and it wasn't something I had expected.

It can be a heavy story at times. But it's infused with a lot of humor too, and there's an overarching awe about the race and how it changes a person to participate. I really did enjoy it.