Alaska
You might be thinking I’m crazy to be writing about backyard games in Alaska. 
You would be right if that were the case. Actually this post has nothing to do with backyard, or any other kind of games. It is however, a recommendation. There are many opinions about Sarah Palin who comes from Alaska so this is a suggestion to give you some background – the state not the person. For the past several weeks ( the paper back is a 1.073 page, 2 inch thick book) I’ve been reading James A Michener’s book Alaska.
It is a novel by a master story teller who starts in prehistoric times with characters hunting Mastodon while the earth was creating the land mass we now know as Alaska. There is a great mix of historical events and people as well as believable fiction.
Some of his characters brave the difficulties 
of the Gold Rush and move on to aid in the building of the Alcan highway as a defense measure when Japan invaded. Statehood was fought by merchants in Seattle who wanted to keep control but Congress finally approved statehood with a complicated set of regulations involving the wealth produced by the oil industry and land distribution to avoid the Reservation system they forced upon the American Indians in the Lower 48.
The description of the kinds of people that make up the historical population and the way those characteristics have carried down give a vivid picture of how Sarah Palin came to have the principles she has which have gained both prase and contempt. The book is well worth reading.
