Cold Hands, Warm Heart: Alaskan Adventures of an Iditarod Champion

You can't help but want to meet Jeff King after reading this book. I suspect his popularity has as much to do with his personality as his racing success. The book is a simple, fast read giving insights into dog racing and living in Alaska. It's not great literature, but engrossing nonetheless.

He really is an amazing guy. You may snooze and lose but he gives a rare insight of his live, his family and dogs, his adventures. I'm still reading it but it won't be long before I finished it. The pictures made by Donna are outstanding, especially the lone Wolf. Losing Hickory makes one cry and you actually feel his loss.
If you are interested in dogsledding, mushing and all that comes with it, this sure is a book that needs to be read and have it on the shelf.

This was a good book that was written in a storytelling format. It was not particularly well written, but I didn't expect that it would be since King is not an professional writer. I really enjoyed his adventure stories, he made me laugh and cry. Loved it.

This book offers real insight into the man, the dogs, and the family of sled dog competitions, especially the Iditarod.

Since I live in Anchorage, Alaska, the name Jeff King is a well known and respected one. He is considered as one of the great dog-mushers of our state and winner of the Iditarod Race four times, an impressive achievement. In this book, Jeff King writes about himself, his dogs and some memorable races he has taken part of. Result is a book that proves to be quite a joy to read, entertaining as heck and definitely gives you an understanding of a bond between this man and his dogs. The respects, love and understanding that Jeff King have for his dogs is clearly shown in these pages and they are the cornerstone of his story.

The author also adds few neat stories about other aspects of dog-mushing and personalities he had encountered. His tales on Norman Vaughn for example are quite priceless. Stories of his encounters with other wildlife also proves to be interesting as well as entertaining. Overall, the book is well written, well organized and fantastically illustrated artworks done by Jeff King's wife, Donna Gates King. There is also a nice set of photos at the end of the book that shows Jeff King's lifeline from a little blond boy to an ice caked Iditarod Champion. At the end of each chapter, there is a short footnote written by Joe Runyan, another Iditarod champion. His footnotes also proves to be somewhat insightful and interesting take on the subject at hand.

On the down side, this is a public autobiography so we don't get to know much about Jeff King's personal life or some of his motivations behind things he did. His life outside of dog-mushing is also mostly absent as well. I don't hold these elements against the author though since the prime objective of this book centered around the author's dog-mushing career. Only thing I may hold against him is that this book ended too soon.

I would considered this book to be a mandatory reading material for anyone interested in dog-mushing, Iditarod or Yukon Quest or just interested in a great Alaskan personality. Them folks at PETA should read this as well to give them a greater understanding of this sport and what goes behind it. Jeff King's book should dispel all misunderstanding about dog-mushing in Alaska.