From Goodreads.com:
A powerful, blazingly honest memoir: the story of an eleven-hundred-mile solo hike that broke down a young woman reeling from catastrophe—and built her back up again.
At twenty-two, Cheryl Strayed thought she had lost everything. In the wake of her mother’s death, her family scattered and her own marriage was soon destroyed. Four years later, with nothing more to lose, she made the most impulsive decision of her life: to hike the Pacific Crest Trail from the Mojave Desert through California and Oregon to Washington State—and to do it alone. She had no experience as a long-distance hiker, and the trail was little more than “an idea, vague and outlandish and full of promise.” But it was a promise of piecing back together a life that had come undone.
Strayed faces down rattlesnakes and black bears, intense heat and record snowfalls, and both the beauty and loneliness of the trail. Told with great suspense and style, sparkling with warmth and humor, Wild vividly captures the terrors and pleasures of one young woman forging ahead against all odds on a journey that maddened, strengthened, and ultimately healed her.
My review:
I’m no hiking expert, but I’ve scaled a small hill or two and it’s no easy feat. Then I read this book and I’m taken away by the strength and courage that Cheryl displayed on her journey.
I’ll have to say, I first heard about this book maybe a year ago, but when I read the jacket cover all I could think of was, “Meh, a book about hiking, whatever.” But then I heard that it was being turned into a movie and thought to myself that it was maybe worth reading. All I can say is, why didn’t someone make me read this book sooner??
I’m not 100% sure I can relate to any part of Cheryl’s story; I don’t think anything in my life thus far can sum up to the hard times and sorrow that she experienced, at least not to the level at which she experienced everything. But the way she tells her tale – through her journey along the PCT and the people she meets … It’s just captivating. Really. I don’t think I’ve loved a book anymore than this one and I was SO sad when it was over. It makes you want to DO something. Something big, something life changing. It makes you think about those you love and think you love.
I really recommend this book to anyone out there. It’s honestly a, “I don’t care if it’s passed my bedtime, I need to read one more chapter,” book.
And clearly, I give “Wild” 5 stars out of 5.
