For April, my book club read Wild (From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail)
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. With no experience or training, driven only by blind will, she would hike more than a thousand miles of the Pacific Crest Trail from the Mojave Desert through California and Oregon to Washington State—and she would do it alone. Told with suspense and style, sparkling with warmth and humor, Wild powerfully captures the terrors and pleasures of one young woman forging ahead against all odds on a journey that maddened, strengthened, and ultimately healed her.
Overall, I enjoyed the book. My one issue was with the way she would go off on tangents about her previous life. At times, I didn’t think it added much to the story. After reading the whole book, though, I can see how these tangents work. But it was more distracting to me.
It was a good story about a woman growing into herself and becoming who she wanted to be. And that she needed to have nothing to realize she had something. It was empowering and showed how much strength a person who feels they don’t have anything actually has….how strong we can be when we need to be. Also, how vulnerable we can be (especially when you are alone), but how that vulnerability can be a good thing. Cheryl grows so much during this book and becomes a better person and truly finds herself.
We read this as our “action/adventure” book and I am not sure it was a great fit for that. I think it was more memoir than action, but live and learn. I thought it was a good book even though I struggled to get through it at times and even read another book while I was in the middle of this one!
If you’re looking for a book that will make you feel many varying emotions, read about some interesting characters and would like to read a good book about a woman figuring out who she is, this may be a good fit for you.
Happy reading!
