August 16, 2012

"Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail" by Cheryl Strayed

I’ll admit it, I never cared for Oprah’s Book Club. The times I took a look at her recommendations, I was just looking at books that I knew I wasn’t going to enjoy. However, a few people around me just kept nagging me, and basically letting me know how much I was missing out on. 

Following their recommendations I gave Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail a try, seeing as how it was one of Oprah’s Book Club 2.0 selection (she has two book clubs?!). In any case, enough about Oprah’s as I’m sure you know about her a lot more than I do, so let’s have a look at the book.

The story in this book is a memoir of Cheryl’s life, and how she went on an 1100-mile hike all by herself, changing her life forever. When she was only 22 years of age, her mother had died, her family ended up scattering itself across the country (and the world), without forgetting her marriage which fell apart faster than a castle of cards.

Four years later, being driven to the edge by her life, she made a sudden and unexpected decision: hiking 1100 miles across the Pacific Crest Trail from the Mojave Desert all the way to Washington State. As if that wasn’t extreme enough, she decided to go on her journey alone… despite having no experience whatsoever as a long-distance hiker. 

Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed (Book cover)
When she set out on her journey, she only had a vague idea of where she was going and how she was going to do it. Letting nothing discourage her, Cheryl pressed onward contending with rattlesnakes, black bears, unbearable heat waves and snowfalls stronger than what she had ever seen… not to mention the solitude of the trail. 

Filled with thrills, laughs, and, of course, the occasional philosophical rant, Wild is a marvelous book filled with as much terror as it is with warmth as you are following the story of a woman who has lost it all and decided to go to her extremes to piece it back together. 
 


Cheryl Strayed (Author)

Cheryl Strayed


Personal site

Cheryl Strayed is an American writer who likes to focus on novels, essays, but most importantly, memoirs. Her works have been published extensively in The Best American Essays, and she most notably won a Puschart Prize for the essay "Munro Country".

Her second book, Wild, was perhaps one of her more notable efforts, spending many weeks as the number one bestseller on the New York Times list.



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