Wild - From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail

Last night I turned out the light 10 pages from finishing Wild From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed.   I've yet to finish it.  I don't want it to end, so I'm saving the final words.  Waiting.  For what?  The sequel?  

As each of you reading this blog can imagine, I found Wild exceedingly poignant.  With Brad's adventure unfolding on the Pacific Crest Trail running parallel to my reading of Wild, I couldn't help but compare Cheryl and Brad's adventures (Fran's Blog), both on the trail and in life (they were born in the same year, 1968).   During Brad's Te Araroa Trail tramp, Ed and I went to see The Way at the Clyde Theater,  and found it to be equally poignant. 

Cheryl's writing has a delightful story-telling mode about it, as well as being brazenly candid and forthright.  She was so honest about her relationships, feelings, experiences (including sex and drugs), that I found it to be not only unusual, but refreshing and, at times, alarming.  My mind often  turned to Cheryl's mother,  wondering what she would have thought, and felt, if she were still alive.  Or, what Cheryl's former husband's reading emotions were.

The author's trail experiences, read in tandem with my son spending the year tramping, left me in awe and wonder.   Cheryl was completely unprepared for her journey, yet the trail was forgiving and the other thru-hikers and trail angels along the way provided her with reassurance and support.  I was left feeling both fear and relief.  And, my feet hurt!  Reading about Cheryl's boots and the pain they caused, made my feet ache.  I too have lost toe nails, courtesy of my hiking boots, as recently as last summer's hike to Surprise Lake  to join Brad on the Washington PCT.   Yes, I walked toenail to toenail with Cheryl.

Cheryl seems to be able, with her story telling talent, to make each reader, in some personal way,  identify with her adventure.  I highly recommend Wild and will be following Cheryl Strayed's writing career.

The Beginner's Goodbye

I wanted to like Anne Tyler's latest, "The Beginner's Goodbye," and I did, but there were things I didn't like at all. I didn't like the fact that the main character, a man in his 30's, acts and sounds like a dude much much older. I also didn't like how this ghost of his wife seems to communicate with him but it is very dissatisfying for the reader. The writing is really good and it is a smallish book which took me less than 4 days to read. I am and have always been a slow reader and usually fall asleep after only a few chapters. Overall I cannot recommend this book to anyone except maybe my friend, Susan who lost her husband. It does address grief and what the grieving are going through while the rest of us make insipid comments to them because we cannot help ourselves because we are not grieving.  (Review by Jamie)