Great book: "Cheryl Strayed: 'Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail'"

[Lex]

(Edit: I probably shoud've posted this in non-fiction, but it's a good book, period.) I got the recommendation for it from a friend. Personally, I read more fiction than non-fiction, and I wasn't sure I'd like this book, but I found it extraordinary. Well-written and easy to connect with the author.

Here's a link to read more about it:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/28/books/wild-by-cheryl-strayed-a-walkabout-of-reinvention.html?pagewanted=all

From that link:

The clarity of Ms. Strayed’s prose, and thus of her person, makes her story, in its quiet way, nearly as riveting an adventure narrative as Jon Krakauer’s two “Into” books: those matey fraternal twins, “Into the Wild” and “Into Thin Air.”

[classof56]

1. I'm so glad you discovered Cheryl!

Like me, she's an Oregonian, and I attended her book signing in my town a few weeks ago. She's great, as a writer and as you said, a person. I read her book, promptly loaned it to a relative, and will read it again when it's returned. I could feel myself making the trek along the trail with her, her descriptions are that amazing. Now I see Wild has been chosen as Oprah's Book Club 2.0 selection. If you have a chance, I highly recommend attending one of Cheryl's presentations. You'll be glad you did!

[DisgustipatedinCA]

2. I read it as the first in a "triple crown of wilderness books"

I read Wild!, then John Krakauer's Into the Wild, and then Bill Bryson's Appalachian Trail book, back to back to back.

I think Strayed's was the best of the 3, although Bill Bryson's book was funny. Krakauer's Into the Wild? It didn't feel like there was enough source material for it to be an entire book--would've been better as a 2- or 3-part long read series in a magazine (and I do believe some of it was excerpted that way originally).

Anyway, Cheryl Strayed made me want to dust off my hiking boots and get back out there. I like the way she weaves the stories of the trail with remembrances of her mom, her marriage, things past.