Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail

by Cheryl Strayed
Scott County Library audiobook 11CDs
read by Bernadette Dunne
genre: memoir

I only knew about this story because of the movie with Reese Witherspoon. I'm still undecided about my reaction to it . . . Here are some of my car jottings:

• not believing in God, not wanting mercy, etc. pretty adamant
• losing mom . . . cancer and logic, mother love
• her theology is so messed up!
• grief / after mom's death, dreams of killing her . . . morbid
• Ugh! Sleeping around as a "healing process"?!?!
• lifestyle choices . . . sex, heroin, etc.
• Ugh! "Abortion - no question." How does she live with herself?
• unleaded gas instead of white gas in a cook stove!
• I like Albert - "50-something Christian from Georgia - Eagle Scout"
• PCT (Pacific Crest Trail) / Sierra Nevada . . . I'm curious to learn more!
• "Monster" - her huge, heavy backpack
• horse Lady / Eddie agreeing to put her down / Cheryl finding her emaciated and shivering on Christmas Eve. This scene was so horrible! I'm not a huge horse lover, but this was hard to listen to!
• She is a very talented writer! I love how she wove her back story into the trail experience. It was very natural and not "flashback" seeming.
• REI boots, Snapple . . . I wonder if she got any attention or appreciation from them after this book was published!
• I loved the llama, the old woman, and Kyle! What a delightful scene.
• It was published in 2012, but she walked the trail in the 1990s. I was shocked at how little she paid for things, even twenty some years ago.

I asked a friend if she had read the book. No, but she *loved* the movie! I may need to see it . . .