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

22 year old Cheryl has lost everything, her mother, her husband and her family. Four years later after further mucking up her life with drug usage, careless sex, an abortion and more she sets off on a solo hike on the Pacific Coast Trail in an attempt to pull her life together.

This is no Eat, Love, Pray or Glass Castle. Cheryl Strayed has to be the most unlikable person who ever wrote a memoir! The book kept me reasonably entertained because I was horrified by one poor decision after another, and her careless attitude about such decisions. 
The book alternates between her time on the trail and her life before the hike and we get a better glimpse of what a mess her life had become. 
In writing this memoir the author seems rather detached and I never felt like she learned anything or had any great epiphany, she basically whined her whole way through the book, finished her hike and was all better.  Nothing believable or heart felt at all. 

Strayed has no expierience hiking, over loads her pack and gets godzilla skin on her hips, loses all her toenails, is to tired to masturbate, totes a fat roll of condoms over the whole trail, constantly thinks about who she will have sex with next, gets a tan, gets some muscle and loses weight.  I think that nails down exactly what happens on the trail.    

**Spoiler** **sort of** In a flash back to her life prior to the hiking the trail she explains why and how they killed her mothers horse - this part made me feel physically ill and to top it all off she eats her mothers ashes - proof that she is a seriously disturbed person.  

Ultimately, I gave this book two stars, it was entertaining - I plowed right through it always hoping she would have some great personal discovery, however, in the end I was disappointed and not to fond of the author.  

Yeah for the Weekend, Boo for Monday

What a great weekend - the weather was perfect, high 70's low 80's, just a slight breeze - slept with the windows open!  What a great start to August!  The husband and I ate all our meals on our deck overlooking the lush green corn fields and fell asleep at night hearing the coyotes yipping! 
I had two great trails rides with friends, my horse walked by a herd of cows without jumping out of his skin, I watched some great eventing at a nearby horse park, and we walked the worlds greatest dog and ate yummy frozen yogurt - I highly recommend the root beer float yogurt at Orange Leaf!

And of course I spent time reading! Sunday morning the worlds best dog and I pulled up a chair on the patio had a pop tart and coffee and immersed  ourselves in  The Orchardist by Amanda Coplin. I am reading this a part of a partner read that I am doing through Bound Together a group I belong to on Goodreads.  Everyone who signs up to participate in the partner read is assigned a partner and then you compare your to be read lists picking a book you have in common.  And boy am I glad that my partner and I had The Orchardist in common - this is simply an amazing debut novel!  The writing is stark, beautiful and the story captivating - I am in love!  Be watching for my complete review! 

And a pic of the worlds greatest dog sun bathing while I read!

And finally, I got a LIBRARY CARD!  After three years of living in my current city I finally got a library card - I think this is the longest I have ever gone with out one and consquently I was spending way too much money downloading books to my Kindle!  Yeah for saving money!

Oh and boo Monday - -back to work.....

Reveiw Orphan Train Christina Baker Kline

The story of two women who forge an unlikely friendship: a 91-year-old woman, an orphan-train rider in her youth and a teenage girl with a troubled adolescence. 
Nearly eighteen, Molly is months from "aging out" of  her foster home, a family she has a rocky relationship with already. Faced with community service for stealing a library book she accepts a position helping an elderly woman clean out her home. 
Vivian has been living on the coast of Maine recently but in her attic, hidden in trunks, are the remains of her own turbulent youth.  As Molly helps Vivian organize her possessions and memories, she discovers that the two unlikely friends are not that different. Vivian was an Irish immigrant orphaned in New York City, put on a train to the Midwest with hundreds of other children and placed for adoption. 
As the two grow closer Molly helps Vivian answer questions about her own past, ultimately helping them both. 

A good read but ultimately disappointing. Orphan Train had so much potential for more - deeper characters, more feeling and more of a history. I often felt like the author was rushing to get through Vivian's life and left out so much that could have enriched her story. I also had a hard time with the age given to Vivian, she was an 8 or 9 year old girl but through much of the book I identified her as  an older teen, this was the authors attempt to make her more mature, but something about it didn't  work. Molly, I found to be stereotypical and and with out a lot of depth. The relationship between the two main characters I also felt was not fully fleshed out - again sort of rushed. This book had so much potential but just didn't get there. 
This is a three star book, an easy entertaining read but it lacks so much.   
 

Friday Follow Feature & Question

This weeks Question, How do you handle a book you don’t like? Do you DNF or do you power through? Personally, I try and power through, particularly if I paid money for the book. There are a few that I have never finished and I keep promising myself I will, but......I doubt that will ever happen. Most recently discarded book The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides, just could not get into it. Did anyone like that one?