Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A powerful, blazingly honest memoir: the story of an eleven-hundred-mile solo hike that broke down a young woman reeling from catastrophe—and built her back up again.
A Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Book of the Century
At twenty-two, Cheryl Strayed thought she had lost everything. In the wake of her mother’s death, her family scattered and her own marriage was soon destroyed. Four years later, with nothing more to lose, she made the most impulsive decision of her life. With no experience or training, driven only by blind will, she would hike more than a thousand miles of the Pacific Crest Trail from the Mojave Desert through California and Oregon to Washington State—and she would do it alone.
Told with suspense and style, sparkling with warmth and humor, Wild powerfully captures the terrors and pleasures of one young woman forging ahead against all odds on a journey that maddened, strengthened, and ultimately healed her.
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Readers say *Wild* is a compelling and honest memoir of grief, resilience, and self-discovery during Cheryl Strayed’s 1,100-mile Pacific Crest Trail h...
What can I say about this book that everybody hasn't already said? I don't understand the negativity towards the book or the author. This young woman not only lost her mother, but then her stepfather disappeared -- this after being abandoned long before then by her biological father. She was experiencing grief and trauma, and she was very honest about the shitty way she handled it, and this journey was her way of getting herself clean, of "finding herself." We are all on our own journey. It's reading stories like this that help us understand a different perspective. Or not, apparently.
(Don't even get me started on comparisons to Eat, Pray, Love....)
(Don't even get me started on comparisons to Eat, Pray, Love....)
A journey of discovery
Cheryl made the journey of a lifetime. I can't even imagine enduring the pain of an 1100 mile backpacking trip. I loved the descriptions of scenery I will never see. Nd the stories of her encounters with other hikers. The first part of the story is tough to read. The loss of her mother sent her into a spiral that only the trail helped her survive it.
Cheryl made the journey of a lifetime. I can't even imagine enduring the pain of an 1100 mile backpacking trip. I loved the descriptions of scenery I will never see. Nd the stories of her encounters with other hikers. The first part of the story is tough to read. The loss of her mother sent her into a spiral that only the trail helped her survive it.
I vacillated about adding this book to my to-read list every time I came across it. While I am a fan of hiking and do enjoy the hiking stories of friends and family, I’m not really a fan of memoirs. However, I have read some really good ones in the past and have challenged myself to read some more. So, this one is a candidate for my 2026 out of my comfort zone challenge.
I thought this would remind me of my one brief hike on the PCT. Like Cheryl, I too was in my 20’s, however, unlike Cheryl I wasn’t racked with grief, and running from my problems. I also didn’t even attempt a three-month journey all alone. Nope, my one and only PCT experience was a long (4day) weekend with a group of other hikers. I knew after the first day that I had absolutely no dream or desire to “do the PCT” like some of my trail mates. Nope, nope and nope!!! I learned early that I was simply a weekend hiker and I was perfectly fine with that. These days, I am no more than a day hiker and I’m perfectly fine with that too.
Anyway, I commend Cheryl for her perseverance, courage, and stamina to take on such a journey. An experience like that changed her as it would anyone who went through such an experience. I can’t imagine going through something like that and not being changed and/or affected by the experience in so many ways. I loved how she was also able to meet and experience some really great people along the way.
I do feel compelled to mention that there is an absolutely horrible scene of killing a horse. That scene brought tears to my eyes and affected me to the point where I had to close the book and didn’t pick it up again for two days. I don’t understand people who do that to horses and never will – ever!!!
Anyway, I did enjoy the book and I’m glad I finally read it. With non-fiction, I only rate on the material provided and the manner in which it was provided and I’m looking at an overall rate of 2.75 that I will round up to a 3star review.
I thought this would remind me of my one brief hike on the PCT. Like Cheryl, I too was in my 20’s, however, unlike Cheryl I wasn’t racked with grief, and running from my problems. I also didn’t even attempt a three-month journey all alone. Nope, my one and only PCT experience was a long (4day) weekend with a group of other hikers. I knew after the first day that I had absolutely no dream or desire to “do the PCT” like some of my trail mates. Nope, nope and nope!!! I learned early that I was simply a weekend hiker and I was perfectly fine with that. These days, I am no more than a day hiker and I’m perfectly fine with that too.
Anyway, I commend Cheryl for her perseverance, courage, and stamina to take on such a journey. An experience like that changed her as it would anyone who went through such an experience. I can’t imagine going through something like that and not being changed and/or affected by the experience in so many ways. I loved how she was also able to meet and experience some really great people along the way.
I do feel compelled to mention that there is an absolutely horrible scene of killing a horse. That scene brought tears to my eyes and affected me to the point where I had to close the book and didn’t pick it up again for two days. I don’t understand people who do that to horses and never will – ever!!!
Anyway, I did enjoy the book and I’m glad I finally read it. With non-fiction, I only rate on the material provided and the manner in which it was provided and I’m looking at an overall rate of 2.75 that I will round up to a 3star review.