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

Memoir
336 pages

     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.

Completion: A+
Writing/Style: A
Characters: A+
Plot/Pacing: A-
World-building/Atmosphere: A+
Sub-genres (Romance, Humor, Mystery, etc.): A+

Final Grade: A+ Get Thee to a Bookstore!

As I read this night after night during my last couple weeks of my college semester, I felt like I really went hiking on the Pacific Crest Trail with Cheryl Strayed. Strayed is a devastatingly good writer, making me cry only thirty pages into the memoir. 

From the odd encounters with people and wildlife to the stunning views, the writing transported me into this place and moment in time. The pacing with content like this must have been tricky, and this book could have easily become episodic and distant or tedious in its sporadic events. However, the reading of this novel was more like a smooth car ride: I was able to feel the distant gained, going up and down the heights and valleys with none of the motion sickness. Strayed effortlessly describes the grind of the trail, the surprise of these wild characters and events, and the emotional and spiritual residence such an experience carries.

I will keep this review brief for I would hate to spoil the experience nor do I want my relentless praise to turn any of you away from it. So, I suppose I will end the review on this: read it. Who do I recommend this memoir to? People.

Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar by Cheryl Strayed Review

Nonfiction

304 pages

Life can be hard: your lover cheats on you; you lose a family member; you can’t pay the bills—and it can be great: you’ve had the hottest sex of your life; you get that plum job; you muster the courage to write your novel. Sugar—the once-anonymous online columnist at The Rumpus, now revealed as Cheryl Strayed, author of the bestselling memoir Wild—is the person thousands turn to for advice. Tiny Beautiful Things brings the best of Dear Sugar in one place and includes never-before-published columns and a new introduction by Steve Almond.  Rich with humor, insight, compassion—and absolute honesty—this book is a balm for everything life throws our way.

Completion: A+
Writing/Style: A+
Characters: A+
Plot/Pacing: A
World-building/Atmosphere: A
Subgenres (Romance, Humor, Mystery, etc.): B+

Final Grade: A+ Get thee to a Bookstore!

Love, love, love, love, love, love. This novel is a collection of writing from an advice column called Dear Sugar. The success of the column is solely due to the generosity and compassion Cheryl Strayed greets each of her readers with. She opens up her life and shares personal stories. She gives hard truths. She admits her faults, frequently and loudly. Unlike the stereotypical advice columnist, Strayed gives the reader the feeling of being in the trenches with you, sharing tips on how to make it through. She never glosses over a question with a vague but polite answer. She never gives the cliched, shallow response. She never gives the answer you expect. She is able to do all this because she is giving you a part of herself. Her writing is beautiful and heart-breaking. She’s not afraid to curse or use vernacular or follow up with a story and then turn around and punch you in the gut. The miracle comes in that punch. You will find that her words ring true, and they hurt more than anything because you can feel the truth in them. I cried. I laughed. I cried some more. I had no trouble at all finishing this book. Just make sure you have some tissues. As well, since they are separate letters, you can read this book in one sitting or in piecemeal.
I would recommend this book to everyone because each letter will hit home in a different way, and I believe that in the years to come I will find that different letters will speak to me and that the same letters will affect me in different ways. Even if you are unsure about a book like this, I would STILL recommend you check it out.