Wild

Wild by Cheryl Strayed is the story on one woman's trek up the Pacific Crest Trail from Mohave, California to just outside of Portland, Oregon.

Strayed tells her story of a life that has fallen apart due to her mother's death and then spiraled out of control until she had to do something to change it. That something came from a book she saw while in line at an outdoor store - a book on hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, part 1: California.

Though Strayed had never been backpacking, the idea slowly grew in her head. And four years after her mother's death, she flew to Mohave, California with a giant backpack she named Monster, two bags of gear she somehow needed to fit inside Monster, and the book that had set her on this path.

What follows is a touching, raw, and sometimes laugh-out-loud journey of learning to walk in the woods while being striped down to the essence of her self and becoming the person she is today.

While the book is full of pain - from too small boots that steal toenails, to recovering from a devastating loss - reader's will consider a backpacking trip of their own before completing the book - I am thinking the 10-day hike across Ireland (from Dublin to Dingle) for myself.

Strayed, Cheryl. (2012). Wild. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.