Review of Wild by Cherly Strayed

Inspired by Cheryl Strayed’s book, we decided to have a picnic for our book club meeting! It couldn't have been a better setting to discuss Wild. Our whole group enjoyed the book and had a great time discussing it. One thing that isn't a like or dislike, it's more of an uncertainty. Currently Strayed’s book is being made into a movie. Most of us weren't sure how good of a movie it will be. There were some slow parts in the book and wouldn't make for a very interesting movie. And of course there were some parts we felt they will certainly exaggerate for the sake of movie making and creating drama and tension.

What we liked:

- We liked Strayed’s honesty. She didn't hide who she was or withhold information from her readers.

- We liked all the people Strayed described that she met on the Pacific Crest Trail. It gave us a sense of what it was like for her on the trail and off the trail.

- We liked the loving moments that Strayed shared in her book about her mom and herself.

- We liked that Strayed was able to achieve such a difficult path physically and emotionally. She had so much baggage on her back from all she packed, but she also had so much emotional baggage. Along her trail she was able to sort through it and grow from both.  

What we didn’t like:

- We didn't like the ending of the book. It felt too abrupt. Some of us felt even though it was abrupt it was okay because Strayed was letting the readers know what her life was like now. Others felt it was too abrupt and could have been smoothed out more.

- We didn't like the scene with the horse, Lady. It was a difficult part to read and definitely very graphic and sad.

- Not that we didn’t like this, but we were a little suspicious if Strayed truly saw a bull on the trail. None of us thought bulls lived in such high elevations along California. We ended up agreeing it could have been an exaggeration or a hallucination of Strayed’s. Who knows?

Review of Run, Brother, Run by David Berg

This book seemed to receive mixed reviews from our group. Though, overall mostly everyone really liked it. Some members of the group felt the trail descriptions that didn’t relate to Alan’s murder were unnecessary. Other members really enjoyed the chapters about David Berg’s trials he had, and felt it was interesting.

What we liked:

-        We all found Dot to be a relatable person compared to all the others in the book.

-        We enjoyed reading a book about the area we lived in. A lot of us recognized some of the places David Berg mentions.

-        We found it interesting to get a glimpse into how David Berg feels about Woody Harrelson.

-        We liked reading about the trials David Berg had in the beginning of his career.  

What we didn’t like:

-        We didn’t like how so many people were introduced into the story. It made it difficult to remember who was who.

-        We didn’t like how Alan’s wife didn’t have a big role in the book or when her husband was murdered.

-        We didn’t care reading about the trials David Berg had in the beginning of his career, it would have been okay to skip that chapter and still understand the book.