Almost Somewhere

July 15, 2012
A travelogue chronicling a journey through the Sierra Nevada Mountains and along the path to self-discovery. When Roberts (English and Creative Writing/Lake Tahoe Community Coll.; Three Hours to Burn a Body: Poems on Travel, 2011, etc.) graduated from college with no plans for the future, she decided to take a monthlong vacation from worrying and embark on a serious hike with two girlfriends. Battling injuries, eating disorders, insecurities and each other, the three women hiked the John Muir Trail in the opposite direction of most hikers, attacking the hardest part of the hike first and ending on an easy note. Though Roberts dealt with many questions about her obsessive journaling, her attention to the exercise pays off in this memoir written almost 20 years after the trip. The writing is mostly engaging and keeps the long days of hiking and fighting interesting to the last page. Even when the constant competition between the girls--over men, how many miles to hike, how much food to eat, who makes the decisions and more--becomes grating, most readers will continue to turn the pages. Though Roberts waxes poetic about feminism and finding happiness outside of a relationship, it is obvious these lessons did not sink in until after the trip ended. Occasionally, these girl-power sidebars feel heavy-handed for a travel memoir, but in general, they flow naturally and honestly from the narrative. Will appeal to readers of travel and nature books, as well as those who enjoy reading about social interactions and group dynamics.

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September 15, 2012
While wilderness memoirs have been coming fast and furious lately, Roberts dares to combine a hiking adventure with a healthy dose of humor and female bonding in all its complicated and turbulent best. Nearly 20 years ago she joined two girlfriends on a monthlong postcollegiate hike of the John Muir Trail. From the traditional blister analysis to weighty discussions about food, stranger-danger, and inclement weather, they alternately engaged in episodes of bickering and heartfelt conversation, and, in retrospect, offer relatable representation of young female adulthood. Relying on the carefully written diary she maintained during the trip, Roberts makes it clear that the hike meant so much at the time because they needed it to mean more than a short-term adventure. With wit, laughter, and longing, she writes of the trip not as an attempt at wilderness salvation but rather a desire to do something, anything, that proved the future would not be so daunting. An utterly refreshing outdoors memoir free of the seemingly manufactured drama so many similar titles contain. A delightful and quite literary diversion.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)