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Wild by Cheryl Strayed Library Journal (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. 9780307592736 Strayed delves into memoir after her fiction debut, Torch. She here recounts her experience hiking the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) in 1995 after her mother's death and her own subsequent divorce. Designated a National Scenic Trail in 1968 but not completed until 1993, the PCT runs from Mexico to Canada, and Strayed hiked sections of it two summers after it was officially declared finished. She takes readers with her on the trail, and the transformation she experiences on its course is significant: she goes from feeling out of her element with a too-big backpack and too-small boots to finding a sense of home in the wilderness and with the allies she meets along the way. Readers will appreciate her vivid descriptions of the natural wonders near the PCT, particularly Mount Hood, Crater Lake, and the Sierras-what John Muir proclaimed the "Range of Light." VERDICT This book is less about the PCT and more about Strayed's own personal journey, which makes the story's scope a bit unclear. However, fans of her novel will likely enjoy this new book. [See Prepub Alert, 10/1/11.]-Karen McCoy, Northern Arizona Univ. Lib., Flagstaff (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. Publishers Weekly (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved 9780307592736 In the summer of 1995, at age 26 and feeling at the end of her rope emotionally, Strayed resolved to hike solo the Pacific Crest Trail, a 2,663-mile wilderness route stretching from the Mexican border to the Canadian and traversing nine mountain ranges and three states. In this detailed, in-the-moment re-enactment, she delineates the travails and triumphs of those three grueling months. Living in Minneapolis, on the verge of divorcing her husband, Strayed was still reeling from the sudden death four years before of her mother from cancer; the ensuing years formed an erratic, confused time "like a crackling Fourth of July sparkler." Hiking the trail helped decide what direction her life would take, even though she had never seriously hiked or carried a pack before. Starting from Mojave, Calif., hauling a pack she called the Monster because it was so huge and heavy, she had to perform a dead lift to stand, and then could barely make a mile an hour. Eventually she began to experience "a kind of strange, abstract, retrospective fun," meeting the few other hikers along the way, all male; jettisoning some of the weight from her pack and burning books she had read; and encountering all manner of creature and acts of nature from rock slides to snow. Her account forms a charming, intrepid trial by fire, as she emerges from the ordeal bruised but not beaten, changed, a lone survivor. Agent: Janet Silver, Zachary Shuster Harmsworth Agency. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved. Book list From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission. 9780307592736 Echoing the ever-popular search for wilderness salvation by Chris McCandless (Back to the Wild, 2011) and every other modern-day disciple of Thoreau, Strayed tells the story of her emotional devastation after the death of her mother and the weeks she spent hiking the 1,100-mile Pacific Crest Trail. As her family, marriage, and sanity go to pieces, Strayed drifts into spontaneous encounters with other men, to the consternation of her confused husband, and eventually hits rock bottom while shooting up heroin with a new boyfriend. Convinced that nothing else can save her, she latches onto the unlikely idea of a long solo hike. Woefully unprepared (she fails to read about the trail, buy boots that fit, or pack practically), she relies on the kindness and assistance of those she meets along the way, much as McCandless did. Clinging to the books she lugs along Faulkner, Flannery O'Connor, Adrienne Rich Strayed labors along the demanding trail, documenting her bruises, blisters, and greater troubles. Hiker wannabes will likely be inspired. Experienced backpackers will roll their eyes. But this chronicle, perfect for book clubs, is certain to spark lively conversation.--Mondor, Colleen Copyright 2010 Booklist Drift by Rachel Maddow Publishers Weekly (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved 9780307460981 A bloated, secretive, lawless national security state is pilloried in this scathing but shallow critique of America's post-Vietnam defense policies. MSNBC talk-show host Maddow recaps milestones in a decadeslong process of giving presidents dangerously convenient and unaccountable war-making powers: the Reagan administration's gigantic military buildup, Iran-Contra illegalities, and assertions of executive privilege; the supplanting of soldiers with private contractors under Clinton and Bush fils; the growth of the CIA's secret drone air force; the many invasions, from Grenada to Iraq, launched by commanders-in-chief without constitutional authority. The author presents sharp, well-supported analyses of these episodes, spicing them with a caustic wit that skewers everything from Army recruitment ads to the Air Force's habit of accidentally dropping or misplacing its nuclear warheads. She's less cogent in blaming America's adventurism on the neglect of the Constitution's requirement that Congress declare war (many inane conflicts, like the Spanish-American War, passed that hurdle) and the lapse of the tradition of calling up the citizen-soldiers of the Reserves and National Guard, which she believes puts a brake on war-mongering (although the Iraq War call-up, she allows, had no such effect). Maddow's incisive look at the follies of militarism needs a deeper understanding of why America has so often embraced it. Agent: Laurie Liss, Sterling Lord Literistic. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved. Library Journal (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. 9780307460981 On her MSNBC show, Maddow delights in reminding viewers that she's an infrastructure geek. Now, regarding two manifestations of U.S. infrastructure-the Constitution and our underlying methods, post-JFK, of supporting U.S. military incursions-she shows how we have drifted away from established templates outlining how this country goes to war. She begins with LBJ in Vietnam (he used only active duty servicemen-thus the draft-to avoid Guards and Reserves bringing the war home around the country). From President Carter she segues to President Reagan, studying aspects of his military (mis)deeds in four core chapters. After an analysis of George H.W. Bush and Desert Shield comes her look at "Doing More with Less (Hassle)," a particularly horrifying study of what our outsourcing of military "quality of life services" has wrought. Maddow wears her expertise lightly, counterbalancing hard details with phrases (e.g., "the lemons-into-lemonade-moment" or "the sliding-off-the-aircraft-carrier-thing") that keep her narrative invigorating even as she offers the occasional periodic sentence that would make Gibbon proud. VERDICT Maddow can be sassy, but she's deadly serious. Having noted our executive branch's growing disregard for "the disincentives to war deliberately built into our American system of government," she ends with a to-do list for finding our way back to a reasonable national security state. Highly recommended to all readers engaged in the world today and with how we got here.-Margaret Heilbrun, Library Journal (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. Book list From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission. 9780307460981 The U.S. has drifted into a state of military hypervigilance that is wasting enormous sums of money and threatening our economic stability, argues Maddow, host of the MSNBC program that bears her name. She traces the historical roots of concerns about maintaining a standing army and the reliance on citizen-soldiers when needed, creating a reluctance to go to war and an eagerness to end conflicts and send soldiers home. She details how the Cold War threat justified the sanctification of defense spending and the Vietnam War pushed Congress to reassert its exclusive authority to declare war. Following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, presidents have gained greater latitude in going to war, with little consideration for the implications for the nation's economy or polity, even as citizens become more estranged from the military. Maddow concludes with suggestions on how to turn the trend around, including paying with specific taxes, reversing the privatization of war, and constraining the power of the president to go to war. An insightful look at the cost of military vigilance to ideals of democracy. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: The host of the popular The Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC has fans in both the Twitter-sphere and among TV watchers, many of whom may cross over to buy her book.--Bush, Vanessa Copyright 2010 Booklist |
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