Blogger Book Club

This month for my blogger book club we were asked to read a biography and I actually had a really hard time deciding on one to read. At the very last minute I came across this book, Grandma Gatewood’s Walk*, and I decided to give it a chance because it just sound so good. 

This book tells the story of 67-year-old grandma Emma Gatewood and her decision to through hike the Appalachian Trail (AT). She didn’t tell her family where she was going and as you will learn from the book this wasn’t an uncommon thing for her. She headed to Georgia with just a small sack that she had made and the clothes on her back and started on her journey. 

The author, journalist Ben Montgomery, not only tells the story of Emma Gatewood’s hike but also about her life and really allows you to get to know the woman behind the hike. You start to understand that this hike is far from the hardest thing she has been through/done. Once Emma completes the AT her story doesn’t end there because she goes back and does it twice more along with walking the Oregon trail and hiking the Long Trail among other things. 

I absolutely loved this book and just couldn’t put it down, Being from the New England and having hiked some of the spots she did I could just picture where she was and what she was going through. There is one point at the top of Cannon Mountain in New Hampshire and the hike down that I remember hiking so vividly 6+ years ago. As I read this book and her description of the tram and the the rough terrain I was back there again. The funny thing Emma Gatewood hiked the entire trail in tennis shoes and this section of the trail I too (made the stupid move) of hiking in tennis shoes. As you’ll understand when you read Grandma Gatewood’s Walk*  we should have been a little more concerned when the tram guy asked if we knew what we were getting into when we asked for a one way tram ticket.

* Affiliate Link. 

What book did you read this month? 

This year one of my goals is to read at least 12 books. In order to help myself reach this goal I decided to join a group of bloggers in SarahOhm.com’s Blogger Book Club 2015. This month we were to choose a motivational book to read and Overwhelmed: Work, Love, and Play When No One Has the Time* by Brigid Schulte per recommendation of a good friend of mine. I’m going to start off by saying I haven’t finished the book. I’m actually only a quarter of the way through so I can’t do a full review BUT in my defense I already started Gone Girl and I just couldn’t put it down and start a new book. 

So far I am just loving Overwhelmed: Work, Love, and Play When No One Has the Time but as I sit here writing this I know I can’t do it justice and do a full review for your because simply I need to read the entire book. This sums it up well based I what I have read so far though: 

“Every parent, every caregiver, every person who feels besieged by permanent busyness, must read this book. A new wave of research, experience, and insight is challenging deep assumptions about why we have to live and work the way we do. Overwhelmed is a wake-up call and an exhilarating prescription for change.” – Anne-Marie Slaughter, president and CEO of the New America Foundation and author of “Why Women Still Can’t Have It All”

So my plan is to finish my motivational book by the 10th of February so I can move on to my book for February which is a love story. I haven’t fully committed but I am thinking Eleanor & Park* by Rainbow Rowell but I’m open to suggestions so leave them in the comments. Side note if you would like a review of Gone Girl and what I thought of the book versus the movie let me know in the comments below.

What are you reading right now? Any other book suggestions?

*Affiliate link.