This book had so much potential. It's a travelogue of a former Hollywood assistant who saved up $30,000 so she could quit her job and take the adventure of a lifetime visiting all 62 of the United States' National Parks. These kinds of books live or die by the connection the reader is able to make to the author and, unfortunately in this case, I never really connected with the author because she complained throughout the whole book.

She complained about the rigorous schedule of her adventure (which she planned). She complained about the people she traveled with (whom she invited). She complained about being worried about COVID (this book took place early in the pandemic) but frequently did things to put herself at risk like hooking up with strangers, traveling while sick on airplanes, etc.

In the book's prologue, the author acknowledges that many of these National Parks have a complicated history of land ownership and that, while she attempted to include some of this history in the book, she couldn't possibly cover all of it... and I honestly can't tell if that was a joke of some kind because she goes through some of the parks so quickly that the reader barely gets a sense of place, let alone history.

Worst of all, the author neither explains why she was motivated to suddenly quit her job and take her life savings to go on this particular journey, nor does she reflect or explain what she got out of the experience except for some bits of Buddhist/zen philosophy dropped in at random places as if that somehow explains everything.

Don't waste your time with this book... there are much better travelogues out there, written by authors who don't seem to hate the journeys they've planned for themselves.

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Created Mar 24, 2024 at 11:25pm • Submit your own review...