Cheryl Strayed has had a rough life: sexual abuse, divorce, past drug abuse, and her mother's death. All this pushed her to do something radical with her life.

She decided to take a hike. Not your everyday hike; she would hike more than a thousand miles of the Pacific Coast Trail from the Mojave Desert through California, Oregon, and Washington – and she did it alone.

The hike finally healed her, and she turned it into her NY Times bestselling memoir, Wild. The book was then turned into a movie starring Reese Witherspoon.

Oprah loved the book so much she restarted her book club just to highlight it.

Cheryl's new book Brave Enough was just released in October. James asks her, "Why a book of quotes?"

As Cheryl says in the introduction of her book...

"I've always been a quote collector... From the comic to the profound, the simple to the complex, the sorrowful to the ecstatic, the inspiring to the stern, whenever I need consolation or encouragement, a clear-eyed perspective or a swift kick in the pants – which is often – quotes are what I turn to. They've been tacked to the walls of every home I've made. I've written them down in my journals and kept them on files in my computer. I've scribbled them on the back of ripped-open envelopes and drawn them across stretches of sand."

Now that they've met, James is almost sorry, as he'll not be able to steal from her so easily going forward.

Resources and Links:

Cheryl Strayed Website

Brave Enough by Cheryl Strayed

Wild by Cheryl Strayed and Wild (the movie) starring Reese Witherspoon

Tiny Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed

Torch by Cheryl Strayed

Dear Sugar podcast

Oprah's 2015 Book Club

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