Out Here

I cannot put into words how much I love this book. It is so beautifully and thoughtfully written - using the magic of the wilderness to tie in lessons that each and every one of us can apply to our own lives. I have read this book 3 times now, and each time I read it it still gives me goosebumps. It inspires me to be present and appreciate everything this beautiful earth has to offer. I HIGHLY recommend this read!

If your love to challenge yourself in the great outdoors, this book is for you! She’s so honest and her thoughts and experiences are so incredibly relatable to my experiences and adventures! I absolutely loved this book!

I felt as though many of the essays were ones I could relate to. The author comes across as a wise grounded person that like the rest of us is still trying to work things out! My daughter recommended to book to me and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Found myself sharing snippets with other people and inspired me to get out and adventure solo.

Carolyn is a great writer, but I had a hard time connecting with her stories. She's a very accomplished endurance athlete, but nothing in the book was very earth shattering to me. She has overcome some adversity (breakups, injuries, did not finish, exposure paralysis, eating disorders...list goes on), but I didn't feel like any unique wisdom from surviving those episodes was passed on to the reader. When writing about the did-not-finish in the Grand Traverse, I felt that she overly-congratulated herself for being a human that wasn't a complete jerk to her touring partner for having a severe asthma attack. Also, the 2nd half of the book was very obviously just a compilation of magazine articles. The problem with this is that it caused the theme of the book to constantly bounce around while sharing the same anecdotes in slightly different ways. I didn't gain new perspective from the events with this method, rather it just felt like she was wringing as much mileage out of an adverse event as she could. I'm optimistic that in 10 years, Carolyn will have a new perspective on life that will match her writing ability.

I loved this book and the thoughtful metaphors for how nature and sports can teach us valuable lessons. The chapters are short and can stand alone - I’m sure I’ll want to go back and revisit some. It’s well written and makes you want to go out and explore! Lots of great perspectives throughout the book on how to embrace life to the fullest, be present in the moment, love and value yourself, and much more!