wild

my awesome mom saved my first reader books for me (i see sam, sam sees me, i am sam) and now malena is learning to read with them. thanks mom! it is so fun to watch her learn to read, and yes, those are the one direction boys right behind them;)

while we were in california on our disneyland trip, i finished reading wild. i loved it. a couple of friends read it at the same time in our own little book club (hi girls!). reading along with them made it that much more fun as we would have weekly email check-ins on where everyone was in the book, what they thought so far, how they could identify with her, etc.

as i had known going in, cancer was a part of the story focused on the loss of her mom. so there were definitely some pages that were tough to read (hello blog post from yesterday) and caused me to have a hard time catching my breath, and found me shedding some tears. but those pages came and went, i kept turning the pages because i wanted to know how her story on the trail unfolded.

i won't give away specifics here for those that haven't read it yet. but i admired how she kept going, day in and day out. how no matter what came her way, she kept her eyes on where she wanted to go. the girl had a big goal, and you know i love making goals and seeing them through to the end.

i also appreciated that she was so honest in sharing the parts of her life that i can only guess were not super easy to write and share with the world (i can relate to that). but those parts of her life and what she went through made me root for her even more, and i so wanted to see her succeed. it was another reminder that strength and good things can come from the times when life hasn't turned out the way you wanted it to, you just have to keep going, one single (sometimes painful) step at a time.

so this book ranks as one of my favorites i have read so far, and i am excited for the movie to come out later this year. i look forward to her story unfolding on the big screen, and will be cheering for her character as much then as i did when i kept turning the pages of the book.

because even though i know how it ends, i always love a good story.