Customer Reviews

Solo: On Her Own Adventure

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I really enjoyed reading "Solo" and have been recommending it (and lending it) to friends. I loved these stories and didn't want to put the book down. Not only does each author describe their surroundings and actions (bicycling in New Zealand, kayaking in Alaska, trekking in Nepal) but they describe their emotions and where they are in their lives. Many of these women are making serious decisions about their lives, trying to break away from restrictive societal norms, develop a deeper relationship with themselves, choose between various life paths, and make decisions that are right for them (no matter how unconventional). I have been wanting to go on my own solo adventure, and this book has further encouraged me to go for it. I disagree with the previous reviewer's comment that "few tales show an appreciation of the outdoors for its own sake." Besides, is there only one way to appreciate nature and enjoy the outdoors?

Anyone who has ever fought to be understood about the extreme peace that is discovered in solo adventures will enjoy these short stories. Anyone who has ever pressed to have their own equipment and not rely upon the men in their life for their outdoor leadership needs will enjoy this collection of inspiring stories. After reading a few of these stories I was so moved to partake in a solo journey of my own. The night before I participated in a 32mile speed hike, I was seen thumbing through my favorite stories under a rainy sky in my tent. It was wonderful to see women experiencing these adventures of great self-importance. I encourage any woman looking for inspriration and female guidance to seek solace here!

Never hike alone. How many times have I been admonished not to hike solo? This advice has come from people I respect and I would like to comply, but I can't. The joy and ultimate purpose of the walks I take is to let my mind wander and to take time to allow the tape to run clean and make room for new impressions. This meditative state is hard to achieve when there is another consciousness crowding in on your thoughts. So, even though my father warned me against walking alone on the misty shores of Southeast Alaska when I was a teen, I still wandered away from civilization to absorb the cool breath of the forest. This is why I love these stories by other women who for some reason can't deny their need to experience life on their own terms and to test their own limits. That is what going solo means. You have no one to blame for mishaps and only your own inner river to listen to for advice. It is the path to self-growth and understanding taken by one woman who must ski in Yellowstone in the dead of winter alone, and another who becomes the first woman to sail from San Francisco to Hawaii in the Pacific Cup(a blue water crossing I've dreamed of making myself) solo. There are many more adventures in this anthology that call for a much higher degree of personal fortitude and courage than I have ever mustered on any of my experiences in the wild. This is one of several collections edited by Susan Fox Rogers that stands out on travel narratives shelves as quality examples of women who are not only stretching their limits, but teaching us all how to be brave and true to ourselves.
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Lost Angel Walkabout-One Traveler's Tales-Soon to be released

I bought this book while traveling solo in Colorado. It took me a while to get through due to my busy schedule -- but, WOW, what a great read!! I laughed, shed a few tears, smiled and got angry. Highly recommended to any woman who aspires to travel solo or anyone trying to better understand a woman who travels solo!!

i loved each story from this book! I am a solo female traveler myself and every story inspired me!! I actually read a few of the stories aloud to my friends as we sunned on the beach and they enjoyed the stories as well!!!

As a woman who has found both bliss and grief in solitary desert adventures, I was immediately drawn to this essay collection. Here, as I had hoped, are women who understand that experience and know its value. What Susan Fox Rogers has also given us is a broad range of such women, revealing the many reasons one might choose such exposure to risk, and the varied responses to it.

For some women, such as Susan Marsh, this was a brief and impulsive choice. She simply spent a long evening finding her way alone through the Mojave back to her group and her campsite. Yet it was enough for her to find a revelation of consciousness, "a spontaneous mix of inner peace and sensory alacrity" that she hadn't known before.

E.A. Miller's family stories and expectations both motivated and inhibited her. She carefully planned her first solo weekend in the Adirondacks to be a trip without any history, personal or otherwise. With her dog along (which to my mind is not quite a solo), there was no drama, no danger, and she was never afraid. Nonetheless, she was without human company, and at a loss when trying to have her own experience, one unfiltered by the perceptions of others. It took half the trip to stop reviewing it, to simply be present.

For me, walking in solitude through the ancient and bare landscapes of the Southwest, carrying all that I need on my back, has always been a spiritual and creative quest. At first, it was a conquering of fear. Later, it became a renewal. Retreats into solitude left me with more to give to others. For each woman in this grouping, there is a motivation that is uniquely her own, and yet something that we can all recognize.

Lucy Jane Bledsoe, confident after many solo trips, describes the real danger of being a woman alone. When she encounters men on the trail, her intuitive fear feels familiar. Yet the man who has trekked miles to be solitary in the landscape is not likely looking for a victim. And when I have been stuck some way and really needed assistance, such men have been unfailingly kind and helpful. Still, like Bledsoe, I'm cautious. In my life, as in the lives of most women, there are those men and those moments when fear is justified.

Beyond that ancient female vulnerability, perhaps the hardest thing is to be alone with our own thoughts and feelings. As many of these writers know, modern culture makes sitting quietly with ourselves unfamiliar at best, and it can be terrifically uncomfortable. The stories in Solo demonstrate that solitude can bring a woman back to her center, where she can discover great strength and confidence. Each writer here reveals something of the inner workings of meeting her fears and finding her way, and each adventure is compelling.

Rogers has done a fine job of editing this group of 25 writers, bringing them together around the reasons they chose solitude, yet letting their individual voices ring true. The stories are fresh and declare the social change that has taken women from the relative security of homefires to the surprising bliss of solitary campfires. They remind me that it's about time to get out there again, unfettered and awake, in the wild world.

by Susan Schoch
for Story Circle Book Reviews
reviewing books by, for, and about women

Only a couple of the stories' authors showed the adventuring spirit that would drive them climb Everest simply because it's there-few tales show an appreciation of the outdoors for its own sake. Among the bulk of the authors, braving the wilds incorporates barricading oneself in one's hotel room, a remote trek through the Himalaya climaxes with an enlightening tantrum and adventure is measured by paranoia. The majority of these heroines confront more neuroses than wildlife.

Climb mountains, ford rivers, kayak in Alaska with women who have done it all--alone

I'd just like to MEET one of these women. :)

...I'm married to one of them, a German former journalist, mother of two, whose tales could beat most of these... . Unfortunately, all the stuff she's written in the last 13 years is still in the computer, never sent off.