48 Peaks: Hiking and Healing in the White Mountains
Connecting with friends and with nature, Suchors redefines success: she discovers a source of spiritual nourishment, spaces powerful enough to absorb her grief, and joy in the persistence of love and beauty. 48 Peaks inspires us to believe that, no matter what obstacles we face, we too can attain our summits.
Reviews (119)
Climb Every Mountain, Whatever It May Be
My friend and sister author Cheryl Suchors has little affinity for my spiritual/religious quest, nor I for her mountain hiking quest. Nevertheless we care about each other and we read each other's books not out of obligation. 48 Peaks is a quest memoir driven by the author's question and challenge to herself: Am I strong enough, despite cancer, significant personal grief, and sheer terror about heights, to hike to the absolute top of every one of the 48 New Hampshire White Mountain peaks? A reader will be with this courageous, sometimes foolhardy, woman as she follows her passion, receives support from family and friends, and never gives up. This identification and the accessible writing is the power of this book for me. In it I relived my own spiritual quest as a woman and discovered to my delight that the Church was my "mountain." Read this book for inspiration, challenge, and the sheer joy of, yes, climbing whatever your own mountain may be.
Interesting read, but...
It was interesting to read about her hiking up 48 mountains, but I got tired of all the criticism of her hiking companions. She's an "expert hiker" and they just won't follow all her routines, instructions and lists. It's her goal, not theirs. And I think an expert hiker should carry they own gear, but for health reasons, she couldn't. Which meant she constructed a goal that required help from others to attain. And then she criticizes them for not having her passion for the hikes. She was very controlling, and yet complained because she always had to lead. I wonder if all those people remained friends after they read her book?
Powerful journey, beautifully told
48 Peaks is an impressive work, and a completely enjoyable read – it was hard to put the book down. The arc of all Cheryl set out to do, and how she did it, was compelling, and she told it very honestly and openly. I was moved by how she handled her many challenges toward accomplishing her 48-peak hiking goal, not to mention her 10-year effort to write about it — her perseverance and determination are noteworthy and downright inspirational. The terrific writing really propelled me through the book -- it was a powerful journey, and it’s fascinating to be inside her head for that journey. Cheryl’s description of the mountains themselves, the forbidding elements and heights, the weather, and also the gorgeous flora she encountered — were all as beautifully described as her internal thoughts and her push and pull interactions with her friends and family throughout. I do believe that this book can convey strength to a reader, as it’s easy to hold on to Cheryl’s own contemplative and ultimately energizing thought process, so clearly articulated.
Brilliant writing, dramatic story.
Brilliant and eloquent. Cheryl Suchors explores her hiking in the White Mountains, developing friendships, overcoming injuries, and finding peace and solace from grief in the mountains. Engaging and heartwarming. I love the way the author weaves together her hiking journey with her internal journey. She meets the challenges of climbing the mountains and affirms her own life, while working through grief for her mother, her sister, and her hiking buddy, and her own breast cancer treatments and injuries. We climb with her, as her friends do, and cheer her triumph in the end. Uplifting, funny, delightful, and beautifully written.
Cheryl Strayed should share shelf space with Cheryl Suchors!
The quest to conquer the 48 highest peaks in New England begins with a simple hike to the summit of one mountain. A woman in mid-life who has always taken challenges head on decides she wants to summit all of them. What follows is more than a personal journey, more than an adventure story, more than a personal memoir of triumph over tragic losses and illnesses of herself and dear hiking partners, friends, and family members. I've read many adventure books, but few have the powerful inner story of 48 Peaks. And none are written in the beautiful, sometimes poetic, lyrical style of Suchors's book. It's not just about "making it to the top" or "to the end of a trail", it's an ongoing life journey. I found myself breathless, not only from the herculean efforts of this initially non-athletic woman to accomplish her goals against seemingly insurmountable odds, but from the reflections on what she learned about what is most important in life.
A Story of Friendship, Determination and Resilience
As a New England resident who has done a fair amount of hiking in the region in my past, I found instant love with this memoir. Hiking sounds glamorous but as Cheryl Suchors shows us, it can be HARD. But not as hard as some of the challenges and curve balls that life throws us--injuries, cancer and death of those we love. This beautifully written memoir is not just a journey through the mountains, but also the ups and downs of the soul and the body. It is at times heart wrenching and at other times, inspiring, as Cheryl picks herself back up to climb another mountain. When she reaches the top of that last 4,000 footer you almost feel like you are there with her, lost in time, forgetting that there is the down still to go. A wonderful, must-read debut.
Invigorating and Beautiful
This memoir pulled me right in like a wonderful piece of escape fiction. I entered another world that was lyrical and lovely where I didn't need to worry about my fear of falling. I could just travel up all these mountains, enjoying their beauty and wonder without any work, like a little marsupial curled up in Cheryl's backpack. I didn't want to put this book down and I couldn't wait to pick it up again when I had to put it down. I loved the story Cheryl was telling, but I realized there were therapeutic lessons I was gaining from the book as well--about speaking up, about chasing one's dreams, about being flexible and resilient and determined. I'm not the most athletic person, but I REALLY felt like going for a hike when I finished reading this book. The book is engaging, beautifully written and inspirational. It's also a great discussion book for a book group.
I couldn't put it down
From the first stunning pages of this rich, closely observed, and deeply felt memoir, you may feel, as I did, that you have encountered a long lost friend. The "story" wove a spell that I didn't want to break, and fortunately, I started reading on a weekend so I could finish it over two days. If books could reproduce, 48 Peaks might be an offspring of Cheryl Strayed's Wild, with its humor and honesty and fierce ambition, and The Abundance by Annie Dillard, with its lyrical, almost mystical lyricism and deep love of nature. I'll keep 48 Peaks on my bookshelf that holds my favorites, and expect to dip back into it for inspiration, wisdom and good company as I climb my own literal and metaphorical mountains.
A Women Heals Her Broken Body and Heart on the Granite Slopes of The White Mts
48 Peaks unfurls as a mighty testament to the human spirit in the genre of other classic heroic journey tales among them “Wild,” “The Boys in the Boat,” and “Unbroken.” The uniqueness of Cheryl Suchors’ always fascinating, entertaining and alternatingly heartbreaking, illuminating and humorous quest is the every woman quality she brings to the decade she spent battling not only the body-crushing granite of New Hampshire’s White Mountains, but cancer, the loss of loved ones, professional insecurity and breathtaking physical and emotional setbacks. Yet this diminutive, middle-aged woman prevails in climbing all 48 of the 4,000 Footers in the Whites. Through it all she is relentlessly honest about her fears and limitations _ she’s been too near to death, her own and those of dear friends and family to be otherwise_ while never losing sight of the joys that spring up unexpectedly throughout her odyssey and ultimately reward her with profound grace at the top of the final peak. This book will crack your heart open to all kinds of fresh life possibilities and maybe even send you to the nearest outdoor store for a new pair of hiking boots.
Being there
I really enjoyed the book. I have hiked many of the mountains Cheryl describes. She has an uncanny ability to get the reality of the trail into words. And, like her, I always found that hiking in the White Mountains challenged something inside me. She weaves her personal story into the narrative so carefully that it's only on re-reading that I realized how much insight she had offered up about life, careers, and overcoming adversity. I enjoyed it so much that I've bought several more copies to give to my friends in Vermont. They will appreciate Cheryl's book as much as I did.
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