Nowhere for Very Long: the unexpected road to an unconventional life by Brianna Madia

In this beautifully written, vividly detailed memoir, a young woman chronicles her adventures in an orange van named Bertha traveling across the deserts of the American West and reflects on an unconventional way of life

A woman defined by motion, Brianna Madia bought a beat-up bright orange van, filled it with her two dogs Bucket and Dagwood, and headed into the canyons of Utah with her husband on a journey of discovery. Nowhere for Very Long is her story of exploration--of the world outside and the spirit within. From the backroads to the breakdowns, married to solo, lost to found, it is the chronicle of a woman in the wild, learning and unlearning.

Brianna knew her road would be the one less traveled from an early age. Rejecting the competitive and capitalistic path set out before her, she chose to seek a truer version of happiness, a road scary, uncertain, and entirely her own. But pursing a life of intention isn't always what it seems. In fact, at times it was downright boring, exhausting, lonely, and even desperate----when the van overheated and she was forced to pull over on a lonely stretch of Wyoming highway; when the weather was bitterly cold and the water jugs froze beneath her we she slept in the parking lot of her office; when she faced tough choices, hard truths, and inevitable regrets; when she worried about money, her marriage, and the looming question mark of her future. But this life was a life of her choosing and that made all the difference.

Nowhere for Very Long isn't about extreme minimalism or tiny house living or #VanLife. It's about cherishing the moment and being a woman living a life true to herself, come what may.

260 pages (April 2022)

 

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To find a discussion guide for this book in the NoveList Plus database, go to the Library's website, click on Novelist under "We Recommend" → "Book Services". Click on "Book Discussion Guides" in the right sidebar on NoveList's home page. Then, either enter the title in the Search box or search for the title alphabetically. (You will need your Salt Lake County Library card number to access this resource outside a county library.)

 

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Title Read-alikes: The Change: My Great American, Postindustrial, Midlife Crisis Tour by Lori Soderlind; Windswept: Walking the Paths of Trailblazing Women by Annabel Abbs; That wild country: An Epic Journey Through the Past, Present, and Future of America's Public Lands by Mark Kenyon;  Bowing to Elephants: Tales of a Travel Junkie by Mag Dimond; Alone Time by Stephanie Rosenbloom; Tales of a Female Nomad: Living at Large in the World by Rita Golden Gelman; I Have Something to Tell You: a Memoir by Natalie Appleton; Bewildered by Laura Waters; Fly Girl: a Memoir by Ann Hood; Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted by Suleika Jaouad; Left on Tenth: A Second Chance at Life: A Memoir by Delia Ephron; Tracks: a Woman's Solo Trek across 1,700 Miles of Australian Outback by Robyn Davidson; and Arabian Sands by Wilfred Thesiger.

The Mountain Story by Lori Lansens

“Lori Lansens has created a heart-pounder of a book that is every bit as much of an emotional roller-coaster as an adventurous one” (New York Times bestselling author Jodi Picoult).

Four lost hikers are about to discover they’re capable of something extraordinary.

Nola has gone up the mountain to commemorate her wedding anniversary, the first since her beloved husband passed. Blonde, stick-thin Bridget is training for a triathalon. Vonn is working out her teenage rebellion at eight thousand feet, driven by family obligation and the urge to escape her mistakes. Still reeling from the tragic accident that robbed him of his best friend, Wolf Truly is the only experienced hiker among them, but he has come to the cliffs on his eighteenth birthday without food or supplies because he plans to take his own life.

When a series of missteps strands this unusual group together in the wilderness, they soon realize that their only defense against the brutality of nature is one another. As one day without rescue spirals dramatically into the next, and misadventure turns to nightmare, these four broken souls begin to form an inextricable bond, pushing themselves and one another further than they ever could have dreamed possible. The three who make it home alive will be forever changed by their harrowing days on the mountain.

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Girls, The Mountain Story is a fast-paced, suspenseful adventure and a gorgeous tribute to the resilience of the human spirit. Braving a landscape both unforgivingly harsh and breathtakingly beautiful, Nola, Bridget, Vonn, and Wolf find themselves faced with an impossible question: How much will they sacrifice for a stranger?

312 pages (May 2015)

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To find a discussion guide for this book in the NoveList Plus database, go to the Library's website, click on Novelist under "We Recommend" → "Book Services". Click on "Book Discussion Guides" in the right sidebar on NoveList's home page. Then, either enter the title in the Search box or search for the title alphabetically. (You will need your Salt Lake County Library card number to access this resource outside a county library.)

 

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Title Read-alikes: Wilderness by Lance Weller; Breaking Wild by Diane Les Becquets; Girl Underwater by Claire Kells; The Sea Runners by Ivan Doig; The Cage by Audrey Schulman; Road Ends by Mary Lawson; My Absolute Darling by Gabriel Tallent; Sweetland by Michael Crummey; The River by Peter Heller; Inside the O'Briens by Lisa Genova; The River at Night by Erica Ferencik; The Orenda by Joseph Boyden; and The Orchardist by Amanda Coplin.

A Lady Cyclist's Guide to Kashgar by Suzanne Joinson

It is 1923. Evangeline (Eva) English and her sister Lizzie are missionaries heading for the ancient Silk Road city of Kashgar. Though Lizzie is on fire with her religious calling, Eva’s motives are not quite as noble, but with her green bicycle and a commission from a publisher to write A Lady Cyclist’s Guide to Kashgar, she is ready for adventure.

In present day London, a young woman, Frieda, returns from a long trip abroad to find a man sleeping outside her front door. She gives him a blanket and a pillow, and in the morning finds the bedding neatly folded and an exquisite drawing of a bird with a long feathery tail, some delicate Arabic writing, and a boat made out of a flock of seagulls on her wall. Tayeb, in flight from his Yemeni homeland, befriends Frieda and, when she learns she has inherited the contents of an apartment belonging to a dead woman she has never heard of, they embark on an unexpected journey together.

A Lady Cyclist’s Guide to Kashgar explores the fault lines that appear when traditions from different parts of an increasingly globalized world crash into one other. Beautifully written, and peopled by a cast of unforgettable characters, the novel interweaves the stories of Frieda and Eva, gradually revealing the links between them and the ways in which they each challenge and negotiate the restrictions of their societies as they make their hard-won way toward home. A Lady Cyclist’s Guide to Kashgar marks the debut of a wonderfully talented new writer.

374 pages. (May 2012)

 

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To find a discussion guide for this book in the NoveList Plus database, go to the Library's website, click on Novelist under "We Recommend" → "Book Services". Click on "Book Discussion Guides" in the right sidebar on NoveList's home page. Then, either enter the title in the Search box or search for the title alphabetically. (You will need your Salt Lake County Library card number to access this resource outside a county library.)

 

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Title Read-alikes: Everything Under the Sky by Matilde Asensi; The Towers of Trebizond by Rose Macaulay; The Sandalwood Tree by Elle Newmark; Lost Roses by Martha Hall Kelly The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters; The Spies of Shilling Lane by Jennifer Ryan; The Map of Love by Ahdaf Soueif; The Ship of Brides by Jojo Moyes; The Space Between Us by Thrity N. Umrigar; A Thousand Days in Venice by Marlena de Blasi; Swimming with Elephants by Sarah Bamford Seidelmann; The Sandcastle Girls by Chris Bohjalian; and The Lifeboat by Charlotte Rogan.