Going to Maine: All the Ways to Fall on the Appalachian Trail

Comedian Brooks recounts hiking from Georgia to Maine on the Appalachian Trail in her funny and endearing debut. In 2003, when Brooks was 25 and working at a nonprofit in Chicago, her best friend, Erin, called to tell her she was making the 2,200-mile trek. “I decided I was jealous,” Brooks writes. “Without any idea of how I would make it work... I called Erin back. ‘I’m coming with you.’ And just like that, my life changed course.” Erin and the decidedly unathletic Brooks began at the base of Springer Mountain, and from there, Brooks documents their trip stop by stop, recounting the people they met (including Brooks’s eventual husband, Ben, whom the pair encountered in Virginia) and dangers they faced (Erin, a diabetic, got a scare when her backpack knocked off her insulin pump). Brooks’s tone is chatty but thoughtful—with plenty of asides about how the trip improved her self-confidence—and wry enough to keep the proceedings from dipping into self-help platitudes (Brooks composes a song called “We Will Rock You (aka Pennsylvania Sux)” while trudging through the trail’s “dreary,” rock-filled Rust Belt portion). Couch potatoes and devoted hikers alike will find entertainment and inspiration here. (Sept.)