Kindle
$22.95
Available instantly
Audible Logo Audiobook
$0.00
with membership trial
Paperback
$19.79
Audio CD
from $27.29
Buy new:
$19.79
FREE delivery Monday, May 13 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Ships from: Amazon
Sold by: NovelPro
$19.79
Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns
FREE delivery Monday, May 13 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35. Order within 13 hrs 7 mins
Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
$$19.79 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$19.79
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Ships from
Amazon
Ships from
Amazon
Sold by
NovelPro
Sold by
NovelPro
Returns
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.
Read full return policy
Returns
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.
Read full return policy
Payment
Secure transaction
Your transaction is secure
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
Payment
Secure transaction
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
$8.24
Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns
Book in Good Condition. Qualifies for PRIME and FREE SHIPPING! We sell books, CDs, video games, DVDs, and more! Book in Good Condition. Qualifies for PRIME and FREE SHIPPING! We sell books, CDs, video games, DVDs, and more! See less
FREE delivery May 18 - 20 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Or fastest delivery May 15 - 17
$$19.79 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$19.79
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.
Amazon book clubs early access
Loading your book clubs
There was a problem loading your book clubs. Please try again.
Not in a club? Learn more
Amazon book clubs early access

Join or create book clubs

Choose books together

Track your books
Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free.
Explore Amazon Book Clubs
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Follow the author

Suzanne Roberts
+ Follow
More books from this author
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

Almost Somewhere: Twenty-Eight Days on the John Muir Trail (Outdoor Lives) Paperback – September 1, 2012

by Suzanne Roberts (Author)
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 380 ratings
See all formats and editions

There is a newer edition of this item:

Almost Somewhere: Twenty-Eight Days on the John Muir Trail (Outdoor Lives)
Almost Somewhere: Twenty-Eight Days on the John Muir Trail (Outdoor Lives)
$21.08
(20)
In Stock
{"desktop_buybox_group_1":[{"displayPrice":"$19.79","priceAmount":19.79,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"19","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"79","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"4RrUgEWqUJySTxKeerlP6kEVm6uHsNv2wmDK9i9o93or7CzJLBZ5OXXoPeAVEtTtkZAgcwSh8t%2F3am%2FfS%2FGNVi%2FtuqRC7ffibDpxiC7PX1FUo1gV%2BKD4v2K658ehkmzUCWxqRwhI%2BX6dz44qHa75Es0hWAFEda4TwXDHcTuyM2VaEybAWLcmePNmb6t2VO5o","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":0}, {"displayPrice":"$8.24","priceAmount":8.24,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"8","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"24","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"4RrUgEWqUJySTxKeerlP6kEVm6uHsNv2HqLuF4HYFbOibs8vfMLfxFbQtbosWNFl%2FQ8fKDBo3O2lKUDBAza7R2csqeXIFv3kVRtdvHaWlHYpchac%2FQSXqLjxMw6kO7G5upIV6I9yMU4W0dFQTU20p6QR3eV%2FViaR7twYdYaVxFsSovhDp61C%2BQ%3D%3D","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"USED","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":1}]}

Purchase options and add-ons

Winner of the 2012 National Outdoor Book Award in Outdoor Literature

Day One, and already she was lying in her journal. It was 1993, Suzanne Roberts had just finished college, and when her friend suggested they hike California’s John Muir Trail, the adventure sounded like the perfect distraction from a difficult home life and thoughts about the future. But she never imagined that the twenty-eight-day hike would change her life. Part memoir, part nature writing, part travelogue, Almost Somewhere is Roberts’s account of that hike.

John Muir had written of the Sierra Nevada as a “vast range of light,” and this was exactly what Roberts was looking for. But traveling with two girlfriends, one experienced and unflappable and the other inexperienced and bulimic, she quickly discovered that she needed a new frame of reference. Her story of a month in the backcountry—confronting bears, snowy passes, broken equipment, injuries, and strange men—is as much about finding a woman’s way into outdoor experience as it is about the natural world she so eloquently describes. Candid and funny and, finally, wise, Almost Somewhere is not just the whimsical coming-of-age story of a young woman ill-prepared for a month in the mountains but also the reflection of a distinctly feminine view of nature.   

Watch a book trailer.



Purchase the audio edition.
Read more Read less
Previous page
  1. Print length
    262 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Bison Books
  4. Publication date
    September 1, 2012
  5. Dimensions
    5.5 x 0.75 x 9.5 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0803240120
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0803240124
  8. See all details
Next page
The Amazon Book Review
The Amazon Book Review
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now.

Frequently bought together

Almost Somewhere: Twenty-Eight Days on the John Muir Trail (Outdoor Lives)
$19.72
Get it as soon as Tuesday, May 14
Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
Sold by FindAnyBook and ships from Amazon Fulfillment.
+
John Muir Trail: The Essential Guide to Hiking America's Most Famous Trail
$18.96
Get it as soon as Monday, May 13
In Stock
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
+
Highs and Lows on the John Muir Trail
$12.99
Get it as soon as Tuesday, May 14
In Stock
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
Total price:
To see our price, add these items to your cart.
Details
Added to Cart
Some of these items ship sooner than the others.
Show details Hide details
Choose items to buy together.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

While wilderness memoirs have been coming fast and furious lately, Roberts dares to combine a hiking adventure with a healthy dose of humor and female bonding in all its complicated and turbulent best. Nearly 20 years ago she joined two girlfriends on a monthlong postcollegiate hike of the John Muir Trail. From the traditional blister analysis to weighty discussions about food, stranger-danger, and inclement weather, they alternately engaged in episodes of bickering and heartfelt conversation, and, in retrospect, offer relatable representation of young female adulthood. Relying on the carefully written diary she maintained during the trip, Roberts makes it clear that the hike meant so much at the time because they needed it to mean more than a short-term adventure. With wit, laughter, and longing, she writes of the trip not as an attempt at wilderness salvation but rather a desire to do something, anything, that proved the future would not be so daunting. An utterly refreshing outdoors memoir free of the seemingly manufactured drama so many similar titles contain. A delightful and quite literary diversion. --Colleen Mondor

From Kirkus Reviews

"Will appeal to readers of travel and nature books, as well as those who enjoy reading about social interactions and group dynamics." --Kirkus Reviews

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Bison Books; 1st edition (September 1, 2012)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 262 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0803240120
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0803240124
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 12.1 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.75 x 9.5 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 380 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Suzanne Roberts

Suzanne Roberts

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Suzanne Roberts' books include the collection of lyrical essays, Animal Bodies: On Death, Desire, and Other Difficulties (2022), the award-winning memoir in travel essays, Bad Tourist: Misadventures in Love and Travel (2020), the memoir, Almost Somewhere: Twenty-Eight Days on the John Muir Trail (winner of the 2012 National Outdoor Book Award) and as well as the poetry collections Shameless, Nothing to You, Three Hours to Burn a Body: Poems on Travel, and Plotting Temporality. National Geographic's Traveler magazine named Roberts "The Next Great Travel Writer," and her work has appeared in The New York Times, CNN, Creative Nonfiction, Brevity, and elsewhere. She holds a doctorate in literature and the environment from the University of Nevada-Reno and teaches for the low residency MFA program in creative writing at Sierra Nevada University. More information may be found on her website: www.suzanneroberts.net or follow her on Instagram: @suzanneroberts28

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
380 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

glorialinda
5.0 out of 5 stars Inspirational and Engaging
Reviewed in the United States on January 6, 2013
Verified Purchase
"Almost Somewhere: Twenty-Eight Days on the John Muir Trail" is a thought-provoking memoir commemorating the coming of age of a young woman who hikes with two female companions over 200 miles on the John Muir Trail. The journey evolves into an unexpected life-changing experience. Views about nature as well as her perception of self are forever altered. Lake Tahoe's Suzanne Roberts, an English professor at Lake Tahoe Community College, memorializes her adventure in a beautifully written citation using fine-tuned writing skills and extracting details from her trail journal. She exposes the expedition in full living color creating scenic visions the reader will inhale. You will follow her and her hiking companions through the breathtaking beauty of the high Sierra's along the banks of Alpine Lakes and to the top of Mt. Whitney and Half Dome. You will also be exposed to a darker side of such a feat; great fear, intense hunger, prolonged exhaustion, mosquito bites, blisters and bears, not to mention blinding rain, freezing cold and snow. Roberts eventually comes to understand the profound state of connectedness. Like the metamorphic changes of a butterfly, she sheds the skin of the young girl that sets out on the dusty path and emerges a strong woman at trails end.
Unsure about what direction to take after graduating from college with a degree in biology, and flapping against the wind in the floundering economy of 1993 that provided few job prospects, Suzanne hits the trail with Erika and Dionne to distract herself from it all. Strapping "Big Heiny" on her back, a name she affectionately calls her backpack, was only the first step. Overstuffed, unorganized and heavy, "Big Heiny" mimics her state of mind upon departure. Not long into the ascent to Mt. Whitney, the first leg of the trip, she realizes the scope of the undertaking. Is she up to it? Erika, an athletic superstar, her trail name being The Commander, is in stark contrast to Dionne, a wisp of a girl with a life-threatening eating disorder and a first time hiker. Robert's, somewhere in-between in terms of athletic prowess, learns quickly to be self-reliant.
Feminism is a cornerstone topic in "Almost Somewhere". Twenty years ago it was rare to find females hiking under such strenuous circumstances without male escorts. Some may even say impossible. But the three wise women, as they later coined themselves, proved them wrong. Of course there were issues. Competing for male attention, differences in endurance levels and the ever-present group dynamics, but at the end of the day the real battle was none of that. It was an internal struggle for self-understanding and acceptance.
No photographs were included other than a front cover photo. I personally would have enjoyed seeing a few; Dionne hiking in men's underwear her chosen trail attire, Erika, leading the pack reading her trusty trail map and Roberts sitting on top of Half Dome eating Pop-Tarts. Also not included were sketches Roberts drew that I believe would have added additional charm. The map, drawn by Phyllis Schaffer, was a visual depiction of the trail and a bonus. Other than these omissions "Almost Somewhere" will not disappoint. It is a wonderful read for outdoor lovers and inspirational for anyone experiencing self-doubt. The message that resonates is as Roberts says, "It's not just in the having done but in the doing... being "Almost Somewhere".
One person found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Dennis
4.0 out of 5 stars pretty good
Reviewed in the United States on September 23, 2013
Verified Purchase
I enjoyed the book, even as a guy. As someone planning on doing the John Muir Trail, it was well worth the read. It gave some good insight as to what to expect on the trail and some of the physical demands. It was pretty inspiring to hear the story from Suzanne's point of view and to eventually find out that especially her and Cassiopeia made it to the end despite their obstacles. The only part that I saw as a negative was that certain parts of the book seemed to be more directed to women considering a backpack of this magnitude -which is a great thing - and the occasional girly bickering...it's just not edge-of-your-seat, 5-star reading for a guy...but it is definitely worthy of four stars for a guy - an above average book. Very good reading.
Helpful
 Report
JE
5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Read, Highly Entertaining and Interesting
Reviewed in the United States on November 15, 2012
Verified Purchase
I recently finished reading the Kindle version of Almost Somewhere on my iPad. What a pleasant surprise! It was for me the kind of book that interfered with my work, because I couldn't hardly put it down!

I found the entire book to be engaging, interesting, touching, inspiring, and down-to-earth honest. Rather than the typical travel story that only describes where the author has been and what they have seen, author Suzanne Roberts shares with us her innermost thoughts and reactions and feelings as she encounters personal challenges, interesting characters, her interaction with her friends and strangers, and her own thoughts as she hiked the John Muir Trail with two female friends. That's what really made the book for me. I laughed, felt sad, and was constantly impressed with the author's bravery and willingness to make herself vulnerable by sharing with us how she really felt, even when it was not very flattering to her. That made the story real to me. In this book I had a sense of not only the external experiences the author encountered, but how she in her uniqueness responded to each. For me, that was a central factor in keeping the book interesting and distinguishing it from the run of the mill travel journal. I felt like I had a sense of experiencing the trip from her perspective.

The book is laid out with one chapter for each day of her 28 day hike. This format helped me to visualize her progress, and I was always looking forward to see what the next day would bring. It was like opening a new gift box every chapter to see what was inside!

One theme which runs persistently through the book is the author's belief that there is a contrasting "male view" and "female view" of the wilderness, and how one is in wilderness (with, predictably, the guys wanting to conquer everything, and the gals wanting to relate to everything). Personally, I don't view the world that way, so I didn't relate to this emphasis. The author presumes the correctness of her worldview, and filters everything through this lens. My experiences have led me to think individuals have very different ways of viewing the wilderness, and ways of being in the wilderness based on their own experience, skills, interests, and abilities, and it is not essentially a male/female issue. I've know many women hikers and outdoor enthusiasts with what the author would consider a "male" view, and many men who hold what the author would consider a "female" view. I don't think it's legitimate for this reality to be easily explained away by simply asserting that each time the theory doesn't fit the facts it is due to the individual having "internalized" the opposite gender's view. That comes across to me as a gross rationalization, a forced bending of the facts to fit one's preconceived theory.

My impression is that the author's focus on this theme is likely due to what appears to be her personal hyper-sensitivity to male/female issues and her own difficulties in relating to the opposite sex, which I would guess has originated from her unique background, experiences, sensitivities and approach to life. I think the author was on the right track when she acknowledged that prior to going into the wilderness she had been heavily influenced by writers such as Muir and Thoreau, and that her experience did not match theirs. The key distinction, I think, was not that they were male writers, but that they were both writers who took a "romantic" view of the wilderness. That's not a distinctly "male" or "female" view. In fact, I could see someone likely arguing that a romantic view is more a "female" view than a "male" view.

When I was in Jr. High school my assistant principal took a group of us on a week long backpacking trip from Cedar Grove in Kings Canyon to Rae Lakes on the John Muir Trail. In high school a friend and I backpacked the JMT from Happy Isles to Little Yosemite Valley. That was back in the late 60s. About 10 years ago my wife and I day hiked the same trip. From my first trip about 45 years ago I've been in love with the white granite and glaciated basins of the high Sierra. I've always wanted to hike the entire JMT. This book was not only a great read, but has inspired me and motivated me to do something about my own dream. Thank you, Suzanne, for a great story!
5 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report

Top reviews from other countries

Translate all reviews to English
I. K.
5.0 out of 5 stars In nur 2 Tagen gelesen
Reviewed in Germany on December 27, 2020
Verified Purchase
Super Buch und ganz tolle Geschichte. Für jede Altersgruppe zu empfehlen!
Report
Helle
5.0 out of 5 stars Makes you wanna be there yourself
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 17, 2014
Verified Purchase
Amazing book. I just couldn't stop reading it, the author is very honest about everything, both good and bad experiences and the more you read the more you want to go out hiking yourself.
2 people found this helpful
 Report