Review : Running for My Life - Rachel Cullen

The Very Pink Notebook is thrilled to share the review of 

Running for my Life

By runner and author Rachel Cullen

With thanks to Beth at Blink Publishing for an advance copy of the book

Published by : Blink Publishing

11 January 2018

Copy : Paperback received from publisher

The Blurb

Throughout her life, Rachel Cullen followed a simple yet effective route straight to mental health misery. Suffering from bipolar disorder, and hungry for approval at any price, she settled for flunked relationships, an ill-fitting career, and poor health to match. Whilst mindlessly seeking a utopian vision of 'normality' that she was mis-sold and so desperate to achieve, the solution seemed increasingly illusive.

Stuck in this endless cycle of disappointment with her life, and not knowing how to handle the strain of her mental illness, she put on a pair of old trainers. She'd never been able to think of herself as a 'runner', and the first time she forced herself out the door, she knew it would hurt. Everywhere. She just didn't realise how much it would heal her, too.Interspersed with Rachel's real diary entries, from tortuous teen years to eventually running the London Marathon, Running for my Life will make you laugh, cry and question whether you can really outrun your demons.

The Very Pink Notebook Review

Running for my Life is a rich, colourful and brutally honest account of one women's fight to beat her mental health demons.  Written with candid details and dark humour this book is a journey about a quest to live life in the happiest and healthiest way possible.  Chronicling all the ups and downs, the good, the bad and the downright ugly along the way.

With fantastic ditties remembering fashion disasters from her youth to the very same in winter races, the author, Rachel Cullen, lays bare the realities that subsequently have taken her on a long battle with mental health.  A fight against herself.  We read about what she thinks her life should be, to the realisation; life is never like what you think it is going to be.  Whether in love or careers and that sometimes you just have to accept your imperfections.

What I found interesting with this life journey was Rachel seemingly did everything 'right'.  But, when she thought about it - right for who?  Not herself.  And she had to find the strength to admit she had come to this realisation - which thankfully, she did.

The constant throughout the ever changing life Rachel?  Running.  Of course.  In this, she found her solace, her soul-mate, her companion.  Even when she felt it had all gone wrong (which in several incidences, it had).  Whatever happened with running she always found herself going back for more and in doing so realised she had so many more capabilities and more strength than she ever knew.  And thus, some confidence was born, confidence in herself, in her worth.

And once you have that, life becomes that little bit easier and at some point you feel you can reflect and in this case, a book was born. 

Running for my Life, the journey of Rachel Cullen, receives a well deserved Very Pink Notebook :

 

Review : Wild by Cheryl Strayed

Published by : Atlantic Books

1 January 2013

Copy : Paperback - Reviewer purchase

The Blurb

At twenty-two, Cheryl Strayed thought she had lost everything. In the wake of her mother’s death, her family scattered and her own marriage was soon destroyed. Four years later, with nothing more to lose, she made the most impulsive decision of her life. With no experience or training, driven only by blind will, she would hike more than a thousand miles of the Pacific Crest Trail from the Mojave Desert through California and Oregon to Washington State—and she would do it alone. Told with suspense and style, sparkling with warmth and humor, Wild powerfully captures the terrors and pleasures of one young woman forging ahead against all odds on a journey that maddened, strengthened, and ultimately healed her.

The Very Pink Notebook Review

I didn't really know anything about this book until a trailer for the film caught my eye.  As per my usual rule, I will not watch the film until I have read the book and for this one in particular I am glad I stuck to it.

Wild, is a poignant, gritty and ultimately uplifting memoir from American, Cheryl Strayed.  The book has been written by Cheryl herself with the aid of her notes from the hike and the memories to which she holds dear.  I loved this book, it is a real warts and all account.  She does not try and hide the complete and utter devastation she suffered or caused.  She in no way tries to glamourise or legitimise anything that was done to her or she did to others and this made me have a lot of respect for this author. 

The book, I felt, has been written with real clarity from a hindsight perspective, which for the sake of the memoir is a good thing.  She has picked out and sewn together a brilliant, flowing and logical account of what happened, both within her life prior to, and on the actual months of hiking the PCT.

I relished meeting the colourful (and not so colourful) characters on her journey, the vivid (but not boring) descriptions of her landscapes and the equally amazing and dire conditions she found herself experiencing on this, her journey of a life time.  Often I found myself desperate to read on just to know she made it to her next postal point so she could collect her next box of supplies.

This is a book about not quitting.  About not listening to those who think you can't do something.  It's about the amazing things our bodies and minds can be pushed to do, when we think it would never be possible in a million years.  Would I want to do the things Cheryl did in order to get to this point in her life where she needed such clarity?  Never.  But will I ever think I can't do that again?  Not so much.

Wild by Cheryl Strayed receives a Very Pink Notebook ...