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Reviews
America the Beautiful?: One Woman in a Borrowed Prius on the Road Most Traveled by Blythe Roberson
albixiusa's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
5.0
browns1089's review against another edition
adventurous
inspiring
medium-paced
5.0
A fun read from start to finish. Can’t believe she went to all those desert parks in the heat of summer 😂
audreyxwg's review against another edition
3.0
i think i wished it were more non fiction/journalistic but it was more memoir! not the book’s fault just mine. i wanted to learn more about the details of each park rather than the self discovery of the author. also wished that when she made statements there was more facts/we delved into them more instead of just barely scratching the surface. but again, perhaps my fault not the book’s. i was led to this book by its comparison to jia tolentino, but it made me realize i really want to read nomadland!
bimmbles's review against another edition
5.0
I went into this thinking it would be a fun travel memoir and it ended up being??? A really insightful and hilarious mediation on gender and migration and the deeply racist history of the National Parks Service and climate change and intersectional outdoorsy cultures??? Bonus points for shit talking Alex Honnold.
mfrisk's review against another edition
funny
informative
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
3.0
An interesting read that isn’t typically something I would have picked up. The author takes us on a journey to a variety of national parks and this book reads like a journal of these adventures with a lot of facts and information about topics related to her journey. These include discussions of industrial tourism, indigenous reclamation of land use/conservation, capitalism, gatekeeping of natural spaces, and more. I thought it was a lighthearted read which touched on a lot but this wasn’t an all time favorite book to me. I will recommend it to those I know who enjoy nature and exploration though as I think they’d enjoy it.
Content Warnings
Minor: Sexual content
leasummer's review against another edition
3.0
2.5-3 stars - I am not the target audience. The author is a seemingly younger millennial comedian, and I am not. She's also really horny and talks about it and her hetero love of men a lot more than I would expect in a book that presents itself to be about traveling solo to National Parks as a woman.
I actually don't know what the point of this book was. Besides collecting a lot of Jr Ranger badges. It reads like a journal when the author is working out some things (traveling for leisure, capitalism, environmentalism, how to exist in the world, etc) and trying to decide how she feels about them while also existing in the pre-2020s but then makes references to the 2020s so the timeframe is a little wonky.
It's not a very long trip but she does pack in the Parks. This is for a very specific audience of young, white, privileged liberal women.
I actually don't know what the point of this book was. Besides collecting a lot of Jr Ranger badges. It reads like a journal when the author is working out some things (traveling for leisure, capitalism, environmentalism, how to exist in the world, etc) and trying to decide how she feels about them while also existing in the pre-2020s but then makes references to the 2020s so the timeframe is a little wonky.
It's not a very long trip but she does pack in the Parks. This is for a very specific audience of young, white, privileged liberal women.