I couldn't bond with Cheryl Strayed despite having lost my mother early as well. There didn't seem to be any big revelations other than she didn't feel the need to sleep with as many men afterward and I didn't see the correlation. There seemed to be a lot of focus on how the men hikers were enthralled with her. I wasn't. I have no desire to hike the Pacific Crest Trail partly because I didn't before hand and she didn't make it seem the least bit fun or enlightening.