Miles to Go by Richard Paul Evans

 

"This is a story of contrasts---about living and dying, hope and despair, pain and healing, and tenuous, thin places between both extremes where most of us reside.

I'm not sure whether I'm walking away from my past or toward a future---time and miles will tell and I have plenty of both. As the poet Robert Frost said, I have 'miles to go before I sleep.'"

    -Alan Christofferson, from the novel

Well, I guess I am hooked on this series now. Book 2 of The Walk series was just as good as the first one. The author has an easy style, so readable, and I felt this one had more humor than the other. Our journal keeper Alan starts in Spokane where he is recovering from a beating and gets as far as Rapid City, SD in this installment. (I like that the author includes a map of Alan's current progress.) I'm determined to get him to Key West, so bring on Book 3!  

Alan meets several likeable characters in Miles to Go. There is a kind and encouraging nurse in the hospital, Norma. Angel is the woman he helped with a flat tire who turns up at the hospital and offers him her home as a place to convalesce. As they get to know each other, it becomes clear Angel has some secrets and eventually reveals her real name is Nicole. Together Nicole and Alan make a positive difference in the lives of two others. Alan's father reconnects with him when he hears of his serious injuries. 

When he can finally restart his journey, Alan meets teenager Kailamai when he saves her from an attack by some young men. She has run away from a foster home and has been hitchhiking but decides to walk along with Alan. They travel together almost as far as Yellowstone NP when Alan has a brilliant idea how to help her in a more lasting way. 

Some of the humor in this book came with the joke-telling of Kailamai and a memory of a Yellowstone tourist. I enjoyed mentions of places I've been like Old Faithful Inn and other familiar things like the Auburn-Alabama football game (I'm a long-time Auburn fan.) and Alan's mother's love of The Carpenters' music---I loved them, too. And I learned about the Crazy Horse National Memorial monument in SD.

All in all, I enjoyed the book, rating it a 5, and will definitely finish the series.