Can an epic adventure succeed without a hero?
Andra Watkins needed a wingman to help her become the first living person to walk the historic 444-mile Natchez Trace as the pioneers did. She planned to walk fifteen miles a day. For thirty-four days.
After striking out with everyone in her life, she was left with her disinterested eighty-year-old father. And his gas. The sleep apnea machine and self-scratching. Sharing a bathroom with a man whose gut obliterated his aim.
As Watkins trudged America’s forgotten highway, she lost herself in despair and pain. Nothing happened according to plan, and her tenuous connection to her father started to unravel. Through arguments and laughter, tears and fried chicken, they fought to rebuild their relationship before it was too late. In
Not Without My Father: One Woman’s 444-Mile Walk of the Natchez Trace, Watkins invites readers to join her dysfunctional family adventure in a humorous and heartbreaking memoir that asks if one can really turn I wish I had into I’m glad I did.
What did I think of the Book? Here's my review…
In a few words,
Not Without My Father by Andra Watkins was fresh, funny, heart breaking, and a lesson in perseverance. Plus add a few lessons on how to get along with your aging parents. In sometimes self deprecating humor, Andra, named after one of the Lawrence Welk singers (because her Dad thought the singer was hot), invites us on her walking journey of the Natchez Trace, a historical path that is about 440 miles stretching from Natchez, Mississippi, to Nashville, Tennessee. What could have been just a pleasant travelogue, is turned into a humorous, heart wrenching at times adventure because Andra goes on this adventure with her aging father as her side kick. Not that that is a good thing. Their relationship has always been tenuous, but he is her last hope. He's a storyteller, he's a couch potato and he has a lot of gas, but he untimately agrees to tag along. Eventually her mother shows up to save them both. But it's Andra's reflections and thoughts along the trail, where we learn about her quirky family, how things don't always go as planned, as well as her love/irritated relationship with her father and dealing with him, that make this memoir a reading adventure a step or two above the other adventure memoir's out there. Her father Roy even joins in, writing his thoughts along the way, and reading those passages was very touching. It was life sustaining and life changing for Andra, and I thoroughly enjoyed it! The writing was good, it kept me turning the pages and the story was perfect.
I give it 5 walking shoes out of 5!
About the Author…
Andra Watkins lives in Charleston, South Carolina. A non-practicing CPA, she has a degree in accounting from Francis Marion University. She’s still mad at her mother for refusing to let her major in musical theater, because her mom was convinced she’d end up starring in porn films. In addition to her writing talent, Andra is an accomplished public speaker. Her acclaimed debut novel To Live Forever: An Afterlife Journey of Meriwether Lewis was published by Word Hermit Press in 2014.
Her latest book is the memoir, Not Without My Father: One Woman’s 444 Mile Walk of the Natchez Trace.
For More Information…
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Chick with Books is part of the
Not Without My Father Book Tour presented by
Pump Up Your Book promotions. I want to thank Andra, the author, for sending along a copy of her book for my reading pleasure and review! I really enjoyed it and will take to heart one of the messages you impart's along the way - make a memory! You show a great example of that in your book!
