Barbara Jenkins married Peter Jenkins partway through his famous walk across America in the mid 70’s. She then joined him in New Orleans and walked with him to the coast of Oregon. In the books she looks back at her childhood of poverty in the Ozarks, and her time walking with Peter and afterwards. I think I enjoyed reading the chapters that followed her childhood the most. I think this is a lovely look back and an interesting and tumultuous life. I received a digital advanced copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley.

I received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Enjoyed reading about her memories of the original Walk with Peter, and also also about what happened afterwards. In-between all this she also brings up parts of her younger life, which helps explain how she became her adult self.

Worth reading!!

After reading the book her former husband wrote many years ago, it was very interesting to read her side of the story. She had to put up with a lot!

I read the "Walk" books when they came out and I was fascinated by their trek. So I was very interested in this other side of the story. I would have liked more stories from the road than the hillbilly history, but overall I enjoyed reading this book.

This book moved me. It touched my soul. It was everything I didn't know I needed and so much more. I was born a few years after Barbara finished the walk. Sucks for me. Because I would have loved to be alive when the news and tabloids were blowing up about her Walk Across America. How inspiring!

And inspiring she is! The walk was one thing (it gets the blood pumping through my veins just thinking about it), but afterwards. Oh boy, the afterwards! The struggle, the joys, the surprises, the luck, the bonds, the betrayals, all of it. Barbara's story is one to be told and one to hold onto.

I am so, so glad I came across this book and her story. It changed me, as every wonderful non-fiction with serious grit does. Thank you for writing your story, Barbara!

The 4.5 instead of 5 is because (so few times) the story-telling felt a little choppy. And also, I'm not sure the book needed to go out of chronological order. The only instance I can think of as to why it was told out of order was the story of how Rebekah's name came to be (which I loved, but didn't seem like enough of a reason).

All-in-all, write another book! Invite me to your Tennessee home because it sounds incredible. Keep doing what you're doing. Stay strong and we love you!

A thoroughly interesting and exciting memoir of the other person who "walked across America" with her husband Peter Jenkins in the late 1970s. Barbara Jenkins describes her life on the road as she and Peter, who had just married, walked from Louisiana to Oregon, literally the ups and downs, the hardships, and the amazing highs of their trip. She also describes her upbringing in the Ozarks of Arkansas to which she attributes her ability to withstand the hard times that she and Peter faced on their arduous adventure as well as in their marriage. A really good read.

Thanks to the publisher and to NetGalley for providing the ARC for me to read and review.

I recently read her son’s book about their road trip to relive her journey so I thought this would be an interesting perspective. At the beginning, I enjoyed the alternating perspectives - the story is told from the start of the journey forward and from her childhood forward in alternating chapters. But toward the end the present overtook the past and it was very awkward. Overall is was pretty good, but the end took away from it for me.

What can be said after finishing a book in which a woman shares so much of her heart and soul? Barbara Jenkins brings her journey of healing from a childhood full of mental abuse and criticism , through a doomed marriage, and into the golden years of her life.

The Jenkin’s journey became known to the world and whispered into my childhood of a walk across the nation. The simplicity of the idea compared to the courageous walk itself is intriguing. The drive to continue to move forward despite challenging circumstances speaks to the strong character of Barbara Jenkins.

I had great difficulty putting this book down, as it was captivating and the writing flowed seamlessly. Suitable for late teen and adult audiences.

Thank you to #NetGalley for the digital ARC of #SoLongAsItsWild. The opinions expressed here are entirely my own.

I wasn't familiar with the Jenkins' "walk across America" as I was 8 years old when it happened and they didn't walk thru the midwest. I've always been fascinated by first hand accounts of people doing something extraordinary that pushes them beyond what we think is humanly possible. But the walk experience seemed secondary to me. The chapters alternate between the walk and her personal history - from her "hillbilly" upbringing in the ozarks to meeting her husband in grad school. In the end, this memoir was more introspective self-evaluation than travel/adventure story.

Overall, an OK read, but not quite what I was expecting.

Reading this book was simply a joy and privilege.

Jenkins' shares her story in a completely matter-of-fact way and seamlessly weaves two of her life's timelines together. She makes no apologies, but also is honest and raw about herself. From sharing her "hillbilly" upbringing to ultimately finding herself on the road, Jenkins' story is compelling and inspiring. Her writing is fresh and down-to-earth.

I found myself taking countless notes while reading this to reflect back on later. This is really just a beautiful and real story about a powerful woman coming into her own.

5/5, absolutely recommend to everyone. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!

Now this is quite a personal choice of a book and not for everyone.Barbara Jenkins walked with her husband Peter from 1976 until the end of 1978 from New Orleans to the coast of Oregon. Their walk was sponsored by National Geographic and I remember reading about them in their magazine, totally in awe and disbelief.
Barbara, now in her seventies, retraces the good and plenty of the bad of her epic walk after a road trip with her son Jedidah who is a writer himself. Born dirt poor into an Ozark hillbilly family, her thirst for education brought her to a Christian university in New Orleans where she met her husband, a celebritiy who had already walked there from the East Coast. Totally unfit,  freshly married, madly in love but not really knowing much about her husband, they set out, Barbara ignorant of nature's cruelty and her husbands expectations. She writes about the hardship of her journey, her disappointment in her marriage, the time after their walk and fame when Peter laps up all the fame and she is treated as a side line, about settling in Tennessee and having 3 children, their eventual separation  and rebuidling a new life with grit and determination. Barbara has the gift of a Southern storyteller and as someone who loves to hear about peoples unusual life stories,  I had great fun listening to her side of the story despite not sharing her southern christian beliefs. 

Posted by edithlovesbooksandothermusings at 7:51 AM

As a reader, I typically do not enjoy books that go back and forth between eras in time so I was skeptical when I first started reading this book. I was mostly interested in her walk and how she felt she didn't have the chance to share her full side of the story in her previous books. However, I must admit that the background of her Ozarks upbringing was helpful in understanding the steps that got her to her walk across America.

Jenkins is a gifted storyteller and I felt so much pride in knowing that she had this opportunity to tell her story in her way. I do wish we had gotten a bit more of her life post walk (some major life events were totally skipped or glazed over), but I found this to be an easy, enjoyable read.

I was not familiar with Jenkins and the famous walk she wrote about. I enjoyed getting to know about her life and relationship and thought she did a good job with the book. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. Five stars.

I read 'A Walk Across America' some years ago, so I was keen to read Barbara Jenkins' memoir to get her side of the story of meeting Peter Jenkins and joining him on the adventure.

Unfortunately, what is undoubtedly a fascinating life story is let down by a mediocre execution. The overarching problem is that Jenkins' story is formed of several compelling pieces - the walk itself, her tumultuous relationship with Peter and his borderline abuse, and her fight to keep her children and her finances in the ensuing divorce. And yet, none of them are dealt with satisfactorily nor do they slot in together to form a greater whole, because the book simply doesn't devote enough time to each. The author has opted instead to intersperse those elements with memories from her childhood, teenagehood and meeting Peter at her grad school. While interesting, it would've worked so much better to have woven them in snippets into the main narrative. As it is, to get through all the necessary detail, Jenkins mainly tells rather than shows. This is no starker than in the chapters about her walk from Louisiana to the Pacific coast. I have read and loved 'Wild' by Cheryl Strayed, but in 'So Long As It's Wild', as a reader I was left with almost zero understanding of what it was like to walk halfway across the USA. There are a few specific moments and incidents give sufficient space in the text, but no more. I felt no sense of having been on a journey with Jenkins, the opposite experience to reading Strayed's memoir.

I hugely enjoyed the few chapters there were about Jenkins' walk, and found myself re-gripped during the chapter about her custody battle with her cheating husband, but - the story could have been so much better told.