Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the Audio ARC!

The Last American Road Trip was my introduction to Sarah Kendzior's writing. It's safe to say that it won't be the last thing of hers that I read. I found her writing style to be a perfect mix of cynicism, heartfelt sentiment, and hopefulness. I appreciate the difficulty of committing some of the sentiments expressed in this book to writing and then sending them out into the world, and I appreciate her frankness and vulnerability. In this time of continuing (and ever-increasing) societal, environmental, and political pressures, it's rare to see someone who doesn't sugarcoat the situation we're in, but who still expresses a love of country and a hope for the lives of her children. Hearing these things in the author's own voice increased the weight and also the meaningfulness of the book. Highly recommended.

A lovely, heartbreaking elegy for what I used to love about America: adventure, freedom, connection, HOPE. Kendzior writes beautifully about the various trips she and her family have taken on the American roads and the wild, wonderful sites and people they found along the way. Sad.

This book is a memoir of the author's multiple trips through national parks at different stages of her own life and children's ages. It seamlessly weaves personal experience and impressions with history and local information, and introspective stream of consciousness about where our country and world is headed

The Last American Road Trip made me feel many things - both nostalgia for my childhood, spent similar to Sarah Kendzior's years with her kids on the road, but also sorrow for the country as a while.

This was a poignant reminder that we should enjoy our country (and world) around us before it is altered. Sprinkled throughout the US National Park callouts and the states visited is a very doom and gloom feeling about the political landscape.

While I enjoyed the audiobook with the author as the narrator, I also had to take a step back and realize she is quite the pessimist in her writing. While I agree that the current political situation evokes negative feelings, the author goes a step further and gives me her belief that the world may cease to exist imminently. This lead me to reduce a star in the overall rating because it seemed a bit too extreme for me.

Overall, I would still recommend this book, especially if you were raised roadtripping throughout the USA. Her dedication to seeing all of the states and exposing her kids to the beauty of what the country has to offer reminded me that I need to take more time with my family to not just explore cities, but also take hiking trails through the immense beauty of the US wilderness.