book clubbing in July

This month's book club selection was Tracks by Robyn Davidson. The book is subtitled "a woman's solo trek across 1,700 miles of Australian outback" and is less an account of the trip itself than a chronicle of that time in the author's (mental) life.

Tracks opens with Davidson and her trusty canine companion, Diggity, arriving in Alice Springs with only $6 and a dream: to travel across the central desert with three wild camels. We follow the author through her preparations (2 years!) and the trip itself--with the accompanying mental angst, injury, romance (?),and wild animal attacks--and in the process we learn much about camels, the Australian outback, and plight of the island's aboriginal inhabitants.

Most of our book club members didn't actually read the book before our discussion today. One member quite liked the book. I thought it was just OK, I expected more (I know, I know, it's not good to come at these books with preconceived notions, but sometimes you just can't help it).