It's the new American Dream: get famous by way of social media and write a book. If that's the script, then Brianna Madia has followed it perfectly with her memoir Nowhere for Very Long: The Unexpected Road to an Unconventional Life. After amassing followers on Instagram by documenting her #vanlife in a gigantic orange vehicle named Bertha, Madia learned the power of a good story. Hers is a great one, especially for readers who have ever longed for a certain kind of freedom or a life of uncommon adventures. Madia writes, "All we truly end up being in this life are the stories we can tell. I intended to make them good ones."
Madia grew up on the edge of wealth in the New England suburbs, surrounded by models of financial stability and successful adulthood that were never quite possible in her home. When her parents ended their tumultuous marriage, Madia was left with a pervasive sense of loss and not only a desire to escape but also to make a different way in life. She did exactly that with her husband, Neil, and their dogs, living first on a boat and then moving across the country to Utah, a landscape that would become as much a part of her story as the van she would ultimately live in. Madia is a skillful writer and a talented storyteller. Every story has moments of crisis, and Madia's is no different. But her telling of it shines with a depth of reflection that may surprise and will certainly inspire readers. --Sara Beth West, freelance reviewer and librarian