Called Again: A Story of Love and Triumph

Davis, an Ashville, N.C., native and intrepid hiker, returns to the Appalachian Trail (Becoming Odyssa) to chronicle in this modest work, her record-breaking hike in 2011 from Maine to North Carolina in just over 46 days—2,181 miles at an average of 47 miles a day. After a devastating heartbreak in 2007 at age 24, Davis plunged back into her hiking as a way of healing and finding new purpose, making short work of Vermont’s 272-mile Long Trail by herself in August 2007. With her husband Brew, the newlyweds resolved to take on the Appalachian Trail together, he accompanying her as support as she aimed to attack first the women’s record in August 2008, then the men’s record set by Andrew Thompson in 2005. In June 2011, Davis set out again, but this time the trail and pace proved grueling, and she developed ailments including shin splints and gastrointestinal upsets. She infuses her straightforward account with spiritual elements, deeming her hiking adventures a kind of Christian “calling” by using her “gift and talents to their fullest potential.” In the end, this account will inspire others to take to the trails. (June)