I reviewed Portland author Cheryl Strayed's great memoir Wild in the books section this week—in the book, Strayed (who recently outed herself as popular online advice columnist Dear Sugar) describes the months she spent hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, from California's Mojave Desert to the Bridge of the Gods. It's a great book, and I mean no insult when I say that if anyone is looking for a present for their mother, this would be a very, very good option. (It puts me in mind of another local tough-lady memoir that I absolutely loved, Sarahlee Lawrence's River House.)

It was announced last week that actress Reese Witherspoon's film company had optioned Wild, with Witherspoon planning to play Strayed. Which kind of a shame, because it is 100 percent impossible to believe Witherspoon could ever possess the determination or self-sufficiency Strayed displays in her book, and the thought of seeing Witherspoon project "plucky and determined" for two hours somehow does not compel me. But then, rumors of that Kristen Wiig/Clown Girl adaptation have been floating around for years, and we still haven't seen that one, so who knows when/whether this will actually happen. (Speaking of literary memoirs: I didn't love Being Flynn, the new film adaptation of Nick Flynn's Another Bullshit Night in Suck City, but Paul Dano was 100 percent plausible as the slightly debauched young Flynn.)