What do you think?
Rate this book
The Mom Who Took Off On Her Motorcycle
"This is an absolutely spellbinding read...I can't imagine anyone not enjoying this!"
--Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, Author, When Elephants Weep and The Assault On Truth
After raising her “4+2+1” brood—four kids, two stepkids and one unofficially adopted Ethiopian daughter— Diana Bletter faced an empty nest. What would she do now? And more importantly, who was she now?
With nothing left to call her own, she decided to ride a motorcycle (with her husband on his motorcycle) from Long Island up to Alaska and back again. Only one slight she’d never been on a motorcycle before.
With six motorcycle lessons’ worth of experience, she took off, traveling across a continent, and then up the Alaska Highway, a road that is “sometimes dangerous, often unpredictable, and always saddled with the solitude of a frontier trail.” She and her husband, alone together for the first time in years, confront fierce winds, drenching rains, grizzly bears, moose—and each other. Full of spiritual insights, observations and humor, The Mom Who Took Off on Her Motorcycle captures the way two people, madly in love and yet so different, learn to count on each other and rediscover their passion—despite an accident that almost tears them apart. This story of a 10,000-mile journey to the Great White North is the inspiring tale of how one woman takes off to discover who she was before she had children and to find out who she could still become.
--Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, Author, When Elephants Weep and The Assault On Truth
After raising her “4+2+1” brood—four kids, two stepkids and one unofficially adopted Ethiopian daughter— Diana Bletter faced an empty nest. What would she do now? And more importantly, who was she now?
With nothing left to call her own, she decided to ride a motorcycle (with her husband on his motorcycle) from Long Island up to Alaska and back again. Only one slight she’d never been on a motorcycle before.
With six motorcycle lessons’ worth of experience, she took off, traveling across a continent, and then up the Alaska Highway, a road that is “sometimes dangerous, often unpredictable, and always saddled with the solitude of a frontier trail.” She and her husband, alone together for the first time in years, confront fierce winds, drenching rains, grizzly bears, moose—and each other. Full of spiritual insights, observations and humor, The Mom Who Took Off on Her Motorcycle captures the way two people, madly in love and yet so different, learn to count on each other and rediscover their passion—despite an accident that almost tears them apart. This story of a 10,000-mile journey to the Great White North is the inspiring tale of how one woman takes off to discover who she was before she had children and to find out who she could still become.
260 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 30, 2013
5 people are currently reading
318 people want to read
About the author
Diana Bletter
9 books19 followersDiana Bletter is the author of the novel, A Remarkable Kindness (HarperCollins). Her first book, The Invisible Thread: A Portrait of Jewish American Women, (written in collaboration with prize-winning photographer Lori Grinker) was nominated for a National Jewish Book Award. Her self-published memoir, The Mom Who Took Off On Her Motorcycle, has been featured on The Jerusalem Post and www.hairpin.com.
Diana is the First Place Winner of Moment Magazine's Short Fiction Contest. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, International Herald Tribune, Glamour, beliefnet.com, tabletmag.org, The Forward, The North American Review, The Reading Room, Huffington Post and has been anthologized. Her story, "One Kiss, One Baby, One God," appeared in Commentary Magazine, January 2015. She is also First Prize winner of Family Circle Magazine's 2011 Fiction Contest.
Diana grew up on Long Island and attended Cornell University. After graduating with distinction, she went on to work for several newspapers and magazines, including National Lampoon. A wanderer who likes the expatriate life, she has lived in Paris and Rome and now makes her home in a small beach village on the Mediterranean Sea in northern Israel where she and her husband raised six children and an unofficially adopted daughter from Ethiopia.
Diana is a member of a burial circle, and drew on her personal experiences in her novel, A Remarkable Kindness. She participates in a Jewish-Muslim-Druze-Christian women’s group in Israel dedicated to forging connections among women, remaining idealistic about hope for peace in the Middle East – despite all evidence to the contrary. A tomboy who snowboards, climbs trees and participates in sprint triathlons, she also speaks French, Spanish, Italian, Yiddish and Hebrew and is now learning Arabic, committed to speaking as many foreign languages as possible with the same Americano accent.
Find out more about Diana Bletter's writing at www.dianabletter.com.
Diana is the First Place Winner of Moment Magazine's Short Fiction Contest. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, International Herald Tribune, Glamour, beliefnet.com, tabletmag.org, The Forward, The North American Review, The Reading Room, Huffington Post and has been anthologized. Her story, "One Kiss, One Baby, One God," appeared in Commentary Magazine, January 2015. She is also First Prize winner of Family Circle Magazine's 2011 Fiction Contest.
Diana grew up on Long Island and attended Cornell University. After graduating with distinction, she went on to work for several newspapers and magazines, including National Lampoon. A wanderer who likes the expatriate life, she has lived in Paris and Rome and now makes her home in a small beach village on the Mediterranean Sea in northern Israel where she and her husband raised six children and an unofficially adopted daughter from Ethiopia.
Diana is a member of a burial circle, and drew on her personal experiences in her novel, A Remarkable Kindness. She participates in a Jewish-Muslim-Druze-Christian women’s group in Israel dedicated to forging connections among women, remaining idealistic about hope for peace in the Middle East – despite all evidence to the contrary. A tomboy who snowboards, climbs trees and participates in sprint triathlons, she also speaks French, Spanish, Italian, Yiddish and Hebrew and is now learning Arabic, committed to speaking as many foreign languages as possible with the same Americano accent.
Find out more about Diana Bletter's writing at www.dianabletter.com.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
May 15, 2020
I misread the description and thought that the author did this motorcycle trip to Alaska by herself. Frankly, had that been the case, it would've been a much more exciting book. As it was, she was in the company of her grumpy, joyless husband who just wanted to get to their destination in Alaska as fast possible, sometimes driving through relentless rain and wind instead of stopping to wait the weather out and enjoy themselves a little. They were paranoid about encountering bears and wildlife, afraid that somebody would steal their bikes in the middle of Canadian wilderness.. so much so that they sent all their camping equipment home after day 1 and only stopped at motels. In short, that sounds like a miserable trip and I don't understand the point of it.
February 20, 2024
I did not like this book, it was close to one star. I feel like there was very little said about alaska, also the husband was terrible. He was grouchy, mean, and blamed his wife for HIS wreck. Really brought the book down.
January 12, 2021
Good book about a womans adventure and how it becomes more than just a motorcycle trip.
February 9, 2014
Didn't love it. He's too Harlequin Romance-y - dark, brooding.... and she tiptoes around him. I mean when she stops to photograph a moose (a little indecisively because he's decided that they can't stop on the way)and he falls with his bike in order to avoid crashing in to her and hurts his foot - first she's sure he's going to hit her and then she's grateful when he doesn't and she spends pages and pages apologizing and making it up to him. And what's the rush??? The whole trip is a race against the clock. Why? When's the next time she'll get to photograph a moose or any of the scenery that they whizzed past.
I mean - good for her for making that trip! I wouldn't have the guts. But it seemed more like a punishment than anything else.
I mean - good for her for making that trip! I wouldn't have the guts. But it seemed more like a punishment than anything else.
October 6, 2013
"The Mom Who Took Off On Her Motorcycle" is the wonderful personal story of Diana Bletter who rides her motorcycle to Alaska with her husband after raising their kids. This story details their journey across continent, chronicling the characters that they meet and misadventures along the way. A good read. Wish there was a map included to help me follow along.
I received a copy of this book through Goodreads First-Reads.
I received a copy of this book through Goodreads First-Reads.
August 14, 2013
There's something to be said for being able to live vicariously through someone else's experiences. Riding a motorcycle to Alaska would be too far out of my comfort zone - and I'm not married to a Kuritsky - but I appreciate both the physical and the mental challenges of the journey. The book is well-written and extremely readable. The only thing missing is a map.
February 14, 2013
The Mom Who Took Off On Her Motorcycle will inspire you to follow your dreams. We can each be a hero of our own life!
March 4, 2013
I am proud to be the author of this book. If someone else had written, I would have loved to read it!
Read
June 12, 2016Enjoyed the book. Definitely encourages you to do some thing outside your comfort zone.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews