A Little More About Me

by Pam Houston

In Pam Houston's can't-put-down collection of essays, A Little More About Me, she describes her globe-trotting adventures spanning five continents with candor and humor, but it's the emotional journey that hits home. We travel vicariously as Houston treks through the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan or dozes while a pride of lions passes her Botswana campsite, but we're right there with her when she talks about her anger-filled childhood, her lifelong obsession with weight, and of course, a penchant for strong, silent types. Her willingness to put herself at risk is her way of coping with these insecurities--each victory on skis or in hiking boots a triumph over those nasty demons. A self-professed nature nut (this is a woman who owns her own horses), Houston is addicted to the next challenge (she's broken seven bones and has twice had search parties sent out for her). Through self-reflection and therapy, however, she's come to realize that saying no to a dangerous endeavor can be just as empowering as conquering any class V rapid. When she opts not to continue a particularly tricky climb in her essay "On (Not) Climbing the Grand Teton," she explains that "true success [lies] within the failure, in listening to my fear and standing firm in my desire to go back down." Houston's writing is straightforward and doesn't get mired in innuendo--she tells it like it is. And because she's not afraid to admit her fears and mistakes, we truly root for her to achieve the balance she's seeking. Though some might find it hard to empathize with someone whose concessions include drawing the line at camping out in 20-degree-below temperatures rather than 60-below, on a fundamental level we can relate. Our coping mechanisms might not be as detrimental to our health, but they are just as real. The powerful messages in A Little More About Me are well worth pondering. --Jill Fergus

Genres: Memoir, Nonfiction, Travel, Essays, Biography, Short Stories, Nature

Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Houston is the Director of Creative Writing at U.C. Davis. Her stories have been selected for the Best American Short Stories, the O. Henry Awards, the Pushcart Prize, and the Best American Short Stories of the Century. She lives in Colorado at 9,000 feet above sea level near the headwaters of the Rio Grande.

Reviews

[Jo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pam Houston is a photographer, white water rafter, hunter, hiker, biker, climber, lover of all dogs and one of the best writers around in my opinion.

This book was a bit of a switch from the other's I've read. Probably because it was truly more of a memoir rather than her linking fiction.

This book was not accepted as easily by her fans but I call them fickle. I LOVE THIS BOOK!!!

[Heather Alderman · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have loved Pam Houston's fiction and was so excited to find this biography from her. Unfortunately, it is more a collection of essays of her adventures than a biography and I had a hard time getting into it. It was interesting to read of the adventures and people that she has encountered and see how it influenced her fiction, but I would have liked a different organization of the essays to better understand how she got from one place to the other.

[Peter Hoffmeister · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The Morality of Fat" alone is worth the cost of the book, and a few other essays are similarly brilliant.
Houston doesn't honesty assess her climbing or rafting abilities (a pet peeve of mine as an outdoor leader), but I love her honesty, her family details, and the way she gives voices to the dogs of Park City.
Read the opening, and you'll be hooked.

[Haley McBride]

list of topics in this book from my favorite to least favorite:
rivers, mountains, park city, dogs, men, and body image

[SUSAN *Nevertheless,she persisted* · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoying this authors work.

[Angie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dear Ms. Houston,

Thank you for writing these essays. They made me think. They opened my eyes. They healed my soul. They filled my summer mornings.

I appreciate the way you acknowledge your weaknesses, see that you are making steady progress, and find time to describe just how beautiful this world really is. This process helps others find the way, too. I suppose that is one reason to write, no?

I cried, laughed and shook my head in total understanding while reading this collection. And I feel I am a better woman for having read your books.

All the best,
Angie

[Pat Edwards · Rating 5 out of 5]

I would love to meet this woman. I want her to stay in my guest room and I'll make her breakfast and she can tell me stories over a long weekend.
The Morality of Fat should be required reading for EVERYONE.

[Jacob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pam Houston does creative non-fiction well.

I loved her love for her dogs - the way she can craft whole essays about her relationship with them.

This is the second book I've read that could be described as travel writing and it's a genre I'm coming to think I really like. As my own wanderlust ever-increasingly diminishes, I'd much rather putter around the house or garden listening to an audiobook where someone else is describing their grand adventures than to hop on a plane myself. Houston's adventures are particularly adventuresome, and even in my more ambitious days, I wouldn't have undertaken mountaineering, camping in below zero temperatures, white water rafting, or going on safari. Just not my jam. But fun to live vicariously.

If there's any complaint I have it's that at times the way she describes her visits to international locations had a mildly Orientalist or noble savage kind of feel - like a glorification and possibly oversimplification of non-western primarily non-white cultures. Her intent is clearly respectful, but a little more reflection on her privilege as a white tourist would have been desirable.

I appreciated her self-reflection about her relationship to danger, academia, motherhood, childhood, and body image, among other topics. Lots of reflect on, for me, there.

The book doesn't totally achieve cohesion - the topics of the essays are fairly disparate - but there are enough connecting threads about sense of home, wanderlust, adventure, relationship to land, that it wasn't completely jarring either.

[Wendy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pam Houston is one of those rare writers who can write fiction and nonfiction equally well. She can write short stories, novels and essays without skipping a beat. I confess to stockpiling her books. Houston does not churn out books once a year so I have to be cautious so I don't run out (thankfully, I can just re-read each one).

A Little More About Me is a collection of essays that includes topics such as travel, adventures, weight issues, dogs, horses, friends, life partners, writing and even more insight into her childhood and her relationship with her parents. I am interested in all these topics so for me this book is all my reading dreams come true. Houston writes with humor and she never takes herself too seriously. She understands we all have flaws and she's honest about her own. What readers come away with after closing the cover on this collection is that Pam Houston is a gifted person. She is humble, resourceful, grateful, honest and sees something good and beautiful all around her.

You can't go wrong picking up a Pam Houston book. The only caution I will give is that you will need a box of tissues. Houston can make you laugh and cry at the same time - tissues to mop up the tears from both are a must.

[Aleysha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely wonderful. Came upon this book randomly a year ago at an Airbnb in Asheville. Read a few of the essays there but didn’t get around to borrowing this book from the library until recently. Reread what I had read and finally finished it and I was so refreshed by it.

Pam is an English PhD drop out (still got a masters which is impressive anyway) who decided she rather live a life of outdoor adventure than academia. To me, she has it all. She still managed to become a writer and she writes about her adventures; best of both worlds!

Really inspiring at a time which I consider the awkward transition from city girl to outdoorswoman.

[Kaile Vierstra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Poignant, precise and raw.

I received this book for Christmas last year and it has sat on my shelf for eight months as I raced through library books with due dates. I was reading Ann Patchett & Terry Tempest Williams and they were close to what I needed during the transitionary time that is August (a feeling of new beginnings that 25 years of school years has instilled). They were close, but picking up Houston's writing was PERFECT. Her smart, honest storytelling is so cathartic. Love love love it.

[Ashley Gleiter · Rating 5 out of 5]

As is always the case with Pam Houston, this is a beautifully written book, full of observations and reflections that are as well-written as they are poignant and true. It was a treat to learn more about her and the way she experiences the world, and I am certain to be both more appreciative and more aware of the world around me because I read these essays.

[Heather Durham · Rating 5 out of 5]

As big of an outdoorsy wandering nature nerd as I am, I never considered myself an “outdoorswoman”, because that name implied the sort of adventure-seeking high challenge wilderness trekker I never was. The sort of persona that Pam Houston absolutely is in this book. And yet as different as we are (including her passion for her dogs, while I’m 100% cat lady), I found so much that resonated in this collection. Which is, of course, the sign of a good writer. Even in all the experiences that are completely foreign to me (most of those in this book), I nevertheless felt I understood, I saw where she was coming from, I GOT it. And I enjoyed the physical and literary journeys she invited me on to bring me to that point. In one of the essays she says: “My need to write the things that terrify me is matched only by my desire to write the things that surprise and delight. I take what the world hands me in free verse and give it back in something like a form and it is language that lets me complete that circle; it is quite literally the tether that keeps me connected to the earth.” Houston’s honesty, vulnerability, and humanity in her essays are the tethers that keep her readers connected, and I look forward to reading more of her work.

[Laurie · Rating 4 out of 5]

After being completely bowled over by Deep Creek (which I only picked up because the book I really wanted was checked out), I looked forward to settling in with this older collection of Pam's essays. Some in this collection are almost as powerful as the writing in Deep Creek, others didn't do much for me. Those that work the best are the ones that have relationships at their heart, such as A River Runs Through Them, Breaking the Ice and In Bhutan. . . Now that Ms. Houston is on my radar I plan to go back to earlier writing and be on the lookout for anything new she publishes.

[Jordan Lausch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superb writing as always. 10 out of 5 stars. This book made a home in my heart.

[Lukie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful book with an unfortunate title. It is about her, of course, but the title sounds narcissistic and silly, whereas Houston is not, so don't let that put you off. Eye-opening observations for those who love the wilderness and great armchair travel for those who could never imagine themselves attempting the life-threatening adventures Houston is compelled to seek out.

[Bonnie · Rating 5 out of 5]

These are great stories. I don’t enjoy the ones about the dangerous trips but that’s bc I’m a big chicken and nothing like her. But I love her writing and if I were her I’d buy lots of life insurance.
Her life is fascinating, I’d love to see her ranch.

[Heather · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was actually really disappointed with this book, and that says a lot coming from someone who rarely meets a book she doesnt enjoy in some way.

A) The author seems proud of taking chances no one should take, and mentions several times that search and rescue teams have been called out for her on her hiking and climbing exploits. First of all, S&R doesn't even respond until someone has been missing for at least 24 hours, so if the author planned so poorly as to be out past that deadline, being as knowledgeable about the wilderness and its people as she claims to be, she should be ashamed of herself. Second, she is putting the fine folks at S&R in danger so she can brag in a book! Really not cool.

B) I felt sorry for the author during the pages that she discusses her incredibly poor body image. I am fat too, and I hate it. But every woman deserves to have a point at which she has done "enough", at which her body has carried her past some mental block and accomplished things she never thought possible. Pam Houston should find hers and give herself a break; if she has really been as many places and done as many things as she claims, I think her body is healthy and she should be happy just the way it is. Life is too short to keep worrying over something so insignificant!

C) Overall, this book MAY be a fun read for city dwellers who don't know where their nearest wilderness area is. If it inspires you to get out there and experience it for yourself, great! But for those of us lucky enough to live in the woods in the first place, I'd say the best use of your time is to go back out and keep doing what you love - don't waste your time sitting on the couch and reading this one!

[Richard Jespers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great essays, especially after spending a week in workshop with her. Just love them all—a whole different side of Pam. Her fiction is so spicy. In these essays she’s vulnerable, not so sardonic. Both are honest but in different ways.

I was particularly struck by her essay entitled "The Morality of Fat." She once casually announced that fat is the last prejudice. In her essay she makes such an assertion visceral:

"'People never forget what you look like the first time they see you,' my mother always said. 'And if what they see is a fat girl, then that is what you'll always be.' There are some days when I'm pretty sure that I'm not a fat girl; there are other days—more of them—when I'm sure I am. My mother's greatest fear has become so much my own that even now, when I look in the mirror, I can't see what I look like. I will never have any realistic idea about whether I am fat or not" (144).

Pam's essays on the canine population, the great outdoors, and her world travels are equally engaging and thought provoking. Check them out!

[Mariah Nelson · Rating 4 out of 5]

"I remember these as some of the best and most intensely honest moments of my childhood: someone taking me seriously enough to try to teach me something real..." (Lovely story about an adult who administers an outdoor "Bravery Test.")

"Writing sanctifies the best times and makes the darkest times possible to bear."

From a hiking guide named Karma in Bhutan: "We take our time here. It takes time to appreciate what we have."

And...

"There is no way to be famous in Bhutan. I think that makes it easier on everyone."

And...

"Enlightenment isn't a flashlight, it's a firefly."

Lovely writing from a brave and insightful person. I got a little tired of her lists of dangerous adventures but she's tired of that compulsive need to prove herself too, and her candor softens my judgment, mostly. I'd like to hear more about that painful childhood that is chasing her around the globe. Maybe in some future book she'll tell that story.

[Laura Watt · Rating 4 out of 5]

these are essays from Houston's own life rather than short stories, but they read very similarly to her fiction -- and to me, that means they read WONDERFULLY. Her experiences are so adventurous and interesting, yet the human dramas and perplexities she finds herself in so often resemble my own, I inevitably read her books in one sitting, as I did again with this one. Especially interesting musings on strength -- physical and emotional, having it or not -- and its role in her life and relationships, which inspired me to do some serious scribbling in my own journal. In one essay she describes her life as perpetually "in pursuit of what I don't do well" -- sometimes I think I could use a little larger dose of that attitude, throwing oneself into riskier ventures rather than staying close to what's known. In the meantime, I can't get enough Pam. (4/00)

[Roger Paine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pam Houston went to school in the east and fell in love with the west -- the Rocky Mountains and the redrock Utah deserts. She became a whitewater river rafting guide. Her best-known book is a collection of short stories, "Cowboys Are My Weakness." But this book of essays is really worth your time. She's a terrific writer, and if you love the outdoors, you'll be right there with her as you read some of these essays. I particularly loved "A River Runs Through Them," published originally in The New York Times, about a river trip through the Grand Canyon with an interesting collection of people. And "On (Not) Climbing the Grand Teton." And "Looking for Abbey's Lion."

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first read this book years ago and re-read it periodically. Equal parts memoir, adventure and nature writing. Not mention she makes me laugh out loud (hard to do; a smile is easy to get, but to laugh out loud is another story).

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's settled, then: I would read anything by Pam Houston. Her writing style is straightforward, her stories are honest and moving, and she knows how to build an essay. This world-traveling writer is on my top 10 list of "People I'd Love to Have Over for Dinner" and she's welcome anytime.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I first read this book in my early 20s living at 8000 ft in Colorado. I found Houston a voice I could relate to. Rereading this was hit or miss. I wasn't as in love with her prose, but still count her as one of my favorite authors.

[Gea · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is wonderful!

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love her writing, her insights, and her lifestyle. When I got to the end, I wanted more. More connections to nature, more adventures, more dogs, more PAM.

[Kit · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pam Houston was one of my favorite authors years ago, so when I ran across a book of her short stories (as memoir) that I hadn’t read, I snapped it up. A Little More About Me is even better than I remember her previous books being. In this volume, she is still the ‘bring on the danger’ outdoorswoman she has always been, but in it she’s a more reflective, mature version of her former self. Each story is a self-contained marvel and I quickly got in the habit of reading one at a time so I didn’t run out of stories too soon. She is a natural born storyteller and even if you’re not harboring a secret wish to go dog-sledding in the Arctic, there is something so accessible about her descriptions that it’s hard not to feel caught up in whatever death-defying adventure she’s undertaken and enjoy the vicarious thrill.

[Yvonne Leutwyler · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars... There are many things I appreciate about Pam Houston's writing, one of them is her self-deprecating approach to telling her stories. Plus, I can relate to some of her adventures, seeking risk walking "that fragile shimmery line between all that's brave and all that's crazy". I do it for other reasons than processing childhood trauma; maybe simply "because it's there", or, in Pam's words "the excitement, even the fulfillment, is in the beauty of the search". It looks like neither her nor my luck has run out; and I, for one, am still in "pursuit of what I don't do well", occasionally sidetracked, but more or less relentlessly...

[Rachel Rosendunc · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was such a nice collection to read on a trip. Definitely not a beach read - there’s some solid substance here. I laughed, I felt quite a lot of awe. I feel like I personally narrowly escaped a deadly bee sting in the Alaskan backcountry, perhaps had a heart attack in Bhutan, was a General in Colonal Bob’s Army. I picked up a hardcover copy in a used bookstore a few weeks ago, and I’m really glad to have it to come back to when I need a refresher. Very much on the same shelf as Wild and A Dream of a Common Language (Adrienne Rich is mentioned in both this and Wild). Love love. Give me more.