This book gave me the absolute heebie-jeebies. It’s an inspirational story with a frankly terrifying accident at its heart, and it’s about Claire Nelson, a thirty-something-year-old who quit her job to find herself. That involved having an accident while hiking and lying in the desert for four whole days, not knowing if she’d be rescued or not.

Things I Learned from Falling really runs the whole gamut of emotions: terror, elation, joy and enlightenment. Claire is a likeable person and you’re really rooting for her to survive from the get-go, as we flick between her ‘present’ in the desert and her life in London and California. Even though you know she’s going to be alright, I still finished the book feeling elated. Phew.

I followed the author's journey as it unfolded on social media and thought: "this would make a great book" and I'm so happy that my wish came true.

A true triumph over adversity story which showcases the incredible resilience and strength that you can summon in times of trouble. It's inspiring, heart-warming and even if you know the outcome, there are plenty of heart in mouth moments. A book that will stay with you long after you put it down.

Notes from a dreamy traveller who is not afraid to own up to her mistakes and is very lucky to tell the tale. As the title suggests, the author fell, in this case, in the Joshua Tree National Park, and was stranded, injured and alone with no phone reception. The story reflects in a flashback of how she ended up there, her naivety and excitement to be alone with nature as well as building up her character to the reader so you understand not only who she is but how she got there. Then it jumps to today where she is on a desert floor, struggling to move and everything plays out from there. It was definitely an effortless read but not one I found myself so engrossed in that I had to read it in one setting. The book could be enjoyed by anyone, but perhaps treasured more deeply by someone who is a lover of hiking and nature or knows someone (or is that someone) with such confidence that they think 'this will never happen to me'.

Claire spent four days and three nights alone in the desert.

One day Claire decided to conquer the Lost Palms Oasis Trail in California after escaping her overloaded London life. Without realising she ventured miles off the trail, and ended up slipping off a boulder, shattering her pelvis along the way. Unable to move nor able able to contact anybody what followed was a life changing experience.

Even though I knew that Claire would survive, I still sat at the edge of my seat whilst reading the book. It was gripping, sad and joyful as I couldn’t help but experience Claire’s emotions as she retold the gruesome hours whilst she awaited help. The pages flick between the desert and her life before travelling to California, filled with raw honesty and self reflection. It’s a book that I finished with a huge grin on my face, happy that despite it all she managed to defy the odds.
I will risk the danger of sounding cheesy, and say that Claire’s story really made me think twice about the perspective of life and how easy it is to lose it all. ‘Things I learned from falling’ is an inspiring and uplifting memoir that’s really worth sinking your teeth into.

I've been online friends with Claire for years now. I was following her travels on Instagram a couple of years ago and then woke up one day to read she'd fallen in the desert, broken her pelvis, and survived three days and nights alone and in agony before being rescued.

This book is about fear and loneliness, bravery and resilience, connection and love. Perfect for now. It's also beautifully written.

Fantastic. Kept me on the edge of my seat throughout.

Nelson has an excellent style of writing and the story was well-paced. I enjoyed the way the narrative jumped between her survival after the accident to her childhood and previous life in London and how events there - including her battle with depression - led her to travel.

A must read.

Thanks to Octopus Publishing and NetGalley for the ARC.

A book that will shock kep you on the edge of your seat.A true story of the authors horrific accident.An accident that left her lyi g helpless in Joshua tree suffering from the elements the pain.An author who shares all that happened a story you’ll never forget.#netgalley #Octupuspublishibg

Amazing true story of surviving 4 days in the Joshua Tree National Park after a fall.
Struggling with daytime heat, night time cold & dehydration.
It also tells the story of how & why she went there in the first place.
A very gripping read, even though it was known she obviously had survived.
Thanks to Netgalley.

Gripping, intense, emotional and beautifully written.
Things I Learned From Falling tells the terrifying true life story of a hiker who finds themselves in trouble and unable to call for help.

The way this story was laid out was amazing. With some great pacing and descriptions of thoughts and emotions that build a compelling story.
The whole time I was reading this, I was gripped, and fearful over what would happen, even though the mere existence of this book, gives you the outcome.

A must read Non-Fiction book.

Claire Nelson’s memoir is a classic scenario of escaping from a busy life that appears to have lost direction and undertaking a journey of self-discovery in the wilderness, interrupted by a life threatening accident that brings that journey into sharp focus. It is well written and mixes the jeopardy of being stranded in a desert facing a lonely and drawn out death with reflections on the unravelling of an outwardly successful and exciting life. For some reason though I didn’t quite manage to connect to it in the way I had anticipated and I’m not quite sure why.

It is quite an exceptional story after all. Claire spends time house sitting for friends in the Joshua Tree National Park, taking the opportunity to hike in the wild, take a break from the busy London lifestyle of her career in fashion and food writing and connecting with nature. On one of her hikes, she loses her way on the trail to the Lost Palms Oasis and falls 25 feet landing on the rocks with a smashed pelvis. Unable to move and with no signal on her phone to communicate with the outside world she waits, trying to survive as long as possible in the hope that someone will notice she has gone and somehow find her despite being miles from the trail.

The narrative moves between the individual days that Claire remains stranded in the desert and reflections on different parts of her life to now. She explores her anxiety, depression and the loneliness she has always felt despite being surrounded by people in one of the world’s great cities. It is a very personal reflection in the face of a deeply traumatic experience that certainly connects with the reader, to the extent that there is a physical reaction of relief when the rescue finally comes, which makes it all the more surprising that I didn’t really feel connected to the author at the end of the book.

I wonder whether it is simply a case that I didn’t really relate to the life that Claire was seeking to escape or enlightened by the way that she felt changed by her experiences. The overarching takeaway that we should try to live a more connected, deliberate life rather than the busily distracted one that often prevails in our culture that equates being busy with being productive, is certainly a good one but I didn’t necessarily see it being applied in this particular memoir. The fact that I feel bad saying that perhaps shows that I was engaged by the person and the somewhat miraculous story of her escape, but that I didn’t feel I learned much from the falling is maybe a fault with my expectations.

Things I Learned from Falling by Claire Nelson is a memoir about loneliness and depression as much as it is about the experiencing of a major accident.

I read the book in two sittings over the course of a day, that’s how absorbing it is. Nelson’s narrative moves between her past, both childhood and recent, to her present, the account of her days in the desert hoping beyond hope to be saved. The reference to falling is how she literally fell but also emotionally, and how, over time, she has pieced her life back together into something quite different from her past.

What makes this book so fantastic, is that Nelson makes it relatable. Have I ever fallen from a height in the desert, lain for days thinking I was about to die? No. But yet there is so much in this book to which I could relate.

"It’s strange how moments become suspended in time. Everything during those next few seconds happened so fast, yet each movement left a clear and perceptible etch in my memory."

The book is split into the days Nelson was stuck in the desert. As we move through the days with her, she builds up all her physical and mental pain, as well as her fear, in such detail that at the point of her rescue I actually (completely unexpectedly) burst into tears, as if I had never known that she was rescued.

Nelson tackles many subjects, primarily mental health, but also provides a commentary on our society and social media.

"I thought about the amount of time I spent-that I wasted-sitting in my room pissing about on the internet. Hours on social media, clicking links, flicking through apps. Sucked down the rabbit hole of nothingness. Hours of my life just thrown in the bin. Gone."

When reading this part of the book, all I could think about is how right she is and how it shouldn’t take a life changing experience for me to acknowledge that I engage in this type of behaviour. But later in the book, Nelson goes on to talk about healing but also falling, and how falling is part of living.

I feel like I could talk about this book all day, but in summary it is beautiful. It is wonderfully well-written, descriptive, and captivating. I cannot recommend it highly enough. Take tissues.