Wow! eBook
Turn to Stone: A Memoir
Author(s): Emily Meg Weinstein (Author)
- Publisher: S&S/Simon Element
- Publication Date: September 2, 2025
- Language: English
- Print length: 288 pages
- ISBN-10: 1668047853
- ISBN-13: 9781668047859
Book Description
Broken by an abusive relationship, Emily Meg Weinstein impulsively tries rock climbing on a California road trip, following strangers into the vertical world. Soon, she is consumed by her addiction to the freedom she feels when she’s up on the wall. Holding on to the rocks, she is free from societal constraints and expectations, free from her own sorrows and longings.
Raw and dark, but also funny, Weinstein describes the steep learning curve of becoming a climber, spending weeks at a time sleeping in the back of her Subaru, and a long, dark night stuck on top of a mountain. As she ascends, Weinstein faces her demons, finding power and grace in risk and adventure. Like Cheryl Strayed’s
Wild, but in the vertical, or William Finnegan’s Barbarian Days, if lived by a Jewish woman from Long Island, Turn to Stone tells the story of a journey into nature that becomes a crucible of self-discovery.Against a tapestry of van-dwellers, anarchists, and Jedi-like Stonemasters, Weinstein explores a world where each leap of faith is an existential lesson. From living on the edge, stepping into the unknown, and falling through thin air, Emily learns to forgive her own failures, heal her deepest wounds, and find courage in the face of fear. Throwing herself at walls of stone, she learns what it means to be human. Fitting her body into the rocks’ broken places, she makes herself whole.
Editorial Reviews
Review
“Weinstein makes a case for stepping radically outside of one’s physical and philosophical comfort zone to find strength and purpose.”
— Kirkus Reviews“
Turn to Stone marks the arrival of a brave, feminist, seeking, and essential voice in nonfiction. Read this book and be forever changed.” –Emily Rapp Black, New York Times bestselling author of The Still Point of the Turning World and Sanctuary“With prose that seems magic, Emily Meg Weinstein captures the inmost, almost-inexpressible experiences of climbing: those moments of transmutation, high above the ground, of stone into light, air into freedom, body into song.”
—Katie Ives, Imaginary Peaks: The Riesenstein Hoax and Other Mountain Dreams“How should we live? Emily Meg Weinstein bravely sets out to answer this question in
Turn to Stone. Eschewing tired pop-psychology platitudes, Weinstein shares with insight and humor the tale of a path not commonly taken, an honest and clear-eyed story to read while the world burns around us.” -Kerry Cohen, author of Crazy for You and Loose Girl“
Turn to Stone may be a book about what Emily gave to climbing, and what climbing gave to her, but it is also about what she gives us, and that is a hell of a lot. As a writer, an athlete, an explorer of peaks and valleys both internal and external, Emily helps us face what scares us most and find the courage to become the people we are meant to be. Her voice is vulnerable, authentic, and wickedly funny. This book will be a fixture in every Sprinter van, Subaru and beat-up backpack from Joshua Tree to the Adirondacks and beyond.”–Laurel Braitman, New York Times bestselling author of Animal Madness and What Looks Like Bravery
