Bestselling Author Cheryl Strayed's Half-Sister Found - Thanks To A Library Book!

In case you missed it, Cheryl Strayed, the bestselling author of the memoir, "Wild," was recently contacted by her long-lost half-sister. The sister recognized that they shared a father from Strayed's description of him, even though he was not named in Strayed's book. That's pretty cool as it is. But did you know that this serendipity was thanks to a public library?

From NPR: 

“Back in late June or early July I was reading one such email ... and I was just about to move onto the next email when the woman who was emailing me said that we really wereconnected, that, in fact, we have the same father,” Strayed tells NPR’s Rachel Martin.

The woman turned out to be Strayed’s half-sister, but the reader didn’t know that when she checked Wild out at her local public library. “She was just interested in books on travel,” Strayed explains. “She’s not a hiker but ... that hiking boot on the cover caught her eye. And she was just halfway into chapter one when she said she sat bolt upright in bed and realized that we had the same father.”

Further proof, in case you needed any, that there are wonderful and unexpected gifts to be found in library books!

By the way, "Wild," is one of my former Picks of the Month. I think you'll enjoy it even if you don't stumble upon any missing relatives.