Review: Pink Boots and a Machete

Pink Boots and a Machete: My Journey From NFL Cheerleader to National Geographic Explorer by Mireya Mayor is by far one of my favorite books of the year. I’ll confess, I have a weakness for memoirs and this is one of the best I’ve ever read. Like the title suggests, Mireya Mayor is a cheerleader turned Ph D scientist and National Geographic Explorer. Her journey from a tomboy in Miami to a female Indiana Jones in Madagascar is pretty remarkable especially since science was never her strong point in school.

Mayor is totally crazy. She nearly dies in the jungle, not once but twice. She's charged at by an angry gorilla. There are scorpions in her shoes. The male scientists give her a hard time for packing makeup for the jungle until they need tweezers for splinters. She even manages to discover the world's smallest primate:

We do own the book and the National Geographic film Mystery Gorillas where Mireya Mayor is at the heart of the jungle to explore the great apes' secret world. Even if you don't like monkeys (who doesn't?) you should check them out today. She proves that you don't have be a genius to succeed, you just need to have passion.

-Reviewed by Danielle, Adult Teen Librarian at the Mill Creek Library