Mothertrucker - A Women's Guide to Self

Reviewed by Jill Carlyle

Publisher - The Empowered Press

Her love, her vulnerability, has the power to help me burn my whole life down. [Joy] sees something in me—something worth salvaging—and she wanted me to see it, too, so that I can salvage myself when I get back home. —Amy Butcher

Mothertrucker is the true story of an unlikely friendship between author/educator Amy Butcher and the only female ice road trucker, Joy Wiebe, aka “Mothertrucker.”

After enduring an abusive relationship with her partner, Butcher discovered Wiebe, an Instagram celebrity, and forged a virtual friendship with the middle-aged trucker. Their connection flourished, and it wasn’t long before Amy was riding shotgun through the Alaskan wilderness with the infamous Mothertrucker herself.

Butcher’s story will seep into the crevices of your soul. I read a lot—especially memoirs, and it’s been a long time since I’ve read a story as profound and important as Mothertrucker. The narrative speaks to the wholeness of every woman, every age and in every season of life, exploring not just the bond women share, but the necessity of sisterhood—of shared stories—especially when we lean on one another and our experiences.

More importantly, Mothertrucker is a story about courage. Although Amy and Joy take an (over) four-hundred-mile journey over Alaska’s Dalton Highway, aptly coined “The loneliest road in America” and equally, one of the most dangerous; it’s in the space they create for the other in the cab of Joy’s truck where courage is rooted. It’s the stories that led them to each other, despite their differences in age, culture, ideology, and religion. They cling to the most critical commonality: womanhood. In their womanhood, their stories meld them together forever.

Mothertrucker is about the beauty of female friendship, how it saves us, and how women, when connected, are more alike than different. Amy, Joy, and the other women we meet along their journey give us the space and permission to keep living, reshaping, and loving—not just the female friendships we build, but more importantly, the connection we build with ourselves.

BONUS: There are two titles I always encourage every woman to keep as a manual—a guide for life—Glennon Doyle’s Untamed and Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes’ Women Who Run With the Wolves. I’m now adding a third must-read, must-have-close-to-your-head-and-heart: Amy Butcher’s Mothertrucker.

Thank you, Amy, for seeing something in every woman worth salvaging.