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Editorial Content for The River's Daughter: A Memoir

Teaser

THE RIVER'S DAUGHTER is a vivid and propulsive memoir about finding courage and meaning in a life outdoors by a world-class whitewater rafting guide.

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THE RIVER'S DAUGHTER is a vivid and propulsive memoir about finding courage and meaning in a life outdoors by a world-class whitewater rafting guide.

About the Book

A vivid and propulsive memoir about finding courage and meaning in a life outdoors by a world-class whitewater rafting guide.

After Bridget Crocker’s parents’ volatile divorce, she moved with her mother from Southern California to Wyoming. Her life was idyllic, growing up in a trailer park on the banks of the Snake River with a stepfather she loved, a new baby brother, and the river as her companion --- until her mother suddenly took up a radical new lifestyle, becoming someone Bridget barely recognized. The one constant in her life --- the place Bridget felt whole and fully herself --- was the river. When she discovered the world of whitewater rafting, she knew she’d found her calling.

On the river, Bridget learned to read the natural world around her and came to know the language of rivers. One of the few female guides on the Snake River, she then traveled to the Zambezi River in Africa, some of the most dangerous whitewater in the world, where she faced death and learned to conquer her fears --- both on the water and off. The river taught her how to overcome years of betrayals and abuse, to trust herself, and, finally, how to help heal her family from generational cycles of trauma and poverty.

A beautifully rendered memoir of a woman coming into her own, THE RIVER'S DAUGHTER opens us to the possibilities of transformation through nature.

Author Talk: Caroline Prince, author of Chasing Air

Jun 26, 2025

Inspired by Caroline Prince’s real-life story, CHASING AIR is a powerful reminder that the greatest adventures often come when you least expect them. In this interview, Prince talks about her inspiration for the novel, which is her first; how the story evolved during the writing process; who she would cast if the book was made into a movie; and what she’s working on now.

—BlueInk Review

—Chris Lebenzon, Academy Award–nominated American film editor

J. Courtney Sullivan Event Signup

RGG Speed Dating June 2025 Event

June 18, 2025

I have been doing some reminiscing recently as I muse (well, if that is not an affected word, I am not sure what is) about the 25-year history of Reading Group Guides. A big change that has happened is access to authors. When we first started The Book Report Network in 1996, unless you saw an author on tour, all you knew about them was what you read on the book's back jacket. Something like, “She resides in San Francisco with her husband and her dog.” Sometimes the husband and dog were named. Some authors appeared on morning television nationally or wherever they were locally. Yes, remember those local morning shows that were in most big markets?

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Julie Clark, author of The Ghostwriter

June 1975. The Taylor family shatters in a single night when two teenage siblings are found dead in their own home. The only surviving sibling, Vincent, never shakes the whispers and accusations that he was the one who killed them. Decades later, the legend only grows as his career as a horror writer skyrockets. Ghostwriter Olivia Dumont has spent her entire professional life hiding the fact that she is the only child of Vincent Taylor. Now on the brink of financial ruin, she's offered a job to ghostwrite her father's last book. What she doesn't know, though, is that this project is another one of his lies. Because it's not another horror novel he wants her to write. After 50 years of silence, Vincent Taylor is finally ready to talk about what really happened that night in 1975.

Bridget Crocker, author of The River's Daughter: A Memoir

After Bridget Crocker’s parents’ volatile divorce, she moved with her mother from Southern California to Wyoming. Her life was idyllic, growing up in a trailer park on the banks of the Snake River --- until her mother suddenly took up a radical new lifestyle. The one constant in her life, the place Bridget felt whole and fully herself, was the river. When she discovered the world of whitewater rafting, she knew she’d found her calling. On the river, Bridget learned to read the natural world around her and came to know the language of rivers. One of the few female guides on the Snake River, she then traveled to the Zambezi River in Africa, some of the most dangerous whitewater in the world, where she faced death and learned to conquer her fears --- both on the water and off.

Austin Taylor, author of Notes on Infinity

Zoe, the daughter of an MIT professor, can envision her future anew at Harvard. Jack, a boy in Zoe’s organic chemistry class, matches her intellect and curiosity with every breath. When Jack refers Zoe for a position in a prestigious professor’s lab, the two become entwined as colleagues. They find themselves on the cusp of a breakthrough: the promise of immortality through a novel anti-aging drug. Zoe and Jack set off on their new project in secret. Finding encouraging results, they bring their work to an investor, drop out of Harvard, and form a startup. But after the money, the magazine covers, and the national news stories detailing their success, Zoe and Jack receive a startling accusation that threatens to destroy both the company they built and their partnership.