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Mohrbooks Literary Agency
Sebastian Ritscher
Original language
English
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MOTORCYCLES I'VE LOVED

Lily Brooks-Dalton

A powerful memoir about a young woman who discovers the power and allure of motorcycles—outsmarting small-minded grease monkeys, faulty brakes, and her own doubts—as she reshapes her identity and forges her own path.
At twenty-one-years-old, Lily Brooks-Dalton is broke, directionless, and back in her native New England after three-and-a-half years working her way around the world. Abruptly cut off from the support system she’d had abroad, and anxious about a future that seems uncertain, she spends her days shuffling between an unfulfilling job and a temporary home filled with endlessly partying college students.

When a friend starts shopping for a motorcycle, Brooks-Dalton is intrigued, and before long she finds herself diving headlong into the world of gearheads, channeling all her energy towards a quest for the perfect ride. At first, these big, roaring machines offer a diversion and some toughness, a way to be seen as more powerful than her petite, feminine frame suggests. But what she finds as she learns to ride and maintain her own motorcycles is more than she ever expected.

Forced to confront her limitations—new and old, real and imagined—Brooks-Dalton discovers focus, patience, and how to fearlessly navigate male-dominated life on the road. Along the way she discovers her mother's motorcycling past and begins to understand her inherited passion for speed and how much it’s shaped her identity, both as a rider and as a woman. As she builds confidence, both on her bike and off, she begins to find her way forward, ultimately undertaking an epic journey that leaves her changed, strengthened, and prepared for whatever comes next.

Honest and lyrical, raw and thoughtful, Motorcycles I’ve Loved is a bold portrait of one young woman’s empowering journey towards confidence, independence and her own, wide-open road.

Lily Brooks-Dalton was born in southern Vermont. She bought her first motorcycle at twenty-one, and has owned three other bikes since then. She currently lives in western Massachusetts.
Available products
Book

Published 2015-04-07 by Riverhead

Book

Published 2015-04-07 by Riverhead

Comments

A scenic ride through the backcountry roads of being a woman in what is often considered a man’s world.

Like all great quest stories, Motorcycles I’ve Loved depicts a journey that demands the daring and determination to defy those voices (including our own) that try to tell us we’re not cut out for the journey. Lily Brooks-Dalton has blazed a trail all her own, and the resulting memoir is as forthright as a well-worn leather motorcycle jacket, and as beautiful as a country road rolling out just up ahead.

In her reflective prose, Brooks-Dalton captures the nearly mesmerizing quality of solitary, long-distance riding. She offers some useful tips on maintenance and repair, and overall she portrays a satisfying journey to a very American sense of selfhood and autonomy.

What the PCT is to Cheryl Strayed, the open road is to Brooks-Dalton.

Lily Brooks-Dalton is wonderful, fresh on the scene with a big heart, a fierce spirit, a writer's eye, and a lovely sense of humor.

As [Brooks-Dalton] deepens her relationship with motorcycles through riding and then exploring their mechanics, she emerges as a confident storyteller, revealing a fascinating cast of catalysts, teachers, and idols. Even those who don’t see the allure of motorcycles will find a compelling story here, especially younger readers who will likely see a glimmer of themselves in this quest for inner strength and identity.

Each chapter bears titles such as velocity, impulse, gravity and inertia, and Brooks-Dalton weaves a nuts-and-bolts primer on each into her narrative of learning to ride and care for a series of cycles… One hopes to see what this author’s next adventure will produce.

A young woman of passion and…velocity, Brooks-Dalton has written a bright, brisk ode to her beloved two-wheelers.

[Brooks-Dalton’s] memoir of finding purpose and courage on the back of a bike is an empowering, poignant journey.

Lily Brooks-Dalton has given us an honest and lovely memoir about learning to keep the shiny side up and the dirty side down. This is a book for seekers, wanderers, wayward souls, devotees of the open road, and anyone who loves being swept along by the performance of a beautiful writer at work.