A late-in-life com­ing-of-age escapade told with humor and heart, Don’t Think Twice is a mov­ing and irrev­er­ent account of grief, grow­ing up, and the heal­ing pow­er of adven­ture. With­in six months, Bar­bara Schoichet lost every­thing: her job, her girl­friend of six years, and her moth­er — to pan­cre­at­ic can­cer. Her life stripped bare and armed with noth­ing but a death wish and a ton of atti­tude, Bar­bara pur­sued an unlike­ly method of cop­ing. At 50 years old she earned her motor­cy­cle license, bought a Harley on eBay, and rode it from New York to Los Ange­les on a cir­cuitous trek loose­ly guid­ed by her H.O.G. tour book and a whole lot of road whim­sy.

On the open high­way, Bar­bara bat­tles phys­i­cal lim­i­ta­tions and inner demons through the majes­tic Appalachi­ans, the enchant­i­ng Turquoise Trail, and along Amer­i­ca’s icon­ic Route 66, from Get­tys­burg to Grace­land to a Cadil­lac grave­yard in the mid­dle of nowhere. She meets kind strangers, odd strangers, and a guy with vio­lent road rage. She is vul­ner­a­ble and bro­ken but deter­mined to heal — or die trying.