CHICK FLICK ROAD KILL: A Behind the Scenes Odyssey Into Movie-Made America. By Alicia Rebensdorf. (Seal Press, paper, $15.95.) The success of books like Sarah Vowell’s “Assassination Vacation” has blessed publishers with a new subcategory of nonfiction, the cultural-road-trip memoir. In her first book, a heartfelt entry in this growing genre, Rebensdorf chronicles a cross-country drive she took in 2001, visiting American cities and towns that have played pivotal roles in movies and television shows — not merely the locations of chick flicks, but also idyllic Brownsville, Ore., where “Stand by Me” was filmed, and the mythic farms of Dyersville, Iowa, which provided the backdrop for “Field of Dreams.” It’s a slightly nebulous mission, but Rebensdorf never allows herself to be satisfied with the simplistic portraits of America the mass media have offered her; romanticism, she writes, “is no more than a nice way to say ‘delusion.’ ” And her adventures sometimes pay off in unexpected ways: she flirts with the director of a fly-fishing organization in Montana, where “A River Runs Through It” was shot, but finds he loses his sex appeal when back on land; she is nearly cited for indecent exposure while sunning herself on a beach where “The Truman Show” was made. In other moments, she cuts off promising ideas too quickly. She refers to family members, like a brother who suffers from mental illness and an aunt with whom she shares a fondness for the feel-good movie “Save the Last Dance,” but never develops them as characters. And a scene in which Rebensdorf finds herself in North Dakota a few weeks before a Japanese fan with a fatal obsession for the film “Fargo” practically begs for closer examination. Still, it’s an encouraging start from an author with plenty of gas in her tank.