Every person has a story to tell. We all have our shares of joy, tragedy, failure, and success in life. On one snowy winter season, author Christine Reda decided to tell her story in this short but engaging autobiography detailing the accounts of her journey in life.
Reda was born in New York in 1958 where she lived with her parents, grandparents, three sisters, and a younger brother. At a young age of four, she gets hit by a car leaving a long-term effect on her mentally and emotionally which leads to a learning disability. This incident causes a series of challenges during her youth making her rebel against her family, but in hindsight, this is a part of her life that she regrets. Fast-forward into the future, Reda has three boys with her husband Johnny. Having a family of her own is not a smooth-sailing journey as well. She didn’t even have a perfect relationship with her husband in the first place. Another tragedy comes to her when she loses her house to a fire. To add insult to injury, her house was still a work in progress with her and her husband doing renovations, and it has been one of the sources of their excitement in life where they look forward to enjoying their furnished home until the fire crushed their hopes. Thankfully, her sons and daughters-in-law come to the rescue which gives her a reason to not lose hope and still keep fighting. Reda wants to share her story so that the readers will also give life a good fight and never lose hope.
This is the opening line in Christine Reda’s dedication to her sons in her book Try Being in Our Shoes, and this is something that will inspire and give hope to the readers no matter what their circumstances in life are. The title of the book itself speaks volumes on what’s in store for the readers if they dive into the pages of this autobiography. It is easy to say that we all have our challenges in life, but putting someone else’s shoes gives us a different perspective in life and a chance to revisit our own decisions that made us who we are today. What I loved most in the book is the theme of hope that is prevalent on every single page. With every challenge, tragedy, and failure that come up in the story, Reda proved that no adversity is difficult enough to give up your fight in life. The title is not a call for attention or to flaunt Reda’s triumph in life, but it is a way of telling the readers that they are not alone in their fight in this game of life. It is a helping hand that lets you peek into Reda’s life and gives you inspiration and comfort in this bumpy road that we are all traveling. I also liked the fact that the book is concise enough to not drown the readers with personal information, yet insightful enough to absorb the author’s message. The book can be read in one sitting, approximately in just half an hour, but I already felt that I learned so much about Reda’s life, and the book indeed put me in Reda and her family’s shoes.If you put your mind to something, you can reach your dream, no matter how big or small it might seem. Follow through, and the result will be your success.
Understanding that Reda had a learning disability during her youth that affected her writing and reading, the book could have used some professional editing since there are a number of errors in the book that could actually affect the reading experience. Most of these errors are comma placement, and these errors make the reading experience a bit jarring with misplaced and missing commas. This is the aspect of the book that disliked most, but quite frankly, this is the only thing that I disliked.
I will give Try Being in Our Shoes 3 out of 4 stars. It is unfortunate that the editing errors prevented it from having a perfect score. Though this seems to be a book for everyone, there’s a couple of profanities in the book that might not be appropriate for younger readers. Though the intention for putting those words in the book was just to express a metaphor rather than to curse someone. People who are facing challenges in life will find hope and inspiration in this book. Those who love reading autobiographies of inspiring people will also love this one. About the aspect that I disliked most in this book, there’s something to be said about these errors. This is another example of overcoming adversities and not giving in to life when it tries to pull you down. Some people might just give up on writing even a single sentence if they learn that they have some sort of learning disability, but not Reda, it’s like the only thing she’s incapable of is giving up, and that is truly an inspiring person to look up to.
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Try being in Our shoes .. series
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