2 out of 4 stars
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The “Good Don”-“Bad Don” Life Lessons by Don Demarest is a story about the life experiences of the author from childhood to adulthood. In this story, Don shares memories from his days as a child sports player and translates these scenarios into life lessons for the adult reader. The timeline of these memories then carry on into adulthood, and Don uses his past experiences to help him progress onward in life.
Demarest uses his experiences as a young sports player to teach lessons based on his actions. These actions either come from the “Good Don” or the “Bad Don”, but he doesn’t always specify which one and leaves the reader to make the determination. The storyline encompasses several decades, with the story bouncing between different stages of Don’s life. Most lessons are learned and stem from his childhood, but there are a few lessons he shares from later in life.
While I found the stories interesting, I found this book very difficult to read. The author jumps from one time period to the next and then back again, making for a confusing read. I didn’t always feel that the memory he was sharing really matched up with the “lesson” he was trying to teach. I also was a little confused by some of the memories he shared. While I can understand there are lots of life lessons to be learned from playing organized sports, most of the stories were centered more around how Don played the sport or about altercations he had with others rather than what he learned from playing a team sport.
The book was also difficult to read because of the writing style. The book was written as if you were sitting around with an older gentleman and listening to him regale you with stories of his past. The sentences often either ran together or were incomplete. The sentences had little to no punctuation, and random words were capitalized inappropriately throughout the story. Grammar and spelling were also an issue with this story.
Because of the many issues I had with this story, I rate it 2 out of 4 stars. With the help of a good editor who can assist with organizing the storyline appropriately and addressing the grammatical errors, this book has the potential to be a great story. It does have some redeeming moments and a few good “life lessons” that we all can benefit from, but one must be able to look past the numerous flaws that plague this story in order to find them. For those who have great issue with poorly edited stories, this book is definitely not recommended.
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the good don bad don
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