This book is full of amazing tales of personal determination and perseverance. I marveled at the author's ability to take on challenges for her own fulfillment/redemption. I believe my only reservations come from my general skepticism of memoirs lately (after the Frey episode and others). I would have liked to do some of my own fact checking, but will have to wait until I have more time. For now, I'll say, it is a good and sometimes inspirational read. An interesting life, indeed.

I found this book very engaging and interesting at the start. The main character drew me in initially with his direct, seemingly naive approach to his circumstances. But, as the story progressed, I found myself less and less interested in him or the other characters. I found the story interesting, but not strong enough to carry the many characters.

I really struggled to get through this book. While I was interested to learn more about the actual plot, I did not find any of the characters engaging. I really tried to care enough about at least one of them in order to persevere through the text. I never got to that point so the book became tedious.