This book has been a disappointment to me. I constantly fall into the trap of thinking a journalist will be a good writer and then the disappointment. April Ryan is an accomplished journalist and I enjoy her work covering the White House. Her book was promoted as wisdom learned at mama’s knee. I was eager to read inspirational stories, but instead, the book regurgitates news stories from the past few years that are familiar and the author added no unique insight. One exception was her chapter on Baltimore. I was riveted and learned more about the city and its culture than I had known. When she speaks of her own experiences the love and inspiration comes through, but most of the chapters are heavy on statistics and quotes, but light on insight. Her final chapter was again from the heart and much appreciated. This and her Baltimore chapter earned it a 3 star rating. The rest made it only 2 star for me.
Probably most annoying aspect of the book was the repetition of the same anecdotes in several different chapters. She wrote it as if the reader had not already read the previous chapters…odd. OK and the most difficult aspect of this book was the layout. I don’t understand why the publisher chose to have such condensed style. I had to mark it with a sticky note to find my place each time I laid down the book. I hate giving poor reviews as I have so much respect for the effort of the writer and in April’s case for her lived experiences. That said I still kept a number of quotes so it wasn’t for naught. ( )