DNF @ 40%

I really tried with this book, but honestly just couldn't keep reading on. I'm glad there are many good reviews, because sometimes it's hard giving a bad review when there's nothing there. At least there are good ones, to balance out my bad one (at the time of writing, I see only one review with the same opinions as mine.) Also, I do not rate books I didn't finish. So I will only give my opinion. (Note for NetGalley: it's not rated on Goodreads, but I had to unfortunately rate for NetGalley because it won't allow me to leave it empty. This rating does not appear elsewhere.)

The whole book is just "I lived here. I did this. I had a tall roommate, a short roommate and a middle height roommate. And here are some more people you will hear in this one paragraph and never again." It's like you're sitting down with a lady who is recounting every detail, every name and last name of the hundreds of people she knew in passing, and none of it leads ANYWHERE.

You know how good memoirs seem to have a "plot"? Well, I understand that people's lives don't technically have a plot, but when people write down their memoirs, they center it around something. Some people even stick it to a plot or a storyline. This book... I have no idea what it was about. They lived in this house, that house, actually that ship. They had neighbors who had pets. Their grandparents' house was furnished this way and that, and there were these matching last names in the neighborhood. These highschoolers were jealous of someone, and these crashed a car. Neither of them had anything to do with any topic, outside of just being remembered by the author chronologically.

So yeah, she did have a disability (actually, why I picked this book up.) Yeah, the family was pretty awful to her. Yeah, she had many challenges. But none of that drew any conclusions for the reader. It JUST HAPPENED. With so many names and way too detailed references. I mean, if this was a friend giving me all this detail, I still wouldn't care for half of it. Why would I for a stranger? What's the point of telling me who crashed who's neighbors' car when the author wasn't even remotely involved in the accident..? I'm struggling to understand where is all this promised inspiration that other reviewers are talking about? (I'll assume it is in the last 60% of the book which I didn't get to, because I can't imagine sitting through it.)

Not sure about the finished book, but the review copy has a lot of punctuation and spelling errors, as well as missing words or even sentence endings, cut off paragraphs. There is a part where the author writes about how talented at writing she was when she was in university. Well, I am not a professional in publishing, so I can't draw any conclusions on that statement.

I would have finished this book, had I been reading it a couple of years ago. Now I think life's too short. Sorry. Maybe it would have got better by the end - who knows. I hope the author did get over all the challenges and had a great life. I'm sure she did, she does sound like a strong and capable person. My respect to her.

I thank the publisher for giving me a free copy of the ebook in exchange to my honest review. This has not affected my opinion.

I have a fondness for memoirs. What a wonderful way to get to know someone, as they share their triumphs, and struggles- what made them the person they are. The author of this memoir is a great person to get to know- a one of a kind whirlwind of ideas and plans.

Based on the cover of this book, I assumed that much of the author’s story would revolve around her challenges with her physical disability. Not at all! Her physical issues are rarely mentioned, because this driven woman has a life to live!

Wendy Thomson presents most of her life to us, beginning with great scenes of growing up with a boisterous family in the 1950’s. Every man woman and child for themselves in Wendy’s family. Her childhood years end with the family traveling on a large freighter that her dad bought, from Michigan to Miami. Once in Miami, Wendy moves away from her unusual family and strikes out on her own- getting jobs, going to school, moving up the ladder. She ends up back in her hometown area of Detroit, Michigan where she had a successful career, mainly with General Motors.

Wendy Thompson is fearless, headstrong, determined and she also sounds like she’s a lot of fun. She ends the book with her list of life lessons including, “Don’t be afraid of the hard stuff- in fact don’t be afraid of much at all.” This book is not a literary masterpiece, but it is an honest and closeup look at a life lived with joy and perseverance.

Thanks to NetGalley and BooksGoSocial for a review copy. This is my honest review.

Summon the Tiger by Wendy Sura Thompson

This is a memoir of total self-absorption and woes about any and everything that ever happen to Wendy in her lifetime. There is no storyline, but rather a stream of happenings that goes on and on.

Forget a topic sentence or expanded thought. No, here you’ll find a long list of names of people throughout Wendy’s childhood, addresses of childhood homes with room descriptions, and how Wendy would go days on end without food, while relatives partied on.

She can brag to the heavens though about her stellar academic record (she read The Fountainhead in third or fourth grade, really?) and stunning vocal ability. No one appreciated her achievements,however, because no one, including her parents, liked her.

I certainly thought by the title and blurbs that this would be an uplifting tale of inspiration and overcoming life’s hardships-things we all face at one time or another, but don’t count on it. If 242 pages of minutiae is of interest to you, this is your memoir. Otherwise, move along and pick another book.

The author of this book is such an inspiration, as she had to overcome so much in her life due to having her leg amputated before she was even in kindergarten. On top of her physical abnormalities, Wendy had a dysfunctional childhood. There are a lot of people that would have gone down a different path than Wendy did, but she was able to succeed in life and become an inspiration for so many people. I really admired her honesty in writing this, as I am sure that there were parts that were unbearably hard to relive. I highly recommend this!