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This is a more indepth memoir than Joni has written before. She shares details about her years before the diving accident and her relationships with family members. It is obvious that these relationships had much to do with the way she has lived her life since the accident. I really enjoyed this book and was encouraged by reading about her life. ( )

Joni Eareckson Tada shares the story of her early life before she was paralyzed in a diving accident in 1967, telling about her loving parents, her admiration for her father, and her relationship with her sisters, and she explains how she came to accept being a quadriplegic and recognize her wheelchair as a gift through a growing closeness with God.

I love this book! I must admit up front though that I know Joni and reading this book brought back many fond memories of our hometown of Woodlawn. Joni and I went to the same high school though I didn't really get to know her until after her accident. We were both involved in Young Life and she attended Monday Night Bible Study which my family started.
My first memories of her were when she came late to a piano recital given by Mrs. Merson who was our piano teacher. Mrs. Merson made Dirk stop his song so that Joni could play hers!!
Joni is famous but has always had time for the regular person. I fondly remember going to her cabin and talking about spiritual things for hours. Though you won't know all the little hangouts she describes you will get to see Joni as she recounts with vividness her walking with the Lord. I hope you pick it up and enjoy getting to know Joni and her Lord. ( )

Tada has had a blessed life. From an idyllic childhood, during which a larger-than-life father beguiled her with tales true and tall, to an adult life as actress, author, and motivational speaker, attended by a devoted husband and friends, hers is a remarkable story of grace, good luck, and God's love. Not everyone might wish to trade places with her, however, because being quadriplegic would not be their idea of good luck. Nor, for some time after a swimming accident at age 17 paralyzed her, was it Tada's idea of God's love. The accomplished horsewoman and swimmer was sidetracked by an act of a God she thought she knew. And indeed, through prayer she discerned God more clearly and emerged from personal anguish. A moving, well-told memoir of both the desperate and the hopeful hours that led Tada to realize her mission in life as a minister to disabled persons the world over. Donna Chavez (Booklist)
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