For the Love of Books

Are you an avid reader as most in my family are? I grew up with a reverence toward books. My grandmother was a teacher and a Liberian. She would send me boxes of books that had been taken out of circulation. It was like Christmas every time one came.

Through the years I would take my favorites and keep them aside. The other books I shared with friends and family and even resold. But those special books followed me to college and into my marriages and on my daughter's bookshelves. There she grew to love these stories and to trust my taste in books.

When we lost our home to fire it was these very books that she and I morned the loss of. Once I found a copy of my all time favorite copy of Cinderella on EBay. We bid on that book til we won it. Now it sits on my bookshelf beside my bed. A small victory over that fire that one of my friends had returned. Several other books we have never found again anywhere.

Well I have found another book to add to that shelf of special books. And since my College Girl trust my taste I was thinking maybe you would also like to share it with me. "Unbound" by Dean King has left me with wonder and awe at the strength of the human race. This is a story of 86,000 Red soldiers who walked over 4,000 miles in 370 days to escape the Chinese Red Army in 1934. Less than 10,000 would survive. Now only 30 of those who escaped were women and amazing that all 30 of those women survived.

Dean King followed this same trek and interviewed those along the way. He followed their story of friendships, perseverance and strength to share with us. I was swept away with this feat. Learning how these women went through hardships and struggles that I could never imagine enduring. Here I was reminded again that the strength in women comes from their hearts and souls not from the muscles of their bodies.

I am often asked by my friend Nessa how I keep going some days. (Not that what I do is in anyway compared to these women). But that no matter how tired I can be or knotted up my hands and knees are that day, I keep on with my daily plans. It is here in that strength women rely on to follow their hearts. Mine is for my family and home. These women also wanted to make a way out, a way to freedom, a way for their families to continue.

DISCLOSURE: I received a complimentary copy of this book to facilitate this review. No other compensation was provided.