Find a Way/Nyad - 4 stars

[Anita]

After reading this memoir, I seriously would rather climb Mt. Everest than attempt to swim from Cuba to Florida.

Diana Nyad relates her multiple attempts to complete this swim, and it certainly is inspirational. Talk about tenacity and energy. Honestly, I felt like the mental effort to simply organize her attempt(s) were equal to the physical effort of the swimming. I was exhausted merely reading about it.

Her message is one she encapsulates toward the end of her book in the following quote:

Whatever your Other Shore is, whatever you must do, whatever inspires you, you will find a way to get there.

Well, it really makes me want to get going on some long held life goals toward which I've made little progress (that novel isn't going to write itself, Anita).

So five star message!! And five stars for inspiration! The read itself was good - - especially if you like outdoor adventure stories (and I really, really do), but there's a repetitive quality to her tale that was probably unavoidable, and her Team is huge, so it was hard to get a real sense of who they were, even though they contributed tremendously to Diana's success.

The cool thing is Diana is speaking in Baltimore tonight, and I have tickets so looking forward to hearing her inspirational message in person!

[Anita]

UPDATE:

So I saw the author speak last night, and I have to say that hearing her tell her stories was considerably more compelling than reading them. She's very witty and charming in person in a way that doesn't come through in the book.

One aspect of the book I had trouble absorbing was the dedication of her team to HER goal. I mean they weren't paid and had to drop everything they were doing to hit a specific weather window. I wasn't quite sure why they would want to be bothered. After seeing Diana speak, I "get it" much more. She's very dynamic, and you immediately want to be her friend.