Inside Flap Synopsis:
Born without arms or legs, Nick Vujicic overcame his disabilities to live an independent, rich, fulfilling, and “ridiculously good” life while serving as a role model for anyone seeking true happiness. Now an internationally successful motivational speaker, Nick eagerly spreads his central message: the most important goal is to find your life’s purpose and to never give up, despite whatever difficulties or seemingly impossible odds stand in your way.
Nick tells the story of his physical disabilities and the emotional battle he endured while learning to deal with them as a child, teen, and young adult. “For the longest, loneliest time, I wondered if there was anyone on earth like me, and whether there was any purpose to my life other than pain and humiliation.” Nick shares how his faith in God has been his major source of strength, and he explains that once he found a sense of purpose—inspiring others to better their lives and the world around them–he found the confidence to build a rewarding and productive life without limits.
I cannot remember where I first heard of Nick Vujicic – I suspect I saw him in a video clip at church. Not surprisingly, he grabbed my interest, so when I saw that this book was available for review, I snapped it up.
I expected it to be more of an autobiography than it actually was. Vujicic is a speaker by trade, and he writes like he speaks – in fact, the book was like an elongated version of his talks. He tells jokes and stories about his life, and then he relates those stories to how his audience (or reader) should live.
Because he is a professional speaker, Vujicic’s writing is not as polished as it could be — I noticed several places where he said essentially the same thing in two different paragraphs, and sometimes his plot lines could have been ordered better. Throughout the book, he discusses the “moral” of one of his stories before telling the story itself, and then reiterates the moral again after the story is finished. The reiteration, for me, was always more profound because I could sympathize better after the story was told. Honestly, I found myself skimming over that initial moral more often than not.
Other than that, I thoroughly enjoyed the book. Vujicic’s tone is light and conversational, even when he deals with deeper topics like depression. He was funny, and the stories he recounted were always engaging. He seems earnest and real. Because of that, I was inspired by his words. Reading his chapter about giving made me want to be more generous, and his thoughts on forgiveness and discipline challenged me. Overall, his passion for people and his talent for inspiring completely overrode any editing oversights. For this reason I gave the book 4.5 out of 5 stars, and I would definitely recommend it.
I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.
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