This was too good to wait for this weekend’s post.

You won’t likely see me sharing a lot of my picks for reading.  I can tend to be kind of particular in the books I choose and what I enjoy.  Typically, they tend to be nonfiction and first-hand accounts of people’s stories.  I know, not very surprising!  It has to be an interesting scenario and contain some sort of heart piece to it.  I also appreciate a story where you have the chance to root for someone’s adventure or struggle.  I love to see someone grow and their heart moved, or prompted, to do the hard work of walking through something that stretches their faith.

Basically, I enjoy a book that pings all of my strengths areas and gives me an escape into someone else’s story. 

I want to feel the feels (empathy), see someone grow in some sort of meaningful way (developer), and it is a bonus if it engages my sense of connection to a bigger picture!  It also has to have that deep-rooted heart area of meaning beyond the pages that challenges and inspires me (Belief).   If it can also hook me in pretty quickly so that I don’t get distracted (Adaptability with a side of “chemobrain”), we have a winner!

 A book was released this week that contained everything I look for in a summer read.  I’ll Push You, is an engaging story of two lifelong friends who face some pretty big life stuff.  It is framed around two guys tackling an incredible journey, 500 miles on the El Camino de Santiago, in a wheelchair.  It is a pretty quick read that contains a great adventure that carried with it all of the “feels”.  It made me want to step into the story and cheer on the authors as they maneuvered through the pilgrimage and spurred each other on to be their truest versions of themselves.   It got into my head so tangibly that I almost had the urge to do the Camino!  What!  But then my sense of reality kicked in and said, “Wait! That is still 500 miles of tough hiking”.  (Plus when I half heartedly threw it out to my adventure buddies neither one acknowledged my comment!)  I appreciated the opportunity to feel like I was part of this pilgrimage, page after page.  I also enjoyed the way they wove their stories of shared history throughout the book and the way they sometimes told events from both of their perspectives or vantage points.  It was fluid and inviting.  I also appreciated their candor and the courage it must have taken to let us, the readers, into their sacred and hard space of struggle.   It brought me from laughter to tears and everywhere in-between.

Grab a tall glass of iced tea or lemonade, kick back and enjoy.

I’ll Push You: A Journey of 500 Miles, Two Best Friends, and One Wheelchair

“Patrick Gray and Justin Skeesuck.  I’ll Push You chronicles a friendship unlike any other. Filled with beautifully honest stories composed with equal parts humor and pain, I’ll Push You is an unapologetic exploration of friendship, faith and love. Writers, Patrick Gray and Justin Skeesuck, take the reader on two incredible journeys, one being their epic 500-mile wheelchair trek across Northern Spain on the ancient trail known as El Camino de Santiago, the other, the story that is their lifelong friendship”