Friday, August 6, 2010

Don't Throw Away Your Stick Till You Cross the River by Vincent Collin Beach


The subtitle of this books is: The Journey of an Ordinary Man. He may think he's ordinary, but he's sure had an extraordinary life!

Five Star Publications provided me with this book for review, and I'm happy to have made Vincent's acquaintance. He has written this book with the help of his wife, Anni Beach.

He has had a long and varied life. Vincent was born and grew up in Jamaica and he enjoyed life there with his family. In 1944, he decided to join the Royal Air Force to improve his financial standings and his opportunities.

While he was a smart, capable worker, his dream was to become a jazz musician. After the war, he bought an old clarinet and practiced. In time, he found his way to America and jointed the United States Air Force as a bandsman.

He's in his eighties now, and his life has been challenging in different ways. He and his first wife divorced, but he found another woman to share his life with. And he became an educator and fine parent - as well as continuing in music and helping the band travel around.

He shares his good humor, is calm about any incidents in his life, and lets you realize that we don't have to settle for less in life. We just have to adjust along the way and make it happen.

This book won the Carter G Woodson Book Award from the National Council for the Social Studies and is signed by Mr. Beach.

If you would like to win my copy of this book, follow these steps:

1) Leave a comment here on the blog.

2) Send me an email at info @ bookfaerie.com (remove the spaces) and give me your name and address and tell me why you'd like to get it. I'll choose a winner in about a week.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

This looks like a wonderful book, Jo Ann. I love stories of folks now older that have lived through out-of-the-ordinary situations. As I get older, I really love, love, love personal stories, too.

KR said...

As a teacher, I'd love to read this!

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