Rapp writes a nice sentence, but holy hell this was boring. I feel certain that I have fulfilled my lifetime quota of reading about visits to the prosthetist's office. Though their lives are altogether different this reminded me of the Dave Grohl bio which I abandoned early on. Well put together, the memoirists both seem like nice people, but so filled with the mundane it is impossible to imagine anyone could possibly be interested. ( )

Although I had a stack of books to choose from, I read this one first because I was so taken with the photo on the cover.

Emily is a little girl on a pretty bike with training wheels. Her red hair is long. She looks like a fun but girly girl wearing white lacy socks and white sandals. But there is one thing amiss in the photo–the girl has an artificial leg.

I read Emily’s book not long after reading Lucy Grealy’s memoir. Both are about childhoods filled with surgeries and medical problems. In this case, Emily’s foot was amputated by doctors as a treatment for proximal femoral focal deficiency (PFFD).

This memoir pulled me in because the voice is that of a friend, and she tells her story with honesty, humility, and intelligence.

This book is so graceful and appears as if it has written itself. But I now know better. A lot of hard work went into making it all look simple. Rapp didn’t spend that much time writing it either. And her degree was in theology, not writing. She graduated from Divinity School at age 23. So impressive.
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