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me_alley's review
sad
slow-paced
2.0
This had some good paragraphs. Some good one liners. Overall it was depressing and preachy, though. I read for a book club.
theshaggyshepherd's review against another edition
4.0
After enjoying both When Breath Becomes Air and Chasing My Cure, I was excited to pic up Eyes to the Wind by Ady Barkan. I had a rather slow start with the first half but really felt like his story-telling abilities improved throughout the second half. Based on the description of the book, I expected to read more about his fight with ALS but the majority of the book was about his political activist life, which is very fascinating nonetheless. Before picking up this book, I didn't even think about the fact that his story would be about all the happenings of the last couple of years but it was fascinating to read about his inside views of movements that many of us have only seen on social media and tv. While I would have liked to read more about his personal life, I still am grateful that I was able to read his story and wish him the best.
shundt33's review against another edition
5.0
one of the most inspiring, gut-wrenching, feel good but also feel horrible, so deeply horrible memoirs I've ever read. the world is better bc Ady Barkan lives in it and I admire him deeply not the least of which is for writing this book.
susanbrooks's review against another edition
3.0
Ady Barkan gets 5 stars as a person for sure. I found the book a bit uneven though. My attention waxed and waned. It is a vivid description of Trump times, some of,which were easier to relive than others. Admirable and honest person.
bethgee's review against another edition
5.0
Raw, honest, and inspirational. Ady is a hero to parents, progressives, and activists alike and everyone should read his story.
pmhandley's review
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.75
Memoirs can often be bland, with a lot of platitudes thrown around as life lessons. Not so with Ady Barkan's. Barkan provides a lot of thoughtful perspective on his own life and what he's taken away from it. He manages to to walk the fine line explaining how his ALS has motivated him and driven his activism, and finding meaning and making the most of his remaining life, without going into toxic positivity or inspiration porn, which I think can be hard to do. He provides fairly intimate details of his disease and its progression. You are not getting a book sanitized of the worst experiences of ALS. Getting diagnosed with a progressive, terminal disease at 32 right after your first child is born sucks, it's terrible and unfair, and you're not going to hear from Barkan some musings on how everything happens for a reason. You do, however, get a pretty good blueprint on doing the most good with what you have left, and the importance of the legacy you leave for your loved ones. I hope I improve the world half as much as Barkan has in what has been much more brutal circumstances. (Also, it's endearing to learn that Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez seem to really be kind people in person.)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Terminal illness
acperkins67's review against another edition
5.0
My words will not do justice to how beautiful, inspiring and heartbreaking this memoir is. If only we can inspire to do even just a little bit of the good that Ady has done for others, our world would be a better just world.
nuggetworldpeace's review against another edition
4.0
5/5 for Ady Barkan's story, message and life work. I think the work he did before ALS, and especially after his diagnosis, has been incredibly important and inspiring. Yes, collective action doesn't always yield immediate results - say, Occupy - but it absolutely molds public thought and discourse (say, about the Fed), and inspires individuals to step up and rally to influence our representatives. The first half of the book, I have to admit, was a bit of a drag; in talking about his work before his diagnosis, he felt like a lot of white, well-to-do folks who try to help people of color in poverty, with an added generous coat of self confidence that felt pretty alien to me. But his reflection in the second half, as he continues to fight for political change through collective action while his body rapidly fails him, is ace. Plus you realize towards the end that he mostly dictated the book, so maybe I shouldn't compare this to other, more-polished memoirs.