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voya_k's review
4.0
Look, I never read it, but it IS the sequel to one of my favorite Extremely 70s disability novels (Light a Single Candle), and the dude on the cover looks like John Edwards. I used to have a copy on loving display at my house. Also, it's #ownvoices, so take that!
pennyriley's review
3.0
I thought the first of the two books about Cathy Wheeler dealing with her blindness at age 14 was pretty good. This was not and three stars is probably generous. It details Cathy's life at college where she is training to become a speech therapist, and it did read like a bad novel rather than one based on someone's life. The best part about it for me was to see the direction her life took as an adult.
ineffablebob's review
4.0
This is the sequel to Light a Single Candle, continuing Cathy Wheeler's story into her junior college year. The books were published a decade apart, but they're very much the same in style and form.
The first book dealt largely with Cathy's adjustments to living without sight as a young teenager. In Gift of Gold, that process is largely complete, but as a young adult she is still developing her own sense of self. Will she be defined by her blindness, by her profession, by her relationships? I think we can all relate to these questions from our own lives.
The "gift" from the title has a few different meanings in the book, but for me the most important was the idea of truth being paramount. In a few different instances, someone stretches the truth...Cathy's eye doctor mentioning possible partial return of her sight, misdirection about a what's happened to a favorite teacher, a mother hiding a beau's interest from her daughter...and they all cause more pain than good. Well-intentioned lies end up doing more damage than what the difficult truth would have caused. It's a better "gift" to simply be honest up front than to try to soften the blow with omissions or lies.
If you enjoyed the first book, I have little doubt that you'll want to read this one as well.
The first book dealt largely with Cathy's adjustments to living without sight as a young teenager. In Gift of Gold, that process is largely complete, but as a young adult she is still developing her own sense of self. Will she be defined by her blindness, by her profession, by her relationships? I think we can all relate to these questions from our own lives.
The "gift" from the title has a few different meanings in the book, but for me the most important was the idea of truth being paramount. In a few different instances, someone stretches the truth...Cathy's eye doctor mentioning possible partial return of her sight, misdirection about a what's happened to a favorite teacher, a mother hiding a beau's interest from her daughter...and they all cause more pain than good. Well-intentioned lies end up doing more damage than what the difficult truth would have caused. It's a better "gift" to simply be honest up front than to try to soften the blow with omissions or lies.
If you enjoyed the first book, I have little doubt that you'll want to read this one as well.
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