I had high expectations of positive motivation when I began Resilience Road: Exploring Your Authentic Life Path by Beth Koritz. Unfortunately, there were some issues that I couldn’t get past initially, although I did find some redeeming value towards the end of the book.

First, I felt like the author began with a sermon full of trite clichés. I hadn’t made a connection with her as a person yet, so I was unwilling to hear her advice without seeing how she applied these bits of wisdom in her own life. 

From the advice section, we jump right into a major turning point in her life. The author describes being paralyzed from Guillain-Barré Syndrome as a wake-up call. She talks about that experience as well as others beginning from when she was a child of seven. She really did meet adversity head-on!

Mid-way through her life story, there is another sermon meant to be inspiring. Honestly, I would have preferred if these segments were all grouped together after the personal narrative comes to a conclusion. The jumping back and forth between the viewpoint of a counselor and a woman in need of counseling was abrupt. I also didn’t feel like the clients she referenced were helpful in self-analysis, if that was the intent. The points the author was trying to make would have been more powerful when drawn from her own life experience rather than her clients’.

These issues aside, I found that I developed a deep admiration for the author by the end of the book. She had overcome many obstacles to find her place and tribe. Having traveled with her through her memories, I felt more open at the conclusion of the book for the recommendations she made to better my own life. The list of Tools To Create Your Resilience was concise and practical. Everything recommended in this section, from focusing on what you can do and control to the idea that asking for help is a sign of strength not weakness was spot on. 

In the end, I felt that the book was certainly worth the time I invested in reading it and rate it a 4 out of 5 stars.  Get your copy from Amazon here.

I received an advanced review copy from Reedsy Discovery, You can read my review here.