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A Single Step

A Single Step

List Price: $24.95
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Great Inspiration
Review: Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only thing. "Albert Schweitzer" This book has so many wonderful lessons to share. I wish that my Mother, who lost her leg 17 years before her death could have lived to read it. Words can not express how much healing I got from this book.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Great Inspiration
Review: Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only thing. "Albert Schweitzer" This book has so many wonderful lessons to share. I wish that my Mother, who lost her leg 17 years before her death could have lived to read it. Words can not express how much healing I got from this book.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: A True Survivor
Review: Heather Mills McCartney has received a tremendous amount of criticism in the press, and this book has been nit-picked in reviews. There have been accusations of exaggeration of her near-Dickensian childhood, and subsequent rough road in life, among other things. And, after all was said and done, she nabbed herself a Beatle.
Well, I read this book, putting all that aside, and, although this may not be the best biography of the century, neither is it nearly as bad as critics have made it seem. Heather Mills had a life before Paul McCartney, and her childhood of abuse and neglect seems plausible to me. Her father physically and verbally abused her mother, who was quiet until the day she left her husband, and her three children, and moved to London with a stage actor. This left the pre-teen Heather to do the lion's share of the housework and cooking for her father, older brother, and younger sister. Also, with their mother gone, the father was free to carry out physical and emotional abuse on his children, which he did, frequently.

Heather Mills grew up in a hurry, both emotionally and physically, and her tales of her precocious puberty are ones I could relate to. At age 13, Heather's father, a bit of a vagabond and dreamer who was always in debt and always moving, ended up in prison for two years after embezzling money. Heather and her sister were sent to live with her mother and boyfriend in London, while her brother went to live with their paternal grandfather in Brighton. Heather could not get along with her step-father, and, at age 14, ran away to live and work at a carnival. After this, she was briefly homeless and slept under the arches at Waterloo Station. Life forced her to grow up in a hurry, and gave her a drive and ambition that is perhaps not admired in a woman as much as it would be in a man.

Eventually, Heather moves back to her old hometown and moves in with her working-class boyfriend, at age 16. Then, driven to succeed, she leaves him, moves back to London, and enters a series of modeling competitions. From here she models, moves to Paris, opens and sells several small businesses, and enters into an ill-advised marriage at 21. She leaves this husband for a Yugoslavian ski instructor, and finds herself immersed in the first days of the civil war when Serbs crash through Slovenia to reach Croatia.

All of these things take place before her tragic accident in 1993, where she is crossing the street and is hit by a police motorcyle, and loses her left leg after it is amputated below the knee. This event is well documented elsewhere, but she writes of her pain and struggle for recovery, and how it leads her to become a leading advocate in Europe for amputees. Her earlier experiences in Yugoslavia lead to her involvement in the banning of land mines, and the shipment of thousands of artificial limbs to victims all over the world.

And, after all this, the young but mature woman with this dramatic past meets and falls in love with the widowed Paul McCartney. This may seem like the stuff of fiction, but it is all true. Paul McCartney's first wife, Linda, suffered the same slings and arrows as Heather has, also being accused of exaggerating her past, and of being manipulative and unworthy of the lofty position of Mrs. McCartney. It takes a lot of guts to suffer through such press scrutiny, and Heather describes how the press became very resentful of her, once she started to be tight-lipped about her relationship with Paul.

Heather Mills doesn't meet Paul McCartney until the last quarter of the book, and although she describes their meeting and courtship, painting Paul as wonderful and romantic, there is no salacious gossip. She doesn't speak of any conflicts with Paul's children, nor any other negative aspects. She does talk briefly of meeting and admiring George Harrison, and how Paul handled his death. However, this is Heather's story, how she lived and learned and became stronger because of it. I do not know if she exaggerated, or how much was left out. I know that I enjoyed reading this book, as the story of someone who managed to make it through very trying circumstances, and go on to lead an amazing life.

Also, the author's proceeds go directly to Adopt-A-Minefield, so this book is not being used as a way to "cash in" which has been another criticism.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Interesting Life - Boring Book
Review: Heather Mills McCartney is a survivor - true. She's done a lot for amputees and victims of mine fields - true. But does she deserve the media hype? I don't think so. She turned her life around and has done a lot of good things, but I really didn't care to read all about it. A lot of people have had hard lives, but let's face it, she was almost unknown until she married one of the most famous men in the world.

The book was a total bore - Heather, if you had hired a better ghost writer, I might have felt differently.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Same old story -- you've heard it before
Review: It's the same old rags-to-riches story. We've heard it a hundred times. It is no different coming from a billionaire's wife. Sorry, but it's a little trite.

The part that bothers me most is that she claims Paul McCartney is incapable of compromise -- that he got rich and famous at a very young age, and this made him unable to compromise. My response is this: you cannot have a successful and beautiful 30-year marriage to the same woman, and raise 4 happy and healthy children, if you are "incapable of compromise". Her attitude is poor and selfish. It totally turned me off and I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Same old story -- you've heard it before
Review: It's the same old rags-to-riches story. We've heard it a hundred times. It is no different coming from a billionaire's wife. Sorry, but it's a little trite.

The part that bothers me most is that she claims Paul McCartney is incapable of compromise -- that he got rich and famous at a very young age, and this made him unable to compromise. My response is this: you cannot have a successful and beautiful 30-year marriage to the same woman, and raise 4 happy and healthy children, if you are "incapable of compromise". Her attitude is poor and selfish. It totally turned me off and I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Interesting Life - Boring Book
Review: The nay-sayers notwithstanding, I was very inspired by Ms. Mills' story. I am very pleased that she has found her soulmate and wish them the best. People who have had misfortune in their lives should read this book.


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