Rating: 
Summary: true to live
Review: Being a special sib, Rachel's book gives those of us who are mute about our feelings the vechile to give our parents an insight on life from our side. We want to ride the same buses as our families and Rachel's book may finally give us that opportunity. This should be a requirement for all special needs families.
Rating:
Summary: Enlightenment.
Review: Did you ever see a person, day in and day out, virtually blending them into the background of your life so that you know they exist, but you really don't pay excessive attention to them?I ride the bus to work every morning, and home every afternoon, and when I do, there's usually a purple shirted, radio-carrying, talkative, happy companion in the seat adjacent to the driver's. I've been riding the buses with Beth for almost ten years. Without ever having a real relationship beyond occasional conversation, Beth has made me laugh when I was frowning, made me smile when I was annoyed at how poorly someone was treating her, with one of her "I dunno! Don't care"'s, fired off with a genuine smile, and made me think when I was trying to drown myself in my own sorrow. In this town, you know Beth. You know her, even if not by name, because she is a character. Vivacious, uplifting, and demanding your eyes and ears... Beth is everywhere. Whether she makes you happy, sad, angry, confuses you... she's a constant. It took me reading this book to realize all the Beth memories I've collected over the years without thought. It's amazing what insight I gained into a person whose presence I took so for granted. This personally affected me on a deep level, and I feel that it would do so for anyone, whether or not they have their own Beth.
Rating:
Summary: This book will appeal to anyone!
Review: Do you know someone with a disability? Chances are, you do, and regardless of the disability, mental retardation, autism, blindness....there is much to learn and relate to in Rachel Simon's true life story entitled "Riding the Bus With My Sister". I have two sisters with mental retardation, similar to Rachel's sister, Beth. Reading this book gave me new insight into my relationship with my own sisters, and I see them and their lives with new understanding. In addition, the book was very informative of the systems in place to support the disabled within a community. This book has had a profound effect on me and I find Rachel Simon quite courageous and brave to share such a personal story. Anyone will enjoy reading this book, the messages of acceptance, enjoying life as it is and connecting with others are universal.
Rating:
Summary: Astonishing.
Review: Erma Bombeck once wrote that each year l00,000 women would become mothers of disabled children, and she asked the question: Did you ever wonder how those mothers are chosen? She went on to say she believed that God chose mothers who are happy, who know how to laugh, and who don't have too much patience else they might drown in self pity. She believed that a little selfishness is also called for so the mother can separate herself occasionally for survival.
Erma Bombeck would have known these things as, it is reported, she, herself was the mother of a handicapped child.
I believe that God chooses siblings of mentally disabled individuals for many of the same reasons. When you have a handicapped sibling that you truly love, you do see things more clearly, and as Erma Bombeck thought, you have the ability to rise above ignorance, cruelty and prejudice.
These are the things that Rachel Simon writes about in her book Riding The Bus With My Sister. While, during her lifetime, she has had feelings about her sister that she isn't totally comfortable with, she had the courage to reunite in a significant way with Beth. Both Rachel and Beth have risen above the aforementioned: ignorance, cruelty and prejudice.
I read with displeasure a couple of these book reviews by people who probably, not one day in their lives, have known or been close to someone with mental retardation. I found those reviews to be astonishing.
Rachel Simon spent a lot of time, when she could have been doing something else, to write a book of explanation as to what it is like to walk in the shoes of someone like her sister, Beth. In riding the bus with Beth, she became even more aware of how the world was treating her sister. Yes, as she writes, there are many kind people in this world, and then there are some who are not. No, it is not a perfect world, but, it is a better world for having people among us who live each day the best way they can, who challenge US to be better people.
Rachel tells me the book has been made into a television movie. I can't wait to see it! Thank you Rachel and Beth for sharing your lives with us.
Sally N. Crowe, Author: The Spirit Beside Me
Rating:
Summary: Riding the Bus with Rachel and Beth
Review: Every night this week I could hardly wait to get in bed and pick up where I'd left off the night before in Rachel Simon's wonderful new book. What a story. What a family history! It's amazing that any of the four Simon siblings is even marginally functional. What a testament to the toughness and resilience of the human spirit. Sister Beth's joys are infectious, her limitations maddening. The surprise is not that Simon sometimes grows impatient with her sister, but that Simon handles her sister with such patience and forebearance so much of the time. Meanwhile, what a sweetheart Rick the bus driver is. And there's even a happy ending that's actually true. Simon's year of riding the bus with her sister, and her written account of that year, are both monumental achievements.
Rating: 
Summary: Honesty Transforms Potentially Clichéd Tale
Review: I always try to read a book without any prejudices in regards to the author or the story's nature. But, I have to admit that I was more than a little afraid at first about Riding The Bus With My Sister. I feared that this book would be a stereotypical "feel good" story, where the mentally retarded sister was depicted as a misunderstood noble creature and the "bus rides are a journey of self-discovery" metaphor was abused. It didn't take me long to realize that my initial fears were unfounded. They went unrealized because Simon chose to infuse her story with honesty, instead of stereotype. Nowhere is this quality better displayed than in her depiction of Beth. Simon makes a point of showing that her sister is stubborn, opinionated, and not liked by everyone. But, she also shows that Beth has qualities that make her distinctive and important. By providing this balanced portrayal, Simon gives her sister a realism that transcends the stereotypical depiction of the mentally disabled. The only area where Simon veers dangerously close to typecast is in her portrayal of the "wise beyond their station in life" bus drivers. While she does state that not all drivers were like those she highlighted, those that were shown were portrayed as near saints. What rescues this depiction is the honesty behind the stories. Simon takes care to show how each of these drivers obtained their wisdom through their life experiences. As a result, the drivers, and their level of understanding, become believable. While the metaphor running throughout the book had the potential to be abused, it turned out to be appropriate. Because of the truthful portrayal of her sister and the situations during that year of riding, I came to believe that Simon had discovered, changed, and grown. She shows this growth by movingly displaying the two most important points she learned: that everyone has value and that insight can be obtained from anywhere. If every book imparted such knowledge, the world would be a richer place. But, since most books don't pass along such lessons, one should grasp those, like Riding The Bus With My Sister, that do add this value to one's life.
Rating:
Summary: 100% Truthfull
Review: I am one of the bus drivers mentioned in the book and can testify to the fact that this book tells the truth about how Beth, the handicaped sister, acts on the bus and how others treat her. It also addresses the fact that people like to belittle her. People do struggle with the rather new fact that the handicaped are more free than in the past. This book addresses that. The book is a great light for all of us to follow. Beth's sister is led to the path of acceptance and love and out of the darkness of misunderstanding. Reading this book will do the same for anyone with an open heart. Highly recomended.
Rating:
Summary: A wonderful book!
Review: I direct the Sibling Support Project, a national project dedicated to the concerns of siblings of people with disabilities and this book nails sibling issues! Even better, it's funny and poignant and reads like a novel. This is one bus you won't want to miss.
Rating:
Summary: Honest and edifying
Review: I first heard about this book through an exerpt printed in a recent issue of Reader's Digest, and was immediately intrigued.
This book should be required reading of all the hyperbusy yuppies around (esp. ones here in the Bay Area)....Rachel does a great job in showing the slow transformation of her values from workaholic wannabe Big Person with a Big Job, to a more well-rounded humanitarian who can enjoy life's simpler pleasures and relationships with others, through her interactions with her sister and various bus drivers. The book is realistic in that it doesn't try to give any pat answers or solutions to the issues surrounding the care of the mentally retarded. This story could have been overly politically correct if written by a less talented author, but Rachel's refreshingly honest in her depiction of her frustrations with Beth, and she doesn't oversentimentalize the loving aspects of their sisterly relationship, or pontificate/overgeneralize when discussing her struggles. A pleasure to read, with some great life wisdom to stay with you long after you're done with the book.
Rating: 
Summary: Thank God I Have a Car
Review: I got this book from our office "library," where people leave off books they've finished for others to pick up. Opening it to the middle and scanning a few sentences, I thought it would be interesting. And it was, for a while. It's about the author and her retarded sister, who rides the buses in her city all day, every day. The author is trying to discover her sister by riding the bus with her. It holds up for about half the book, but after a while you realize the sister is lazy, obnoxious, and socially indifferent. She gets really tiresome after a while, and therefore, unfortunately, so does the book. I ended up being much more interested in the vignettes from the sisters' past life experience, especially about their mother. Now that would be a story worth writing--and reading. Better luck next time, author.
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