Every Day Is a Gift: A Memoir

I must admit that I was not looking forward to reading this book for our book club. I am a person who is greatly interested in soldiers or, really, biographies.

But Tammy Duckworth, I quickly discovered, is not just a soldier and this isn't just a biography.

Tammy Duckworth was born to an American soldier and his Thai wife in Southeast Asia at the end of the Vietnam War. Though her family was, for a time, affluent, later they spent many years in deep poverty.

It is Duckworth's drive and resolve and persistence and grit that won my heart. She clawed her way into college, into becoming a helicopter pilot, through the trauma of losing her legs after being shot down, into a Senate seat, and into having children.

What an inspiration.