I wrote this commentary recently for our local newspaper. Permission To Fly, Layng Martine, Jr.'s memoir, is awe-inspiring and, at the same time, poignant. Put it on your summer reading list!

This post is a commentary I wrote recently for our local newspaper. Reading this biography of Betty Ford by Lisa McCubbin was both emotionally wrenching and in the end wonderfully uplifting. What a great summer read! Read my full review.

Until the age of eighteen, I had never read a newspaper nor perused the pages of a magazine. I had never eaten in a restaurant nor shopped in a grocery store. I had never bought any clothes or cosmetics or a single item that could be called my own. I had never heard of Elvis Presley or Frank Sinatra, Marlon Brando, or Eliza- beth Taylor. I had never watched television, nor made a phone call. I did not know how to dance.