Every Day Is a Gift: A Memoir by Tammy Duckworth

 Because she reads the audiobook herself I wanted to listen rather than grab the hardcopy. Listening to Senator Duckworth narrate her memoir made it feel more intimate, like she was talking right to the listener. She isn't an actress, that is clear, but her tone is conversational, like one would expect if someone was sitting there telling them stories about their life, so in that I give the narration 5 ⭐s, though I was a little tempted to deduct a 1/4 of a star for her rant about granny panties since I felt a little attacked 😂😂

Every Day Is a Gift is really the message of her story and not just the title. Senator Duckworth tells the story of her life beginning with the start in Thailand through the current day. She shares openly about her parents and extended family and the emotional and financial hardship of her childhood and teen years after moving to Hawaii. She shares about her drive and desire to serve. We go along for the ride as she joined the military and began flying Blackhawks. She shares what she learned about the shoot down that took her legs, she doesn't have many of her own memories of it and the blanks are filled in by those with her that say, heroes all. Senator Duckworth unflinchingly shares details of the long and painful road of her recovery and the time at Walter Reed and how that led her to get involved in the political side of public service. 

And in the later parts of the book she shares the struggle she and her husband Brian faced in their efforts to become parents. 

While there are some, I mean she is a senator after all, political parts of this story but it isn't all that and even if you disagree with her views on policy there is a lot to like about her and feel as you hear or read her story. 

I have been rather lucky of late...another ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ book. 

(Finished May 2, 2021)