NO FINISH LINE My Life As I See It

Marla Runyan personifies the typical overachiever on many fronts: a child prodigy who masters the violin, a top student, and a world-class athlete. But Runyan is truly exceptional, accomplishing all of this and more in spite of being legally blind. The book is as much a memoir as it is a guide to accomplishing anything one sets one's mind to. In the wrong hands, Runyan's story could sound like precocious bragging and an athlete's whining, but Emily Schirner allows neither of these to come across, instead making Runyan's story compelling and enjoyable. Schirner reads with hopeful enthusiasm when relaying Runyan's accounts of racing and switches easily to expressing her frustrations in a world built for sighted people. A great performance to match a great athlete. H.L.S. (c) AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine [Published: APR/MAY 02]