Sheila Callahan > Recent Status Updates

I read a lot of memoirs, and as something on the book jacket suggests, this one is extraordinary. It's far quieter a story than The Glass Castle or Educated, but it left a more indelible mark for me. I cannot recommend Why Be Happy When You Could be Normal? enough.

I bought this after hearing Wendy Kopp, the founder of Teach for America, speak at Mount Holyoke College's 2007 Commencement. The got buried in my collection, but when I found it recently I was eager to pick it up, especially since I had recently begun my own journey as a new teacher. Kopp bears all the obstacles she surmounted in establishing TFA. I like how honestly she shares the mess that it was along the way.