<< 1 >>
Rating: 
Summary: Tenderness from the most unlikeliest of places
Review: A truly inspiring book, and one of the most tenderly expressed sagas I've ever read. It is amazing that such tenderness could result from such a brutal and ghastly crime. Remembering those "dark" days of 1989 NYC could make a person's blood boil. I will never think of the author as simply "the Central Park jogger" ever again. David Kane Mindenhall, Paso Robles, CA
Rating:
Summary: A role model anyone can learn from
Review: Aside from the sheer miracle of her physical recovery, I am most amazed by her emotional and mental recovery. Trisha never wanted anyone to feel sorry for her and wanted to earn everything she got. She is a brave and inspiring woman, and I am happy she has found her soulmate to share her amazing life. This book is a must read for anyone who needs a figurative kick in the pants to get motivated to do . . . anything!
Rating:
Summary: Inspiring story of a survivor
Review: Heard I AM THE CENTRAL PARK JOGGER, written and read
by Trisha Meili . . . it is the true story of the author who on April
19, 1989, went out for a solo jog near 102nd Street in New York
City's Central Park . . . as you may recall, she was attacked,
raped, savagely beaten and left for dead.Somehow, she managed to survive . . . and this book is the inspiring
story of how she did so. How she fought back from not even being able to do such
simple things as read time and walk made me feel blessed for
all that I do have (and often take for granted) . . . I was especially
moved about how she even resumed her career as a runner . . . and
gained greater insight into what make folks do that activity . . . the
key, at least according to Meili, is to set a goal and work toward
accomplishing it.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: I found this a very honest, sad and inspirational story. As for the prosecutions being overturned, the boys let of jail had previously confessed to the crime and re-enacted it on video tape. They also had confessed to committing other assaults and robberies earlier that night. So it is not at all clear they were in fact innocent. And to characterize Ms. Meili as anything but a victim an heroic survivor is perposterous.
Rating:
Summary: Tells of her life before and after the encounter
Review: In 1989 a young woman went for a job in New York's Central Park - and was brutally beaten and left for dead. Her survival under nearly impossible odds and her recovery over the years is charted in I Am The Central Park Jogger, her strong memoir, which tells of her life before and after the encounter, and the long healing process she had to undertake.
Rating:
Summary: Realistic account of how to bounce back
Review: The same age as Trisha and working in NYC when she was attacked, like millions I felt an evisceral identification with and compassion for the Jogger. And like others, I had a hidden voyeuristic desire to know more about her. What can she teach us? How DOES one bounce back? Yet I applaud her determination to remain anonymous in this age of "instant celeb" for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Instead, she focussed on what really matters: her life. By the time Trisha "came out," she has the perspective to produce a useful book. It's a must-read for anyone who has problems to conquer. She's practical and real, a bright person and yet just like any one of us, who was thrust into extreme circumstances. How she recovers is a story in being grounded. Ironically, many parts are funny--like when a psychiatrist is disturbed that she's not weeping enough. Her answer: I can't remember...there's no "there" there to weep over. But her psych keeps writing her up. Being the "A" student-type and wanting to please, she briefly considers catering to the psych's textbook definitions. But then Trisha realizes she's just too tired to expend effort comforming to her psych's expectations and needs to focus on her physical rehabilitation. Buoy for her! Trisha also shares poignant moments, such as when she gave testimony in court. She was so focussed on recovery that to her prosecutions' dismay, she tried hard to walk without limping to the stand, talk coherently, and even take pride in the work she was able to accomplish at her company. The moment illuminates the complexities we don't get from newspapers: the defense benefits if the victim appears functional. But becoming functional is her hourly goal. The media coverage empathically reports that she's a little, pathetic figure badly damaged. She is horrified at this description. But her attorneys are pleased. Ouch. It's a great book, a mature, telling, inspiring, grounded story of recovery that's one step forward, two steps back, year after year. People who're looking for easy, quick answers won't find it here. Instead, Trisha treats life as a journey in a way we can all benefit from.
Rating:
Summary: A triumphant woman who inspires you to be the best you can
Review: This book was fabulous. I read it and could not believe the drive this woman who was near death had. Her strenght mentally and physically is amazing and will make each and every reader feel like they can do better in whatever they do. I am inspired by her ability to re-live the ordeal to the best of her ability and to put it out there in the open for people to judge and to know things that are not really thier buisness. I think she is is an inspiration to everyone who has a goal, any goal in life.
Rating:
Summary: Talk about courage...
Review: This is a fantastically written book - not an ounce of self pity! This book is about a strong woman reclaiming her life. I am inspired by her courage. The writing style is easy to read and not bogged down by too many details or medical lingo. I am riveted by her story (as I was when it happened in 1989 - I am from NYC!) and I am thankful that Trisha has lived to tell the tale!
Rating: 
Summary: A quick inspirational read
Review: Trish Meili underwent a terrible ordeal, that no one would wish on his worst enemy. In one nightmare jog through Central Park, this Vice President of a large stock brokerage, one of the so-called 'Masters of the Universe', was physically, mentally, and emotionally destroyed, at the hands of a vicious thug. It is understandable that she would be bitter about having to describe her ordeal in court. Yet, when she writes the section of this book on her trial, she has a special reserved venom for the defense attorneys. What makes this section so remarkable is, that four of the young men who were convicted of attacking her proved to be innocent! Four innocent human beings were broken by the prison-industrial complex at her behest; yet not one word of sympathy for them. While she wrote of the Doctors and nurses who helped her recover, we have to ask, who helped these four young men recover? Have they recovered? What kind of life have they had? And what kind of life did Trish Meili take from them?
Her attacker reduced her brutally. Yet, she has reduced herself, by making herself fodder for the professional pagliaccis of this world, who wish to destroy America's freedoms in the name of victims.
This book is sadly, a frightening portend of the future of America unless we return to basic American concepts of fairness including the presumption of innocence, and a determination to return to a concept devised to end the Salem Witch trials; that it is better to let a thousand guilty go free than to convict one innocent. When Trish Meili shows the same compassion for the innocent men she helped destroy, perhaps she will indeed have found redemption, as we, the people in whose name these innocent men were convicted, will achieve redemption.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: Trisha Meili's account of her life and ordeal is moving and touching, but in a surprising way. Trisha does not make herself out to be a hero, nor does she overly dramatize her close encounter with death and the slow and painful recovery process she went through. In the expression of who she is before she was violently attacked and who she after, she is humble and shows her own vulnerabilities. True to her own personality, she shows her strength by showing her healing process in hopes that others will learn from her own discoveries; it succeeds at being both an emotional and an intellectual account. Trisha's very personal account of her ability to find happiness in a world that is often cruel is interesting and insightful and solidifies that she is a great a role model and teacher to others. Her ability to love and give has not been hindered by her misfortune, instead it has been strengthened. Perhaps this observation is something we all should pay attention to, as Trisha's great attitutde and happiness seem to be directly related to her view that it is essential that she uses her talents and gifts to continue to add value and meaning to her own life.
<< 1 >>
| 
