I appreciated Karen Polinsky sharing Ian's story with the reader, it was a moving story and was everything that was promised. It was written well and was glad I got to read this.

Ian’s Ride by Karen Polinsky

Ian’s Ride is a great story of a young man’s journey from an adventure seeking healthy post grad student to a full quadriplegic. Medical information, mechanical details of things like wheelchairs and rotating beds, and technology information useful to quads, and others with disabilities, is abundant and easy to understand. Learning how people live day to day, the importance of caregivers and family support and building community are threaded throughout. Ian is a spark of resilience and shows the reader how valuable each human is and how appreciative of living and community everyone has the opportunity to experience, no matter their physical condition. Ian and his team are extraordinary people, but, as Ian’s mother points out, it is what love does. Love of family and friends supports each other in ways not previously imagined. It is a very real and heartwarming depiction of a young man’s life turned inside out. Aside from a few typos and formatting issues on Kindle I highly recommend this book. It will appeal to a broad audience.

There are some noteworthy risks when it comes to writing a biography for a notable disabled figure.

The first, of course, is that said biography becomes no more than what the late British comic Stella Young called "inspiration porn." It's easy to fall into the trap of making someone inspirational solely because they show up with a disability.

This first one is particularly icky for me.

The second doesn't have quite the catchy phrase to accompany it, however, it comes down to creating an overly saccharine, histrionic, and melodramatic tale about "suffering."

This one grosses me out too.

So, I always approach such biographies a little bit wary. A recent audio book about Canadian icon Terry Fox was a perfect example - the narration was so over-the-top melodramatic that it felt like idol worship. I still cringe whenever I think about it.

I was pleasantly surprised by Karen Polinsky's "Ian's Ride: A Long-Distance Journey to Joy" that chronicles the life of Ian Mackay, whose life permanently changed when he crashed his bike doing 40-mph into a tree and became paralyzed from the shoulders down. Suddenly, the dreadlocked hippie with a free-spirited attitude and a love of nature was forced to adapt to a life where his recovery depended upon the fierce dedication of his family, especially his mother Teena Woodward, and his eclectic group of similarly spirited friends.

You can likely already tell that "Ian's Ride" runs the risk of turning into inspiration porn. However, Polinsky has crafted a patient, realistic tale of a man whose healing didn't happen overnight and whose times of despair are vividly captured as his accident took him back to Life 101.

It took years of dedication, despair, creativity, and love for Ian to become an inspiring leader, an innovator with Apple, and a man who would begin returning to his beloved trails in his Invacare power wheelchair where he would begin doing annual long-distance rides and ultimately break a world record for distance covered in one day in a power wheelchair.

"Ian's Ride" captures Ian not just as some inspirational quadriplegic. It captures him as a human being, simultaneously vulnerable yet prone to arrogance and needy yet determined to become as independent as possible. This is a book that captures the healing power of nature and the unique world of endurance athletes with disabilities. It's a book that examines how we learn to live in our bodies and how that changes whether it's because of a tragic accident, aging, or simply the evolution of life. It's a book about the importance of community, differences, and the resilience of the human heart.

If I have a beef with "Ian's Ride," it may very well be that it's not long enough to really explore vital areas such as the financial impact of disability (though it begins addressing this toward book's end as Ian explores his own home) and the power of living one's good life while also balancing Social Security, disability, income, and much more. At times, ableist language creeps in in subtle ways (fortunately limited). However, for the most part "Ian's Ride" is a grounded, realistic portrayal of a man who becomes disabled in his college days and over the years figures out how to live in his body, return to his love of nature, build a community, live his good life, and maintain friendships and romantic relationships.

As a paraplegic/double amputee with spina bifida myself, I've long used long-distance wheeling as my own form of activism and self-healing. I recently celebrated being one-year cancer free with a 160-mile wheelchair ride that eliminated $17 million in medical debt for those in my home state of Indiana. So, I vibed wonderfully with Ian's embrace of nature, the trails, and his desire to push. He felt like a kindred spirit and I celebrated the growth of his rides and his ability to include others in them (which I've only minimally done). Even as a lifelong paraplegic, there was much for me to learn here.

While I may have wished for more from "Ian's Ride," it's a good problem to have to not want a book to end. Heartfelt and hopeful in all the right ways, "Ian's Ride" is a raw, honest, and fiercely engaging story that you won't want to end.