Always looking up

When I go on vacation I always try to read a lot. Having my E-reader with me made this task very easy. The night before I left for Norway I went online to my local library and checked out several books. What I love about this system is that I end up borrowing books I never would have read otherwise.

The first book I read was “Always Looking Up – The Adventures of an Incurable Optimist” by Michael J. Fox.

This was a far stretch for me. A memoir divided into themes of work, politics, faith and family. Me reading about American politics, it would never have happened before the E-reader. (I’m sorry this is sounding more and more like a commercial for E-readers, but I really do love mine).

Rarely do I find a book that makes me laugh out loud or make me want to read passages out loud for people around me. Fox really is an optimist and he has a way of describing his hardships of living with Parkinson’s that is so right on, raw, but still positive and humoristic.

He also explains his view on stem cell research. I have never been able to make up my mind on this topic. It’s not that it doesn’t interest me, but it just hasn’t been necessary for me to learn much about it. Not being able to vote in America and it being to much of a hassle to vote in Norway (not that stem cell research has been on the agenda in Norway as far as I know anyways) I have just let the topic rest. This spring however I got to learn about the option there is out there to adopt frozen embryos that in vitro parents have offered for adoption and while that sounded like the perfect solution, Fox offered a more nuanced view of it and I find that I have to support him.

No matter what you think of stem cell research, or what you thought of Fox as an actor I believe you would like this book.