Headstrong

Surviving a traumatic brain injury

Non-Fiction - Memoir
256 Pages
Reviewed on 08/24/2020
Buy on Amazon

This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Free Book Program, which is open to all readers and is completely free. The author will provide you with a free copy of their book in exchange for an honest review. You and the author will discuss what sites you will post your review to and what kind of copy of the book you would like to receive (eBook, PDF, Word, paperback, etc.). To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email.

This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Book Review Exchange Program, which is open to all authors and is completely free. Simply put, you agree to provide an honest review an author's book in exchange for the author doing the same for you. What sites your reviews are posted on (B&N, Amazon, etc.) and whether you send digital (eBook, PDF, Word, etc.) or hard copies of your books to each other for review is up to you. To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email, and be sure to describe your book or include a link to your Readers' Favorite review page or Amazon page.

This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Book Donation Program, which was created to help nonprofit and charitable organizations (schools, libraries, convalescent homes, soldier donation programs, etc.) by providing them with free books and to help authors garner more exposure for their work. This author is willing to donate free copies of their book in exchange for reviews (if circumstances allow) and the knowledge that their book is being read and enjoyed. To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email. Be sure to tell the author who you are, what organization you are with, how many books you need, how they will be used, and the number of reviews, if any, you would be able to provide.

    Book Review

Reviewed by Jamie Michele for Readers' Favorite

Headstrong by JoAnne Silver Jones is a memoir of the author's recovery following a random assault that resulted in a traumatic brain injury. On her way to stay with her daughter to witness the inauguration of the United States' first black president, Jones takes a shortcut down a Washington DC alley and is instantly changed forever. Through shards of memory distorted like a refraction of light, Jones provides glimpses of what she thinks she remembers and what has been filled in by those around her, and those she loves most. Through her own strength and fortitude and the support of her wife and daughter, Jones begins the journey towards a slow and difficult recovery of both the body and the soul.

Headstrong is the first book I've ever read about an individual with traumatic brain injury and I am so grateful to JoAnne Silver Jones for sharing her story. The honesty is clear and raw as she recounts piecing her life back together after the attack. The writing is sublime and a testament to her power as a woman, a survivor, and intellectual, and a mother to her daughter, but also to her own rebirth. The rehabilitation is extraordinary with a great deal emotionally that, without her stating outright, might go wholly unnoticed. Invisible. Some moments are genuinely heartbreaking, such as when she says, “It wasn’t easy to be with me, just as it wasn’t easy to be me.” Others offer a little more levity and a lot of love, primarily in the form of furbabies. This is a really, really special memoir and I'd give it a whole bucket of stars if I could.