The Road to Grace

The Road to Grace by Richard Paul Evans
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

An excellent read. I do not remember why I decided to buy this book. More than likely I heard about it in another book I was reading. I started reading it without reading the outside cover, which I always do. So for the first 90 pages or so I thought it was a true story, but it turns out to be a novel. The book is actually a series. It is so interesting. The author makes me want to go on a walk like the character in the book. The character (Alan Christoffersen) starts out in Seattle, WA, 2 days after his wife (McKale) dies and starts walking to Key West, FL. He meets several different and interesting people along the way. He also describes many historical, fun and tourist attractions. The places he describes had me goggling them to find out more information. He describes them very well in the book. Each chapter starts with a quote (these represent thoughts Alan is writing in his journal), which I have listed below. Some of these quotes you will not understand until you read the book. This is the 3rd book in the series and I will be reading all of the other ones. Here are the quotes for each chapter:

I had a dream last night that McKale came to me. "Where are you?" she asked. "South Dakota," I replied. She stared at me without speaking and I realized that she didn't mean my location. "I don't know," I said. "Keep walking," she said. "Just keep walking."

One can never know what a new road will bring.

There are people such as Benedict Arnold or Adolf Hitler, whose names become synonymous with evil and more adjective than proper noun. For me, "Pamela" is such a name.

I don't know if poltergeists or ghosts exist, nor do I care. There's too much I don't understand about the world I inhabit for me to worry about a world I haven't been to yet.

To say that one doesn't know when to quit is either an insult or a compliment, depending on the outcome.

Last night I dreamt I was kissing McKale. As I pressed my lips against hers I was filled with the most exquisite joy. Then my joy turned to horror when I realized that I wasn't kissing her, but giving her mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

My stalker has forced my hand.

Once you have opened the book to another’s life, the cover never looks the same.

My father used to say, “Pity is just a poor man’s empathy.”

As we walk our individual life journeys, we pick up resentments and hurts, which attach themselves to our souls like burrs clinging to a hiker’s socks. These stowaways may seem insignificant at first, but, over time, if we do not occasionally stop and shake them free, the accumulation becomes a burden to our souls.

My hair is getting long. I’ve got to find a barber before someone mistakes me for a rock star.

Heroes and angels usually arrive in disguise.

Leszek [my favorite part of this book] has taken me into his home to care for me. Would I have done the same for him? I’m ashamed to answer.

Whether cautionary or exemplary, there has not yet been a life lived that we cannot learn from. It is up to us to decide which ours will be.

To forgive is to unlock the cage of another’s folly to set ourselves free.

I once heard a preacher say, “The reason we sometimes connect so quickly with a complete stranger is because the friendship is not of this life, but is the resumption of a friendship from another.” I do not know if this is true, but sometimes it feels true.

I have discovered the ladies of the Red Hat Society. Or, more accurately, they have discovered me.

One cannot judge someone by the city they’re from, any more than one can judge a book by which bookstore sold it. Yet, still we do.

The trapped are less concerned with rules than escape.

She is a rose, blooming amidst cornfields.

You can always trust a man wearing a John Deere cap.

The man who robs a corner convenience store is a thief. The man who robs hundreds is a legend. And the man who robs millions is a politician.

History bears witness that our lives are far more influenced by imagination than circumstance.

Today I met a self-described tramp with a most unfortunate view of God.

Life is not to be found in a cemetery.

What’s wrong with me? Something’s broken.

Déjà vu.

To learn grace is to discover God.

I recommend this book to everyone!


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