The Lucky Ride / Yasushi Kitagawa

RATINGS

Overall: 3/ 5 stars

Text Level: Easy

Entertainment: High

Self-Help: Medium

Page Count: 264

Is this book right for me and my inmate?

If you might be feeling like life is unfair and you have no luck read this book and it might change your perspective.

Buy on: Amazon

Review By: Blackbird (Inmate)

Luck is all around us if you have your eyes open for it.

How lucky do you feel? Being in prison, I often don’t feel too lucky, but is there more to it? Reading this story you get to examine life’s luck in a new way.

In this short story, we meet a character that feels down on his luck. He is in a job going nowhere and doesn’t really have much meaning in life. Things all start to change once he takes a ride in a mysterious taxi that always seems to show up at the right time. The more he rides, the more he learns about his lucky with new opportunities always popping up.

Reading this book I saw how luck is often what we make of it. Life is full of a series of opportunities presenting themselves to us> The goal is to be able to recognize them when they are there, and have the courage to take a short at them. I think of myself in this way of all the times doubt or fear stopped me from walking through a door in life. Where would I be if I ad that optimistic view of opportunities early in life?

This story doesn’t leave the reader feeling full of regrets, but hopeful of what might come next if we tak ea chance and work. Luck is something we can build up in life as we go along if we stay positive and dedicated to trying. It not always pay off right away but it an lead to a ripple effect that spreads out to all of those around us we love. Thinking of life this way makes me see the value of everyday as I go forward. My luck is buildig for everyone I love, so I have to keepi living with optimism for us all.

In the end this was a nice, easy read to see past setbacks and learn a level of self-empathy when life doesn’t always go to plan. Being incarcerated I think a lot of us can relate to that.

Book Quotes

"Everyone in society draws energy by witnessing someone’s efforts and uses it to motivate themselves.”