Memoir Feature: Grit & Grace by Deborah Rudell #bookreview #memoir #nonfiction #giveaway #rabtbooktours @RABTBookTours

 

 

The Transformation of a Ship & a Soul

Memoir

Date Published: February 27th, 2025

Publisher: Acorn Publishing

 

 

Deborah Rudell’s world unravels when the leaders of her spiritual commune are exposed, arrested, and imprisoned for bioterrorism and attempted murder. Crushed and adrift, she moves her family off the commune to create a sense of normalcy. But when her husband seeks an opportunity to dismantle and rebuild a derelict fifty-foot schooner, Deborah uproots their children once again and joins him in Kauai. For the next five years, she dedicates her life to restoring a boat.

Pouring herself into the work at hand can only distract her so much as disillusionment about the cult’s lies and manipulation slowly rises to the surface. While she grapples with emotional turmoil and contemplates a new life path, Deborah sets out to accomplish something she never thought possible: sailing across the Pacific to the Olympic Peninsula. Will the dangers that come with navigating the ocean be too much to bear, or will she find resolution and fortitude in the turbulent adventure?

Grit & Grace: The Transformation of a Ship & a Soul is one woman’s account of conquering overwhelming challenges with tenacity and ingenuity and ultimately discovering her inner strength.

Review

Deborah Rudell gives meaning to the fact that women can be both. You can be vulnerable yet fierce and she shows that through her words and her experiences she shared with us.

Sometimes we have more inside of us than we ever knew and it takes going through things to realize we can come out the other side. 

Words of wisdom, a vulnerability in showing the lows, and perseverance and grit shown throughout really have this be one of the most well balanced memoirs I have read. 

About the Author

A college professor in San Diego, California, Deborah Rudell participates in her city’s vibrant writing community. She is a graduate of Hay House Writer’s Workshop and the Certificate in Memoir Writing program at San Diego Writers, Ink. Her work has been published in the International Memoir Writers Association’s anthology, Shaking the Tree: I Didn't See That One Coming.

Deborah lives with her black cat in a tiny house built in 1906 by a retired sea captain, who carved a sailing ship into the front door. This is her first book.

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