"This is what I've learned. We can spend our days bemoaning our losses, or we can grow from them. Ultimately the choice is ours. We can be victims of circumstances or masters of our own fate, but make no mistake, we cannot be both."

SPOILERS. DO NOT READ THIS IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW WHAT THE BOOK IS ABOUT AT ALL.

Read it in five hours, so a pretty smooth read. And captivating enough that you don't want to put it down. The first half the book is pretty good... Alan talks about his wife, who he met as a child because she was his neighbor, and how they pretty much grew up together going through the twists of childhood, puberty, and their teenage years before realizing they wanted to be with each other. So they eventually get married and live their lives frivolously, spending money like there's no worries about tomorrow. Then when one day his wife has an accident and eventually passes away. And now Alan is left without his wife and best friend. So he continues to lose everything, his job, his house, everything in that same time period, and decides to just "walk" away. So begins his Walk towards healing from the loss and finding answers to questions that he doesn't even know exist yet.

It's a good story. I found the second half, when his walk begins, to become a little redundant as it is always mentioning what Alan chooses to eat on his journey. Although I understand it, because if I was just walking across across the country too, the food and conditions of where I stay would be the highlights of my time. Amongst the occasional person I'd meet, what I'd learn, and what I'd discover from all my time to think.

This book is supposedly the first of a series. Their is currently a #2 out and a #3 coming out in May 2012, which are to continue to cover his Walk across the United States (as he only made it halfway across the state in this one), and who he meets, and so on. Which I am certainly interested in reading too.

Read in one day. Extremely powerful book. Can't wait to continue in the series.

Despite taking a more overtly religious tone than I was expecting, this has been a really interesting book. I'm going to read the others before writing a longer review. This one, at least, was a really quick book to read.

This is the first time I have read a book by Richard Paul Evans. He was the featured guest at a work meeting last week and he gave us each a copy of this book. I usually avoid this genre but he was a powerful public speaker and, hey, it was free so I figured might as well give it a try.

I can't say I was disappointed because The Walk was exactly what my preconceived notions expect from this sort of book. The story is weak. Especially so in comparison to the constant barrage of "uplifting" nuggets that pepper each chapter.The author never drew me into the story and I was constantly aware of the overriding moral purpose of the book.

Not to say that there is anything wrong with a book that has a moral. However, when the book is fiction the story has to be engaging enough to make the reader forget they are being taught something. To be honest, after hearing Evans speak, it seems he might be better at writing a non-fiction book. If you want to tell the reader something, just say it. Don't hide it behind a silly contrived storyline.

This wasn't my favorite book by Richard Paul Evans, but it also wasn't my least favorite by him either. It is the first in a series (I don't know how many there will be). I will definitely continuing reading the others when they come out to see what happens to the main character.