Title: The Revelation of a Star's Endless Shine - A Young Woman's Autobiography of a 20-Year Tale of Trials & Tribulations

Author: Shirley Cheng

Publisher: Self Published by Author

ISBN: 1-4116-1860-2

Category: Autobiography

No. of Pages: 700 (including 50 photographs)

The book with the rather long title is the story of Shirley Cheng, an American girl (of Chinese descent), who was diagnosed with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis when just 11 months old. Cared for by a loving,courageous and spiritually strong mother, Shirley overcomes all her physical challenges including being confined to a wheelchair, loss of vision and constant pain to realise her intellectual and artistic potentials to a great extent.

The book is written in third person and reads more like a social novel than an autobiography. The author chose this particual format to probably maintain a sense of objectivity and seems to have succeeded to some extent. The book is written in a lucid, vivid and flowing style and is easy to read. It may take the reader a few days to read through because of the number of pages. But it is certainly not boring and the author holds the reader's attention all through. The portrayal of the various people who played a crucial role in Shirley's life has been well done and the reader gets a fairly clear idea of the people involved and the events. As is to be expected, Shirley and her mother encounter a number of problems from various people who are not able to understand the special problems of Shirley and at the same time are helped by some really kind souls.

The narration is moving at many places and at the same is also inspiring because of the perseverance of Juliet, Shirley's mother and Shirley herself. Their problems with the US Medical, Social and School systems evoke reader's sympathy. However, the same system helps Shirley in several ways including her getting a laptop computer with special software which finally allows to read what she is typing. The reviewer could empathise with several aspects of Shirley's suffering. All in all, a good, inspiring read.

Please visit Shirley Cheng at www.shirleycheng.com and

this reviewer at www.freewebs.com/swamyreviews