The Company of Others: Stories of Belonging

Basically, this is a compilation of the stories of five different disabled people in Canada and how being involved in networking groups has helped their lives. It's very short, with small snapshots of daily life interspersed (literal and figurative) with background information about the five people upon whom the book focuses, as well as some information about their families and support groups. At first I was worried that this simply would be an attempt to raise money for the organization that funded the book and assisted some of the people featured (PLAN), but the further I read the more I realized that not all of the five people were being helped by this particular organization and, even if they were, so what? Clearly lives of the disabled are enhanced when they live as "normally" as possible and interact with non-disabled people, and of course this is the case for people beyond the five mentioned in this book. Also, the best part, for me, was reading about how for the people who are supposed to be "helping" the featured disabled ones mentioned the reverse is the case: interacting with the disabled made their lives better. I couldn't help but get just a little emotional while reading this; I feel encouraged when I read about people who selflessly help others simply for the sake of doing do.