"A Different Journey" takes us from the birth of the author's daughter, an exceptional child with Down Syndrome, to her child's adulthood, and all of the significant events occurring to mother and daughter in between. Ms. Brusic's life combines elements of quiet heroism as she fights to raise her daughter as a single mother and lives out her own life as a Telenovela along the way. This is definitely "a woman's book", and that is its intended audience.

The good things in this book include the consistently loving relationship between mother and child, through good times and bad, and the evolution of the central character from completely dependent wife to strong and capable single mother. Ms. Brusic writes with passion and honesty about herself and her family, and draws the reader into her struggles to survive and attain a better life. Her origins in Bolivia and her assimilation into the U.S. life style add depth and interest to her journey.

The bad things in the book are the unresolved anger that permeates the story, hopefully serving as a form of catharsis for the author but sometimes overwhelming for the reader, and the sheer length of the book, which was too long for this reader to sustain his empathy with the characters.

Overall, for a selected audience (mostly women) this will be a book they really enjoy and relate to. I recommend it on that basis.