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A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Future - Twists and Turns and Lessons Learned
by Michael J. Fox
Hyperion
ISBN 978-1-4013-2386-8
Published April 2010 - Hardcover - 100 pages - $17.99

"You don't need a book to tell you what you need," says Michael J. Fox.  The purpose of his book is "not to offer advice" but to pass along a few life experiences and lessons.  Although his book is personal (he left high school in the eleventh grade and went on to get his GED some fifteen years later), "he inspires and motivates graduates to recognize opportunities, maximize their abilities, and roll with the punches".  Not everyone goes to college or earns a degree or certificate, and many of us go to the School of Hard Knocks where we learn invaluable lessons on how to recover from a fall, and more importantly, how to survive.  Michael J. Fox's experiences, some of which he relates in his typically humorous way, are looked at from his teenage years and then realized years later once his "prefrontal cortex and amygdala assumed their proper weights in the balance of influence".  His tongue-in-cheek comparison of his four-year target of finding suitable work in California (having being driven down to LA from Vancouver by his dad) to that of his friends' four-year college time, is spot-on.  The similarities are incredible.  He says, "I might have skipped class, but I didn't miss any lessons".  He equates the following courses with his own comparable life experiences (or lessons): Economics; Comparative Literature; Physics; Political Science, and Geography.  Perhaps inspired to write his book because Fox's son Sam is in college (can you believe that?!), this book will no doubt be one of many souvenirs to his children and one which you can give to your college graduate or to anyone leaving school and venturing out into the world.  A wonderful legacy.  Fox also relates stories and lessons from some of his television and film roles and how they impacted his life.
See my reviews of Lucky Man and Always Looking Up.
Visit Fox's website.
Conclusion - Another very worthwhile read from a wonderfully inspirational person.