(Reviewed by Christopher J. Lynch)
#CommissionsEarned
It’s not often that you read a book that sounds like you might have written it yourself, especially a memoir. But that’s exactly how I felt reading John K. McLaughlin’s brutally honest and heartfelt, Lifeline To A Soul. In it, McLaughlin recalls his experiences teaching entrepreneurship to inmates at a minimum-security prison. The reason that it resonates so well with me is that I once taught at a prison myself.
While John’s area of instruction differed from mine (he taught business skills while I taught writing), and the setting was somewhat different (he taught at a minimum-security prison while I taught at a level 4 maximum-security facility) the differences in our experiences seemed to end there. He experienced the same frustrations as I sometimes did, as well as the same feelings of satisfaction when you were able to reach that one person to hopefully make a difference.
Lifeline to a Soul is exactly what Mr. McLaughlin became to the inmates, but not just for a single soul, but for dozens of them. If you have never stepped foot inside a prison – and want to understand what it’s really like (unlike watching Orange is the New Black) then you need to read this book and to go along for a ride into what is arguably one of the most foreign environments you can ever imagine. Hats off to John K. McLaughlin for not only making a difference in people’s lives, but for allowing us to come along with him in his journey.
