Customer Reviews

No Mountain High Enough: Raising Lance, Raising Me

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
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Nothing was going to keep Linda Armstrong Kelly and her son from getting their piece of the American Dream.

Knowing Lance's story is helpful, but not essential to enjoying Linda's telling of a life of poverty, less than wise choices and being mother to a live wire named Lance. (Who was supposed to be named Erica, should he have been a girl.)

With little more than a heart full of love for her child and a huge amount of determination, Linda carved out a life for the two of them . . . truly against all odds. Armed only with a GED and a real estate license, she rose from a temporary clerk to the rank of project manager for a major telecommunications company. She raised Lance to believe in himself and it seems she didn't try to squelch his infatuation with danger . . . and speed. Her determination to succeed was quickly transferred to Lance, who's natural athletic abilities were just what the doctor (and his mother) ordered/needed to keep his boundless energy channeled in a positive manner.

My favorite part of the story revolved around Lance's early competitions, when Linda was his only "pit crew" and it was, indeed, the two of them against the world.

While being open and honest about her own unfortunate choices, Linda shows herself to be fallible, too. However, instead of having a pity party, she seems to learn from her every mistake and to take each personal relationship failure and make something positive out of it. It's good to know she's found the love of her life and is happy at last.

Never flinching from responsibility. Instilling a good work ethic. Teaching the value of a dollar. Believing in the good in her child, despite some teen-age boy pranks to the contrary.

Maybe Linda Armstrong Kelly should start her own foundation and teach parents how to raise their kids to be STRONG, responsible, caring and giving adults.

Kudos to her . . . and that kid she raised to ride like the wind!

Enjoy!

I'm a Lance fan. So, when I read this book, it was only out of curiosity for Lance's career. But I found myself reading about an everyday victory, and one not rewarded with multi-million dollar advertising contracts or front-page stories.

Linda could have given away the baby. Linda could have received welfare and lived off the government. She didn't have to work hard to improve her career. She could have stayed in the projects or in bad marriages. Instead, her own determination lifted her and her child's life.

Sometimes I feel down because I'm struggling to save enough to buy a house, and I'm earning far more than she did and I don't have a child to raise. This is a wonderful, motivating book by a woman who never believed it when people told her it couldn't be done.

This is a story about Lance Armstrong's mother, but it is more a book about parenting and choices that people make. Linda Armstrong Kelly has made some interesting choices in her life, some good and some bad, but she seems to have gotten through them with a great attitude, and that is what I learned from this book. Oviously we wouldn't be reading this book, if she wasn't the mother of the 6 times Tour de France winner, but I found her insight into many topics interesting. She wrote honestly about not getting along with her mother and about other topics. She wrote about her one husband that beat her, another husband that was a womanizer and another that was a drinker. I liked that she changed the names of her past husbands in the story to protect them and her. She wrote about her worries when Lance would get hurt and especially when he was getting treated with Cancer which was very touching. I would suggest this book to Mothers who want to read an inspiring story. I enjoyed reading this book and recommend it highly.

I am glad Lance's Mom decided to write her story. After I read It's Not About the Bike, I was inspired and eager to learn how a seemingly super-human came to be. Now I know: his Mom exudes energy, enthusiasm, and optimism without bounds: who could lose with such incredible and selfless support screaming in your ear on each lap of the race.

This is a book that focuses primarily on Linda Armstrong Kelly. Lance plays a pivotal but supporting role in the story. She is honest and forthright about the men in her life; other women have just shriveled and become bitter. She is unabashedly supportive of her son, in spite of his adolescent fixation with speeding and dangerous shenanagans with his pals. And... she raised a smart son who loves and respects his mother, especially shielding her from some of the pranks that would drive many parents to pack their son off to some military academy. The fireballs come to mind as I write this.

She is a mom that celebrates Mother's Day, everyday. Now, if she can figure out a way to bottle and sell her optimism and energy! Enjoy the read.

Funny, sad, interesting, well-written, inspirational. I have great respect and admiration for Linda Armstrong Kelly. She is a remarkable woman with an incredible ability to adapt to any situation life throws her way. What a great woman!

This is a rather insightful book of how a girl from an alcoholic household found herself to be pregnant at age sixteen yet was determined to have and raise that child no matter what it took! Considering her toughness and resiliance, it's very easy to see where Lance got a great deal of his character and determination from. Linda simply never gave up on him or herself even through two disasterous marriages and seemingly insurmountable odds against providing and being there for him in a rather competative and expensive sport! Also, it was good to see how her alcoholic father actually sobered up to become the grandfather Lance needed!
Only problems I have are how she coyly gave Lance's bio dad the pseudonym of Eddie Haskell and Lance's paternal grandmother became Miss Mamie. If she didn't want to ID these folks she should have at least explained why and then put the pseudonyms in quotes. To be fair, she did express regret separating the infant Lance from his loving paternal grandmother when she believed she could no longer risk having his mercurial and unsupportive bio dad even peripherally in their lives and perhaps this book may give Lance's paternal grandmother a chance to unite with him and his children.
Sheepishly, Linda didn't address Lance's divorce from his children's mother at all. She simply talked about what a great father she believes Lance is- the logistics of support and visitation along with whatever feelings she's had for her ex-daughter-in-law were totally untouched upon. Perhaps, she in doing so, she's seeking to avoid a repeat of what happened with Lance's paternal grandmother to be the case with her!
In summation, other than those two 'in-law' issues, this book doesn't pull any punches on her life. Best of all, the reader gets to share the initial success of Lance's career along with, after the scary cancer diagnosis and treatments, the heartfelt thanks that Linda must have felt when Lance overcame it to become a father and a champ in many new ways!

Linda Armstrong started out with enough strikes to doom most to a mediocre life - daughter of divorced parents and a drunkard father (stopped drinking when Lance was born), married at 16, mother at 17, expelled from high school for being pregnant, and abused by husband whom she eventually left. Instead, she raised (inspired, cheered, protected, funded, and assisted his early development and becoming a champion, and then added her inner strength to Lance's during a devastating cancer encounter) a world renowned bicycling champion and major force in cancer research and support.

At the same time Linda went on to complete her GED and worked her way up to a high-level position within a large communications firm. It was not all success for Linda, however - she also had to go through two additional failed marriages (a philanderer, and a drunkard), before finally finding her "true love."

After reading the book it is clear that both Lance Armstrong AND his mother, Linda, are very exceptional and inspirational individuals. I wish I had read this book myself before becoming a parent - my approach and perspectives would hopefully have greatly improved.

A very well written book bringing the reader the life of an adoring Mother and her son. Neither would give up on their individual dreams in their respective pursuits of happiness in their lives. Enjoyable, insightful reading start to finish. Many congrats to both, and a special congratualtion to Lance for winning his seventh Tour deFrance.

Lance's history is well and truly documented, but I couldn't help but like his mother and her honesty. No excuses for less-than-ideal boyfriends or husbands - no apologies for making bad choices. Just a woman who did the best that she could to raise a child - for all intents and purposes - alone.

Another person might have been much more likely to be a statistic or on the Jerry Springer show - but Linda Kelly did what we all wish we would do in similar circumstances. Fight like hell and keep on fighting to make it against the odds.

Not surprising that Lance has done the same thing - wish a lot more people had mothers like her to show them the way!

Enjoy it - you'll be rooting for her and Lance the whole way...

Linda, a "natural blonde" with a bombshell attack on life, has put together this behind-the-scenes look at life with Lance Armstrong, a miracle kid who became one of America's favorite heroes.

Linda was a single mom who had Lance when she was still in her teens. Her reckless and desperate pursuit of happiness in marriage is part of her story. Women will empathize with her attempts to make relationships work out for the sake of the child she adored. Loneliness and insecurity make the smartest of us blind to the consequences as we plunge ahead into yet another bad partnership. Throughout, the kid kept her sane and was her anchor. Without him she undoubtedly would have made worse choices.

Once Lance began his youthful pursuit of victory in triathlon events, Linda became a fan who cheered him and a supporter who wrote the checks, no matter how pinched her finances. He started getting sponsorship and that helped. Then he was offered a full college scholarship for his swimming ability. He refused, saying he believed he could make it in the big-time world of sporting events. She went along, with her usual encouragement: stay focused, and I'll be there.

Linda found her personal self-esteem in the world of business. Beginning at the most humble level, shredding paper on weekends to make extra money in her first secretarial job, she moved up quickly to a series of administrative positions in which her vibrant personality came to the fore. She needed money to keep Lance on his bike, but in the meantime she was racing to her own victories as a successful corporate somebody.

Her father was a major influence. Having given up drinking as soon as he had a grandson, he protected Linda and Lance and made their way as smooth as he knew how. It was hard for Linda, however, not to repeat the patterns she'd observed as a little girl. Though she didn't get trapped in physically abusive relationships, she was a doormat --- first for a philanderer and then for another alcoholic. It wasn't until she was older and Lance was independent that she finally found a man who could care for her without his own unwholesome agenda playing out.

So that's where life finds Linda now. Lance, as the world knows, survived Stage 4 (the worst) cancer, including brain lesions. He won the Tour de France a whopping six times and has fathered a son. His mother says, "I still love to stand there and watch him fly."

This is a believable story of the power behind the throne of victory, because Lance Armstrong undoubtedly is made of tough stuff, and it had to have come from somewhere. Linda's story will inspire moms and perhaps help some other lonely mother to let some other kid go the extra mile.

--- Reviewed by Barbara Bamberger Scott