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A Different Life: Growing Up Learning Disabled and Other Adventures Paperback – March 2, 2010

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Quinn Bradlee (Author)
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Quinn Bradlee (Author), Jeff Himmelman (Contributor)
4.3 out of 5 stars 23 customer reviews
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Product Details

  • Paperback: 256 pages
  • Publisher: PublicAffairs; Reprint edition (March 2, 2010)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1586488074
  • ISBN-13: 978-1586488079
  • Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.6 x 8.2 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,033,268 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 starsOpening a window
By Showme on April 7, 2010
Format: Hardcover
Fast read; I scooped it up in an evening. Clear writing, to the point, funny, thoughtful and thought-provoking. I liked how the authors allowed important players in Mr. Bradlee's life to speak in their own voices in full passages, such as Mr. Bradlee's doctor.

Mr. Bradlee was pretty forthright about how his parents' resources and connections did garner him benefits that others might not enjoy. He was also candid about how sometimes it really sucked to have learning disabilities.

Some standout excerpts:

On his love of surfing: "I'm not a pro surfer or anything close to it, but that's not the point. The best surfer is the one that's having the most fun."

"Poetry by sixteen-year-old kids sucks by definition."

On what it's like to feel isolated: "Sometimes I'll see a leaf being driven over by cars, and it'll slowly get to the other side of the road. That's how I feel from time to time."

This is a good contribution to the collection of books by individuals whose brains work differently than most.
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3.0 out of 5 starsA life of differences
By lmj on July 8, 2009
Format: Hardcover
Quinn Bradlee is the son of former "Washington Post" editor Ben Bradlee and his wife, reporter Sally Quinn. Quinn was born with a heart defect and had a number of health issues throughout his life. When he was 14, he was finally diagnosed with VCFS (velo-cardio-facial syndrome) a genetic abnormality which is the second most often occurring disability (Down's Syndrome is number one.) One consequence of the syndrome is having a learning disability. I read this book since I am married to a man with a severe learning disability (dyslexia), the mother of a son with a mild learning disability (dysgraphia) and taught students with learning disabilities in public schools for a number of years. I wished to compare Quinn's experiences with my observations. Quinn's prose seems brash, yet I know this partially relative to having a learning disability and might partially be due to his recognition of his parents' celebrity. At times I cringed, recognizing "traps" Quinn found himself in during his schooling. Thankfully, Quinn and his parents found a school and teachers who concentrated on Quinn's strengths. If only we could do this for all students - special needs or not.
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5.0 out of 5 starsWhat is normal?
By agoldstein on September 1, 2011
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
What is normal? Are any of us really normal? Very interesting to read from the perspective of a young man who grew up labeled learning disabled. I don't know if disabled is the proper word. Learning was difficult for him, but he is quite successful. Quinn shared his hopes, his fears, his disappointments and his achievements. It was no doubt difficult to put that all out there for the world to see.
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5.0 out of 5 starsA walk in his shoes.
By Joan A. Cooke on April 20, 2009
Format: Hardcover
This book not only educates you on his syndrome, but is a real walk in his shoes. We THINK we can understand how it feels to someone special. Quinn Bradlee lets us become him. I am thrilled to have that experience. I better understand how to interact with all types of people. Should be required reading for all high school kids. Some language and personal experiences by Quinn make it questionable for kids under high school age. Parents,however, should read parts of this book to those younger kids. This is a book about understanding and tolerance.
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4.0 out of 5 starsI really enjoyed this book
By Amazon Customer on September 10, 2014
Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase
I really enjoyed this book. I am a Mom of a daughter that has DiGeorge Syndrome, one of the other names for what Quinn Bradlee also has. She suffers from ADD and now at 19 is going through some anxiety and depression. A year away at college did not turn out well. Quinn's book gave me some perspective. Mallory was 8 before she was diagnosed with DiGeorge and 13 before the diagnosis of ADD. So it is a journey.
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5.0 out of 5 starsHeartfelt and informative--and oh how the title fits!
By Amazon Customer on April 21, 2009
Format: Hardcover
What if your father is Ben Bradlee, your mother's Sally Quinn, and you're stuck with a learning disorder that disrupts even prosaic activities?

Never mind growing up to help expose another Watergate or skewer pretentious socialites. Suppose you have trouble understanding most books or face memory problems.

Just what to do, especially in a brutal, hierarchical place like Washington, D.C.? In politics and media, the generals and their families are expected to put on a good show for the troops. How to respond? Should your family hide you from the public or gloss over your shortcomings?

Luckily the parents of Quinn Bradlee, a plucky 26-year-old born with Velo-Cardio-Facial Syndrome, let him and a skillful collaborator tell the whole story or at far more than we might have anticipated. Ben Bradlee and wife had apparently envisioned their son writing a buttoned-down book without earthy language--perhaps a respectful look at the boy's ancestors, since Quinn is a genealogy buff. But Quinn and his not-so-hidden ghost wisely avoided this PRish tack.

The two paid due tribute to Bradlee and Quinn forebears, but kept in the S word. In fact, they even wrote a scene set on a Caribbean island, Saint Martin, where Quinn loses his virginity to a hooker with skin "as black as the night sky and black curly hair that came down to her shoulder." Quinn's hooker story would be mere titillation by itself; but A Different Life is full of, say, his reflections on women and life in general--naïve in places, but just the same, genuinely his. He does not just share his triumphs at a boarding school for people with disabilities; he also tells of the vicious hazing there. Honesty is the salient trait of this work.Read more ›
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsPoignant.

Fascinating story. Well told.

Published 8 months ago by Robert J.
5.0 out of 5 starsInsight to A Great Family LD / Multi Health Problems Story

I was compelled to read this after seeing a C-SPAN replay of the memorial service for Ben Bradlee at which Quinn spoke, along w luminaries of great prominence. Read more

Published 15 months ago by The Reader
1.0 out of 5 starsNot helpful, inspiring or even a good read

I had to read this book for an education class. Throughout the entire book the author is either telling you how rich his family is, or how much you should pitty him. Read more

Published on January 9, 2014 by Mike Carr
4.0 out of 5 starsI saw my son on every page!

I stumbled upon reference to this book in the Sunday NY Times a while back. Got online to find it and ordered pronto! Read more

Published on August 4, 2011 by Amelia Amherst
4.0 out of 5 starsA Different Life

A different perspective on life when seen through the eyes of someone with learning disabilities. Very good!

Published on December 1, 2009 by CM Vanlieshout
4.0 out of 5 starsGood Read

This was a fascinating book that gave me insight into the thinking process of the learning disabled.

Published on August 16, 2009 by Mamaw
3.0 out of 5 starsCandor

Memoirs from authors in their twenties attract readers less from the disclosure of wisdom acquired over decades than from telling a story about something extraordinary and worth... Read more

Published on July 9, 2009 by Stephen T. Hopkins
5.0 out of 5 starsQuinn is One Amazing Human Being

[[ASIN:1586481894 A Different Life: Growing Up Learning Disabled and Other Adventures] What a truly amazing man Quinn Bradlee is!! Read more

Published on June 28, 2009 by Kwiltergirl
5.0 out of 5 starsnot what you think

I saw Sally Quinn and her son on C-span discusing teh book and Quinn's
learning problems. He speaks so well I would never know he had LD. Read more

Published on June 25, 2009 by Kathleen Schultz

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