This is a Leonberger blog but sometimes I post about books that I want to promote. This post is a review and a promotion of a very good and important book called “The Winding Road: A Journey of Survival” Paperback – July 30, 2022 by Miriam Hurdle.

The paperback version of the Winding Road, which is what I bought, is 148 pages, ISBN 979-8842330812, item weight 9.9 ounces, dimensions 6 x 0.34 x 9 inches. You can buy The Winding Road from Amazon, as a paperback, hardback or e-Book. The paperback version is currently $6.99 on Amazon, and the hardback is $25.28. The Kindle version is $1.99 or free if you are part of Kindle Unlimited.
About the Author

Miriam Hurdle is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI). She published four children’s books at twenty-six years old. Her poetry collection received the Solo “Medalist Winner” for the New Apple Summer eBook Award and achieved bestseller status on Amazon. She has a Doctorate of Education from the University of La Verne in California.
Click her to visit is her website
Click her to visit is her Goodreads page
Click her to visit her Twitter account
These are her published books on Amazon
Review of The Winding Road
This book is the gripping story of Miriam Hurdle’s fight to survive an aggressive cancer. She is an accomplished author, and therefore she was able to tell her traumatic story with intelligence, clarity and honesty. The organization of the book, the storytelling, book design, editing, it is all very professional at the same as the story is personal and deeply touching.
During a hysterectomy in the summer of 2008 a mass was discovered, and it turned out to be melanoma. Melanoma is an aggressive skin cancer that usually does not appear in internal organs, at least not initially. This made the situation both unusual and quite dangerous. In 2007, melanoma in the female organ had less than 300 cases reported worldwide.
Survival was not the only thing that Miriam had to fight for. There were also insurance issues, her work situation, finances, etc., that weighed heavily on her mind and the minds of her family. Add to that the brutal but necessary treatment. She fought courageously with a lot of resolve, and her family and her community gave her a lot of support. The book makes it clear how important this is in this kind of situation. The people around you can make a big difference making sure you don’t lose hope.
I can add that my mother was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, another aggressive cancer, and it was not discovered early. She died at the age of 56. Miriam’s story resonated with me because I recognized a lot of things from her story even though her and my mother’s cancer were not the same. For example, I’ve seen the brutal effects of chemotherapy. What Miriam went though is extremely difficult. I am originally from Sweden, which has national healthcare, so unlike Miriam we were spared from having to deal with insurance issues.
This book is about the power of resilience, courage, hope, community and faith in the face of a cruel disease, which unfortunately many of us will face during our lifetimes. Miriam is a great writer whose genuine and lucid writing could serve as a guide for all of us as we prepare to face unknown traumatic situations. I highly recommend this book to everyone. We should all learn something about the journey before we face it.


90 replies on “The Winding Road by Miriam Hurdle”
I’ve read this book too. It was quite an education for me. I had no idea how devastating cancer treatments are on the rest of a person’s body. I was uplifted by Miriam’s faith, too, and the support of her church family. Good review, Thomas!
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Yes chemotherapy is devastating, it seems worse than the disease but sometimes that’s what you have to do.
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Thank you so much for your support, Priscilla! I appreciated your great review of my book. To be with my daughter was one major motivation to fight for my life. We moved to our new house in Portland six weeks ago. It’s wonderful to see my daughter’s family regularly.
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Thanks for this recommendation. I have just ordered it from Amazon and look forward to reading it.
I am also so sorry to hear about your mother and her battle with cancer.
I so enjoy your blogs. Keep them coming!
Brenda
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Thank you so much Brenda.
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Thank you very much for reading Thomas’ review of my book. It’s my honor that you’ll be reading it. I look forward to finding out what you think.
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Last night I finished reading Miriam Hurdle’s book, The Winding Road. It was a well written, easy to read book about the long, tough journey Miriam went through to overcome cancer. What a courageous individual Miriam is to have gone through all the trials and tribulations she went through to beat the cancer she had along with the family and friends who stood by her. Not only did Miriam detail her medical experience with cancer but also the financial hurdles she had to overcome.
Thanks Miriam for sharing your experiences. I was so happy to read that not only did you win the battle against cancer but you were able to get your life back on track and to enjoy life!
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I certainly agree with you Brenda
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Wow, Brenda, you finished reading my book, The Winding Road! I’m honored and appreciate your support with all my heart. Thank you so much for sharing with me and Thomas what you thought. Would you copy your comment and paste it on an Amazon review for me? It would be helpful to spread the word! Thank you again, Brenda! ❤
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Once I figure out how to do that I certainly will.
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Thank you very much, Brenda. You can go to your Amazon account, find your digital order and click on my book you ordered. Under the title, you’d see stars and numbers. Click on the numbers and scroll down to see the reviews. You can click the link of “write a review” on the left. It would ask you to name your review, click the number of stars, enter your review, and then click submit.
I hope you’d have fun doing it. I look forward to seeing it. 😊
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Done and posted on Amazon!
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Thank you so much, Brenda! I appreciate all your support in reading my book and writing this wonderful review! What better way than this to spread the word!
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I agree with your review, Thomas. She spoke so clearly, so from the heart, I couldn’t stop reading.
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Thank you Jacqui
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Thank you very much for your support and review, Jacqui! 🙂
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This sounds like a very informative book. I am so sorry to hear about the loss of your mother.
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Thank you Deanne. Yes it is a very informative book.
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Thank you so much, Deanne!
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You’re welcome!
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Thanks for your review.
I will go for it.
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Thank you so much Vijay.
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Very nice you share book review for “The winding Road” by Mariam!
Very interested & advisable book written. I like.
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Thank you so much for your kind comment rajkkhoja
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Thomas did a wonderful review, Vijay. Thank you very much for your support.
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Sounds like such an inspirational read. And I did my undergrad studies at the University of La Verne. Great review.
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Thank you Jennifer. Yes it certainly was an inspirational read. About University of La Verne, that is interesting.
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Oh, wow, Jennifer! Good to meet you here! ULV is a wonderful university. I completed my doctoral studies in three years, including writing my dissertation during the third year of classes. The support from the professors and fellow schoolmates was wonderful.
Thank you for reading Thomas’ review!
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Pleasure to meet you too! I lived on campus during my time there and had a great experience. I agree that it’s a wonderful university. And you’re very welcome regarding reading the review.
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Thank you very much for your review and the post, Thomas. I invited my readers to come over to read it. I’m sad about your mom passed away at such a young age. Take care!
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Thank you so much for doing that Miriam and thank you for your condolences. As you know I loved your book.
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Thanks for reviewing Miriam’s heartfelt book.
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Thank you so much for coming over to read the review, Darlene! Thomas did a great job.
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Thank you Darlene
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Sounds like such an inspirational read. And I did my undergrad studies at the University of La Verne. Great review.
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Hi Max, thank you so much for coming over to read this heartfelt review. I truly appreciate that. I’m delighted to know you did your undergrad studies at ULV. I enjoyed the doctoral program and the low professor/student ratio. It felt like a family.
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Thank you Max
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[…] Here […]
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Great review, it’s a powerful read!
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Thank you so much for your support, Denise! I appreciated it very much for your review.
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Thank you. I agree Miriam’s book is a really powerful read.
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So nice to meet you Thomas and what a wonderful review of Miriam’s book! I’m so sorry you lost your mom at such a young age. The treatments can be horrific and the gift of your share will help other in life. I know she is extremely touched.
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Nice to meet you too Cindy and thank you so much for your kind words. Yes I hope Miriam’s book will help many.
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Thank you Thomas. You’re so welcome and I’m sure that your review will help.!! It’s in my TBR pile.. Luckily I don’t have a “deadline” to read it! ❣️
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I know you’d agree with me that Thomas did a wonderful review, Cindy! Thank you very much for coming over. Yes, I was so touched by his review that I looked for him for a while. I mentioned to you about the miracles. It wasn’t a coincidence that I found Thomas to thank him.
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It’s my honor that my book is in your TBR pile. You’re right, you don’t have a deadline. 🙂
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What a wonderful review, Thomas. I am so sorry about your mom.
My uncle (much older) also had multiple myeloma, and he eventually died from it, too.
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Thank you so much Merril. I am so sorry about your uncle. It could be genetic so I have taken a test which can detect early signs of multiple myeloma ten years ahead, when it is still very treatable. Just a note in case you are interested and have not hard of it.
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You’re very welcome, Thomas.
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Thank you very much for coming over to read the review, Merril! How sad that you lost your uncle from cancer and your mom from Covid! I’m so very sorry!
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You’re welcome, Miriam, and thank you for your kind words.
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You’re welcome, Merril. You’re a wonderful poet. I’ve known you for years through Colleen’s poetry challenge. My reading is fast behind because of selling our old house and buying the new home. I’ll check out your new book when I slow down a bit.
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That’s very kind, Miriam. Thank you! Good luck with your house buying and selling. I know that’s a huge job.
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Congratulations to Miriam on the wonderful review! Thomas, I’m sorry to hear that you lost your mother to cancer. I lost my younger brother and my mother to this awful disease. It was heartbreaking.
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Thank you for your kind words Liz. I am so sorry about your mother and brother.
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You’re welcome, Thomas. And thank you.
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Thank you very much for coming over to read the wonderful review, Liz. Cancer touched so many people. My brother-in-law died of liver cancer at age 51. My youngest sister finally got married again 10 years later.
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Miriam I am so sorry about your brother in law. So many people will be helped by your book.
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Thank you, Thomas! I published my book in the beginning of selling our old house and searching for a new home. Then came the complicated moving process, had everything in the storage for several months, and finally moved them to our new home.
I’ll give it a proper promotion soon.
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You’re welcome, Miriam. You are so right about how cancer affects so many lives.
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Do you know if it’s always like that without our awareness or it’s worse in the last few decades?
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That’s a very good question. I’d guess it’s some combination of both.
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You’re right, Liz. Also, people in the old days may not talk about cancer or other diseases too much.
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You make a good point, Miriam.
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Yeah, Liz. I’ve thought about that a lot when I saw so many people have cancer.
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Hi Thomas, it is lovely to see Miriam’s wonderful book featured here. I also read it and I also related strongly to it as my mother is a breast cancer survivor. She also had two different chemotherapies and Herceptin for 19 months. She has been in remission for 6 years now.
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Thank you Roberta. It is great to hear that your mother survived. Chemotherapy is brutal.
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💓
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Thank you so much for stopping by to read the review, Robbie! Thomas is a wonderful reviewer! He spent a lot of time writing insightful reviews. I’m thankful he came across my book and gave it a read and review. I’m thankful and happy for your mom surviving the dreadful disease!
I should have time to read your book next week!
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Thank you so much for your kind words Miriam
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You’re welcome, Thomas!
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HI Miriam, this is a lovely review of a most worthy book. Thank you for your support of my poetry. Hugs.
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You’re welcome, Robbie! I love the photos in your news book. Hugs.
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A wonderful review, Thomas. I thought this book was amazing and such a good lesson for any of us who are going through this or supporting others. Congrats to Miriam on the wonderful review.
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Thank you so much Diane. Yes I certainly agree, it was an amazing book.
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Thank you so much for stopping by to read the review, Diana! Thomas did a wonderful job reviewing my book. I was surprised to meet him through Jacqui’s blog tour after looking for this great reviewer for a while. Having support from family and friends is crucial to surviving major illnesses. I’m sure you shared the credit for your husband’s speedy recovery. BTW, how is he doing?
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He’s doing well, Miriam. There will be long term things we’ll have to deal with, but hopefully still lots of life worth living. Are you settled in now, with furniture and all boxes unpacked? Welcome to Oregon!
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That’s true, he’ll have lots of life worth living. It’s a lot of work to take care of my lymphatic leg every day.
We got the furniture set up in three rooms, one more to go. I need to clean all the glass before putting things in.
We unpacked a few boxes, but we have about 100. I packed the fragile items in between the clothes or used the sheet and towels to wrap them.
There’s a staircase with 9 steps to go down to the garage. Then there’s another staircase with 13 steps to go up to the loft in the garage where we stored the boxes. Unpacking and carrying things into the house is a big job.
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Oh my, Miriam. That’s a lot of steps when you’re carrying boxes. It sounds like you’re making progress. Slow is okay, though I know if will feel great when you’re done.
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There are steps going up to the front door also. We’ll installed handrails in the summer. We’ve met some neighbors. Many immediate neighbors are friendly. Two families with little ones and two with retired couples. Another two kept things to themselves, as the neighbors told us. We feel good about the neighborhood!
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We got snowed in for a few days. Basically, it was icy in our cul de sac on top of the slope. No one went in and out to break the ice.
Mercy came on the third day to bring us some groceries. I went out on the fourth day. The streets were clear!!
The previous owners didn’t plant any flowers!! I’m glad spring will be here soon. I bought bulbs, plants, and seeds waiting for warmer days to plant them. 🌺🌹🌷
I have to find a local writing group. Hope you and I will meet.
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This is a really odd spring. Usually it’s about 50 degrees right now… not sleeting and snowing. Check out Willamette Writers when you’re ready. They have a whole listing of groups throughout Oregon. And yes, we’ll meet, of course. 😀
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This year Portland got the second highest snow since 1943! Lynton said he found out his body likes the colder temperature. Good to hear him saying that.
Thank you for the lead in writing groups.
Is your daughter still living in Beaverton? 🙂 We can meet when you come to see her, or we can meet halfway. ❤
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Yes, she’s still in Beaverton. I’m used to driving, so any excuse to get together is okay with me. 😀
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100 boxes. That is a lot of work. I wish you good luck with your moving in.
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We’re in no hurry to open all the boxes. We lived in this empty house for five weeks. We can live for another few months without lots of things.
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I look very much forward to getting together, Diana! Just give me a heads-up when you come this way to visit your daughter.
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Thank you for this review so full of hope about a book that surely gives hope to others. I have not read The Winding Road yet but look forward to it.
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Thank you JoAnna. Yes I highly recommend this book.
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Hi JoAnna, good to see you here! Thank you for reading Thomas’ wonderful review of my book. I appreciate your interest in reading it. I look forward to hearing what you think!
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