Hot tip to get through winter: join our new monthly book club with Simon & Schuster Canada. Each month, we’ll introduce an exciting new release that we think you’ll love, and you can follow along online as we post author Q&As, reviews, excerpts and more! There may even be IRL events to have intimate discussions on themes while enjoying some hot toddies and delicious eats. Oooooohhh, this is going to be good. And we couldn’t be more enthused about our first title: Walk It Off by Ruth Marshall.

Ruth Marshall—power mom, wife, actor and daughter—was in great health, until one day, her feet started to tingle. She visited doctors and specialists for tests, but no one could figure out the cause of her symptoms. Was she imagining those pesky tingles? She tried to brush it off, even as she tripped over curbs and stumbled into people. Clumsiness is charming, right?

But when Ruth suddenly couldn’t feel her legs at all, she knew something was terribly wrong. Her fears were confirmed by an MRI revealing a rare tumour that had been quietly growing on her spine for over a decade. Within days, surgery was scheduled, and after the intense eight-hour ordeal, Ruth woke up to find her legs and feet had forgotten how to do…well, everything. The question that burned in her mind was, “Will I ever walk again?”

What Ruth thought would be three days in the hospital turned into months of rehabilitation as she relearned not only how to walk, run, pee, and even have sex again, but also how to better appreciate everyone around her, including her devoted husband, her two young sons, her worried parents, her sisters, her loving friends, and the caring staff at the rehab centre who helped her tackle her recovery head-on.

Laugh-out-loud outrageous and searingly honest, this is a memoir that entertains and inspires readers to put their best foot forward and walk off anything life throws their way. 

Lift yourself up with this story of recovery that offers a hilarious account of how a woman’s self-deprecating humour and sheer determination turned her life around, or in this case, got her back on her feet and able to move forward. 

CONTEST

We’ve got a stack of copies we’re giving away to readers who would like to share their thoughts on the book. Winners of the contest will each get to submit a short review of Walk It Off (not an essay, just some feedback) that we will publish on SDTC at a later date. If you’re psyched about sharing your thoughts AND winning a complimentary copy of Walk It Off, you’ve got three ways to enter our contest!

FACEBOOK:

Head to our Facebook page and LIKE + COMMENT on our Walk It Off post.

INSTAGRAM:

LIKE + COMMENT on the Walk It Off post on our Instagram feed.

TWITTER:

Tweet: “Yes, @shedoesthecity, I’d love to join your @SimonSchusterCA book club! Please send me a copy of Walk It Off! #SandSBookClub”

Contest closes January 19th. Winners will be notified by 11am EST on that day.

Canadian winters are best enjoyed with a stack of good books. We can’t wait to introduce some amazing titles to your bedside table.