Title: Boy from the Farm
Author: Ryan Martin
Publisher: XlibrisAU
ISBN: 978-1-5434-0729-7
Pages: 116
Genre: Autobiography
Reviewed by: Shells Walter
Pacific Book Review
Ryan Martin lives a life only he can write about. He starts his younger years on a farm and loves the equipment he works with, but sometimes not the chores he is instructed to do. In these impressionable years, explanations of how his family was, how he competed with his older brother and life as a middle child. However, life takes a turn for Ryan once he starts his path in the Royal Navy where he not only begins his training as a radio operator, but sees things that he will never forget. It is also, where he met his future wife Liz and married her in a non-traditional way his family did not approve of. He didn’t get married in a church. The church and his faith would come into play in his life later.
Ryan’s faith starts to take a turn more inward as he progresses through the Royal Navy, though the UK, South Africa and Australia. He discovers what to him it means to be a Christian and what faith can really do for a man. He and his wife develop strong feelings towards their faith and want to help others discover it as well. In time, his wife has injuries and they make the choice to leave South Africa; onward to Australia they went. Later in his life he knows what he considers to be the great freedom in being a Christian and allows himself to share that with everyone else.
In Boy from the Farm, Martin tells of the great journey of his life in ways which seem to come straight from his memories as clear and concise his memories allow. Yes, there are times where the story jumps from here to there, but never goes off track. He uses scripture from the Bible to help explain some of the ways he is feeling and the joy in his sharing of these quotations are evident.
Martin’s way of writing does make you feel as if you are in a conversation with someone standing right in front of you as you page through his book. At many times readers will almost want to reply back to Martin and say, “congratulations on your journey.”
