I am basing my review on a 145-page advance review copy of the book. I don't know how much it differs from the published version.
The entire book is based on the extraordinary true story of how Marine Major Kevin Jarrad and Navy Captain John Nadeau, a surgeon, overcome a series of nearly insurmountable obstacles to get a young Iraqi girl with cyanotic congenital heart disease out of a war zone and into the United States where she could receive the life-saving surgery she needed. Nothing about that task was easy. Dealing with cultural challenges and distrust from the girl's family, fighting through military bureaucracy, finding transportation out of a war zone with a very sick girl, bringing together medical staff in the United States, raising money to pay for everything and so much more--all with the ticking time bomb of this girl's condition--makes for a gripping tale and serves as a really great example of critical thinking in action at each step of the way.
The book is a very basic and summarized introduction to critical thinking, though. Despite the tag line of "Change your thinking. Revolutionize your career. Transform your life," the book doesn't spend much time on teaching much on how to do these things. In fact, nearly a third of the book consists of nothing more than the story I mentioned above. Most of the rest of the book is spent talking about this story and using it to illustrate points the authors are making about critical thinking. There isn't much in this book that isn't somehow connected back to that story--which isn't bad in itself, but the reliance on that story to illustrate other points gives me the feeling the book over-promised and under-delivered.
I estimate that less than half of the book is spent providing practical tools for helping "change your thinking, revolutionize your career, transform your life." Nearly 20% of the book is spent on blurbs about the people from the book's central story and references to other sources on critical thinking. Though there is some useful information on critical thinking, it will be most helpful as a very basic summarized introduction for readers who aren't familiar with the topic. That's not to stay there isn't useful information here, but that more of the book should have been dedicated to putting those principles into practice.
If you like a stories of ordinary people doing extraordinary things, then you'll love the story this book revolves around. If you want to "transform your life," you'll probably be disappointed with what this book offers.
