MY FEATS IN THESE SHOES

A hybrid memoir and self-help book in which shoes take center stage.

“Why buy stumble-proof shoes and take tiny, tentative steps…?” asks Beaman, the chief creative officer for PEAK Learning, toward the end of her latest book. She answers this question by chronicling her life and the shoes in which she blazed a singular trail. Born to teenage parents, Beaman spent her early years seeking opportunities to dance, sing, and reinvent herself. But after her father told her she had ugly, “little troll feet,” she became “frantic and obsessed in [her] pursuit of a positive and attractive way to walk in the world.” Beaman’s descriptions of footwear effectively highlight notable moments in her life: Her first time feeling glamorous was when, as an adolescent, she slipped her “bony, skinny right foot into the silky, soft, gossamer” of fancy blue slippers. Memories of her beloved grandmother, and Beaman’s aspirations to become a model, are marked by the bright magenta Mary Janes they purchased while shopping together: “Could be worn to school, could not be worn by anyone else but me.” From saddle shoes she wore as an enthusiastic high school cheerleader to giant “flapping shoes” she wore as a singing-telegram clown to pay for college to her “signature” red Converse sneakers she sported at a recent TEDx talk, the author’s shoes have helped her navigate her life. Beaman’s prose is charming, conversational, and funny throughout this work. At times, though, she stretches the shoe metaphor a bit too far to be taken seriously, as when she describes a memory that she’d “shined and buffed and re-souled” or how she’d “satin-shoe boxed” herself into a role that was unsuited for her. Nevertheless, readers are sure to enjoy her humor as well as her advice, as this book can also be read as an inspirational self-help guide; the author concludes each chapter with a “Put Yourself in My Shoes” section in which she offers several good recommendations, such as “Get some bright, bad-ass sneakers and stop binge-watching; get busy binge-doing!”

A one-of-a-kind memoir with good laughs and useful tips.