Virginia Grit: From Poverty to Policymaker, Creating Opportunity for Everyone

In this moving and compelling memoir, David Reid tells a difficult and yet inspiring story of perseverance and dedication to public service.

Growing up poor in the Virginia mountains, the first in his family to graduate from college, Reid remembers thinking: I owe something to the nation that has given me so much. The author has now served 23 years in the Navy Reserves, including two deployments to South Korea. He was awarded the Navy & Marine Corps Commendation Medal on three occasions, and served seven years in the Virginia House of Delegates.

"I'll leave it to others to determine whether I've repaid my debt to the nation...but I sure tried," he writes.