This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Free Book Program, which is open to all readers and is completely free. The author will provide you with a free copy of their book in exchange for an honest review. You and the author will discuss what sites you will post your review to and what kind of copy of the book you would like to receive (eBook, PDF, Word, paperback, etc.). To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email.
This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Book Review Exchange Program, which is open to all authors and is completely free. Simply put, you agree to provide an honest review an author's book in exchange for the author doing the same for you. What sites your reviews are posted on (B&N, Amazon, etc.) and whether you send digital (eBook, PDF, Word, etc.) or hard copies of your books to each other for review is up to you. To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email, and be sure to describe your book or include a link to your Readers' Favorite review page or Amazon page.
This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Book Donation Program, which was created to help nonprofit and charitable organizations (schools, libraries, convalescent homes, soldier donation programs, etc.) by providing them with free books and to help authors garner more exposure for their work. This author is willing to donate free copies of their book in exchange for reviews (if circumstances allow) and the knowledge that their book is being read and enjoyed. To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email. Be sure to tell the author who you are, what organization you are with, how many books you need, how they will be used, and the number of reviews, if any, you would be able to provide.
Reviewed by Asher Syed for Readers' Favorite
My Diecast Life is Dan Vado's personal memoir, and in it, he turns the rearview mirror to his childhood and adolescence, and the toy cars he owned, used, set aside, and later rediscovered. Raised in suburban California from the late 1960s into the early 1980s, the book follows Vado from his first encounter with Hot Wheels through neighborhood race days, school incidents, family rules, and encounters shaped by his parents’ Italian immigrant background. Each chapter centers on a specific car and documents how it entered his possession, what role it played in daily life, and how adult authority, peer relationships, and circumstance affected its fate. As Vado reaches driving age, the focus shifts from toy cars to real vehicles, linking early play to independence and responsibility.
My Diecast Life by Dan Vado hit me with all "the feels," and his account of a childhood remembered through small objects that once meant the whole world is completely relatable. Dan structures the book around individual Hot Wheels cars, and two of them stand out to me. The Red Baron, with its cartoonish helmet and exposed engine, captures the odd design choices that made late sixties cars feel both toy-like and transgressive. The Beach Bomb, fragile and easily damaged, becomes a lesson in how quickly prized things could be altered by group play and adult rules. As a Gen Xer, the book taps into a bona fide sense of recognition. Vado took me back to the sound of plastic wheels, the smell of carpet, and the informal codes of neighborhood play. Vado writes with intelligent wit in a voice that is accessible, observant, and credible. The memoir as a whole makes me want to get to know Vado a little bit more. Very highly recommended.
