Put ramekins on a baking sheet. Bake for 25-35 minutes, until puffed and golden. Remove from oven, and let stand for 5 minutes. With a flexible spatula, remove strata to
This Dark Road to Mercy by Wiley Cash (HarperCollins, 2014). Easter and Ruby are sent to an orphanage after their mother’s death. Their father, a minor league ballplayer, had renounced
This Dark Road to Mercy by Wiley Cash (HarperCollins, 2014). Easter and Ruby are sent to an orphanage after their mother’s death. Their father, a minor league ballplayer, had renounced
From Fred Chappell’s humorous look at the life of a boy growing up in the 1940s, to Wiley Cash’s harrowing tale of a father who will do anything to keep his children safe and by his side, four novels speak to the importance of family, and the trials of coming of age.
Easter and Ruby are sent to an orphanage after their mother’s death. Their father, a minor league ballplayer, had renounced custody of them, but now he’s determined to outrun the law to be a part of their lives. Cash’s novel proves that the love of family trumps everything else. Even the fear of getting caught.
I Am One of You Forever
by Fred Chappell (LSU Press, reprinted 2015).
Jess’s family is full of characters, from an uncle who sleeps in his own coffin to one whose beard’s true length is the subject of family lore. Mountaintop picnics and lakeside fish frys accompany boyish pranks and heartbreaking truths of what it means to have and to hold — as evocative now as when the novel was first published in 1985.
Jim the Boy
by Tony Earley (Back Bay Books, reprinted 2009).
Jim’s life in Aliceville is typical, but those who are a part of it, from his mother and uncles, to a playground-rival-turned-friend, transform it into one of simple complexity. Together, vignettes of humor, beauty, and deep poignancy tell the tale of a boy’s coming of age during the Depression.
What I Came to Tell You
by Tommy Hays (Egmont USA, 2013).
After his mother’s death, Grover withdraws to his “workshop” in a bamboo grove, where he weaves flora into natural tapestries, and his sister, Sudie, becomes determined to fulfill her mother’s last wishes. Set in Asheville, Hays’s young adult novel is a reminder that accepting others’ help to deal with grief is a part of moving forward.
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For more than 50 years, a dazzling chandelier has hung in the dining room of the Executive Mansion in Raleigh. Only recently has its remarkable backstory been fully illuminated.
A pair of mother-daughter innkeepers inherited a love of hosting from their expansive family. At Christmastime, they welcome guests to their historic lodge in Stanly County.