A Christmas Memory

A profoundly tender, multi-generational story about a friendship that liberates a grief-stricken eight-year-old during Christmas 1967. 

In A Christmas Memory, Richard Paul Evans--author of more than 40 novels--delivers an emotionally moving fictionalized story that pays homage to a man who made a profound impact on the author’s early life.

 

The story begins in 1967, in Pasadena, Calif., and centers on Rick, a sensitive and bright--yet socially awkward--eight-year-old with Tourette’s syndrome. When Rick’s brother, Mark--ten years older--dies in the Vietnam war, his death drives a wedge between his parents. The loss is compounded by the fact that Mark “didn’t believe in war and didn’t want to go.” As the family struggles to deal with grief and guilt, Rick’s father loses his job. This forces a move to Salt Lake City, Utah, where Rick’s mother was born and raised. Shortly after the family settles into Rick’s deceased grandmother’s house, Rick’s parents separate. While his mother sinks into a severe depression, Rick is bullied by peers and badgered by an ogre teacher. Respite is found when Rick befriends a neighbor’s dog and ultimately the dog’s elderly owner, Mr. Foster. This African American man of integrity--a contemporary of Rick’s grandmother, separated from his own family--opens his house and heart to the young boy. He offers companionship and wisdom that shepherds Rick through sad uncertainty that ultimately coalesces into a touching and most memorable Christmas.

 

Themes of friendship and forgiveness infuse Evans’s (Michael Vey 8; The Road Home) beautifully tender story that delivers a heartfelt message about remembrance, love and hope.

 

A Christmas Memory: A Novel by Richard Paul Evans

Gallery Books (Simon and Schuster), $17.99 hardcover, 9781982177447, 192 pages

Publication Date: November 22, 2022

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The Wonder Boy of Whistle Stop

Fannie Flagg delivers feel-good fun, revisiting stories about a small Alabama town--focusing on a beloved local--from her popular 1987 novel.

Fannie Flagg's enduring Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café was published in 1987 (and made into a movie in 1992). The heartwarming novel explored the friendship between a disillusioned, middle-aged housewife and Ninny Threadgoode, an elderly woman living out her days in a nursing home. Ninny had astonishing tales to tell about a bustling railroad cafe in a small Alabama town east of Birmingham in the 1930s.

 

Flagg's long-awaited sequel focuses on Buddy Threadgoode, Jr., son of the late Ruth Jamison, who once ran the Whistle Stop Cafe with Imogene "Idgie" Threadgoode, an adventurous, rebellious tomboy. Through a patchwork quilt of scenes, Bud's history unfolds from the 1930s: how he managed life with a missing arm, an injury incurred in a train accident when he was six years old, and became a veterinarian; how Aunt Idgie became Bud's best friend and cheerleader, even after she sold the café and moved to Florida; how Bud fell in love with and married his childhood sweetheart, and they raised a daughter, Ruthie, a woman with her own story to tell.

 

As in Fried Green Tomatoes, Flagg infuses short chapter vignettes with cozy snippets of gossip about Whistle Stop townsfolk--memorable characters from the first book--who left town and set down roots elsewhere. Bud--now in his 80s, retired and widowed--looks back lovingly and longingly at his Whistle Stop days. The story blossoms in vintage Flagg style--folksy and feel-good. An abundance of Southern charm will delight both readers eager to journey back to beloved Whistle Stop and also those wanting to visit for the very first time.

The Wonder Boy of Whistle Stop: A Novel by Fannie Flagg

Random House, $28.00 Hardcover, 9780593133842, 304 pages

Publication Date: October 20, 2020

To order this book on INDIEBOUND, link HERE

NOTE: This review is a reprint and is being posted with the permission of Shelf Awareness. To read this review on Shelf Awareness: Reader's Edition (October 27, 2020), link HERE