Rocking Chair Reader: Coming Home

Large Print Hardcover with Dust Jacket published by Adams Media, an F+W Publications Company, from Doubleday Large Print Home Library. Description from the book dust jacket: In The Rocking Chair Reader series, readers are taken back in time to pre-1955 small-town America, where life was simpler and old-fashioned values meant something. Coming Home, the flagship title in this new inspirational series, features more than sixty true stories from ordinary folks who return to such small towns as Alberville, Alabama; Brownsville, Pennsylvania; Clyde, North Dakota; Felton, California; Grand Junction, Colorado; Indian River, Michigan; Marshall, Texas; North Arlington, New Jersey; Rupert, Idhao; and Westport, Massachusetts. As an added feature in this magnificent volume, ten towns have been specially profiled, highlighting history, points of interest, and fascinating trivia. So sit back in your favorite rocking chair and enjoy these tales that evoke nostalgia for past eras and the homespun flavor of Main Street, USA.

I really enjoyed this book. It consists of about 70 or so very short stories (each maybe two or three pages) about going home. I am currently getting ready to move away from the town I've lived in pretty much my whole life, and am kinda bummed about it, but reading this book was just what I needed. It reminds us that no matter how far away we get from home or family, and regardless of how long we're gone...coming back is such a welcoming feeling. I look forward to the next Rocking Chair Reader: Memories From the Attic.

We all know about the wildly popular "Chicken Soup for the Soul" anthologies. The "Rocking Chair" readers are just as good if not better. What makes this first series book different is that its stories are not only based on smalltown America, but as an added feature, the book profiles about 10 of these small towns, giving the reader its history and town facts. If your small town isn't mentioned, you'll be familiar with at least one - the book's that encompassing. Each writer takes you on a journey into their own precious past, where life had a different taste and feel. The stories are a celebrated snapshot into someone's life, someone's past, into someone's heart. You won't be disappointed. Helen Kay Polaski has done a wonderful job in not only her editing skills, but in compiling tales of what it's like to come home, even if it's only through our hearts.