THIS IS A BOOK THAT WAS NEVER MEANT TO BE. IT IS A COMPILATION OF TWENTY YEARS DEVOTED EFFORT FOR A LOCAL WRITERS GROUP. GROUP MEMBERS WERE GIVEN BIWEEKLY ASSIGNMENTS. IN CLASS, THEY WERE EACH GIVEN TIME TO READ THEIR STORY AT WHICH TIME THE INSTRUCTOR AND CLASS MEMBERS WERE ALLOWED TO CRITIQUE AND COMMENT. AFTER A FEW YEARS, CAROL PUBLISHED TWO ARTICLES IN A MAGAZINE. I WAS VERY IMPRESSED. WHEN I ASKED IF SHE WOULD PUBLISH MORE SHE SAID: “NO, I DID THAT ALREADY.” WHEN CAROL PASSED, I GATHERED HER WRITINGS INTO THIS COLLECTION, THEY ARE SHORT, VERY FUNNY, ALWAYS THOUGHT PROVOKING AND JUST WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS IN THESE OFTEN SAD AND SCARY TIMES. YOU WILL ENJOY THE RIDE. EXCERPTS AVAILABLE ON CAROL'S WEBSITE WWW.CAROLRUGGIERO.COM .

Pearl has new skates. They are real skates (not double runners), and she can't wait to try them. Pearl inches out onto the frozen pond. But instead of twirling, she topples. Instead of spinning, she falls -- splaaat! Pearl has new skates. They are shiny white with red tassels, and she loves them. Will Pearl ever skate in real life the way she skates in her dreams?

IN THIS UNFORGETTABLE MEMOIR, author Granville Johnson recounts his roller-coaster life growing up in Chicago’s Westside ghetto in the 1950s and ’60s. Anchored by his mother’s love and his own ambition and self-assurance, Granville contends with constant trauma, including fluke accidents, illness, the death of loved ones, institutionalized racism, violent gangs, and repeated sexual assault. While the legacy of that sexual assault becomes the one nemesis that Granville never fully defeats, he uses the pages of this inspiring book to remind others who have experienced similar assaults that what was done to them does not define them. Traumatic experiences definitely leave their mark, but as Granville so eloquently articulates, positive experiences and influences —like his mother—do as well.