Staff Reviews & Reader’s Guides
Recent Reviews:
Message form an Unknown Chinese Mother
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The Book of Lies: A Novel (P.S.) by Mary Horlock
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The Magician's Elephant
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The Tiger's Wife
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Enduring Love
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The Girl in the Italian Bakery
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A local boy's coming of age tale...
The book *The Girl in the Italian Bakery* by Kenneth Tingle was brought to my attention when I read in the local Current newspaper that the author was coming to the Book Rack one Saturday when I was working this winter. The next time I walked by the book store I saw his book displayed in the front window and was surprised to see on the cover was my favorite childhood Italian Bakery "Pappys" in Lawrence, Massachusetts. Though I was too busy at work and I was unable to meet the author I knew I just had to read the book! Tingle's memoir starts with him a young boy growing up in the Lawrence projects in the 1970's. The pain of growing up without a father was obvious (when you find out his father actually lived close by but had remarried and didn't see his children anymore it was heartbreaking). Actually, Ken spends time in several foster homes and different apartments across the city and Essex County. Then in the early 80's he ends up back at his mothers in a three tenement on Prospect Hill which overlooks the building where his father works. How lonely for the boy who was now a young teen making his way down the hill, past the girl in the Italian Bakery on his way to and from high school trying his best to grow up and become a man. The friends he makes and loses along the way he learns and grows from. It was a good book and was fun for me knowing most of the places that were in his stomping grounds. The story is an inspiration and a good read!
