Chapter 19 - Adulting 101

We spent last weekend reconnecting with family and celebrating our oldest granddaughter's graduation from high school. Abigail is a very accomplished young woman both academically and artistically. She will do well in whatever the future brings to her. It seems incredible to me that the little peanut I held over 18 years ago has grown into this beautiful, talented person. So yes, I am feeling proud and more than a little bit old.

This event led me to think about coming of age stories. Traditionally coming of age stories explore a character's journey from childhood to adulthood. Books like Little Women, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, and The Outsiders are good examples of this. All of these I'd recommend if you haven't read them. Coming of age stories can also be about adults experiencing significant growth and transformation.

If you are a fan of stories of relationships and redemption along with a heaping dose of growth the following books might be just up your alley.

Marilou Is Everywhere by Sarah Elaine Smith - A teenage girl, Cindy, in rural Pennsylvania lives with her two older siblings and an on-again, off-again mother. When another girl from a more affluent home goes missing, Cindy decides to take her place and becomes a daughter to the grieving mother. Exposed to books, culture, and the possibilities of the future, Cindy has to make decisions about the meaning of love and family.

Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss - In North England Sylvie and her family are living as if the Iron Age was still in existence. When an anthropology class comes to their area, the family joins in living the Iron Age life, forging for food, hunting, killing and eating what they catch. But as Sylvie gets to know the students, she realizes that the future holds many possibilities she has never been brave enough to consider.

Wild Game: My Mother, Her Secret, and Me by Adrienne Brodeur - This memoir is definitely a coming of age story but whose exactly is the question. When Adrienne was 15 her mother woke her to tell her that a man, not her father, kissed her. Adrienne then became her mother's confidante and accomplice as her mother carried on an affair with her father's best friend. The affair had a devastating impact on everyone involved and only as an adult has Adrienne come to terms with what happened.

Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors - The Blue sisters couldn't be more different. Avery is a lawyer with an addiction past, Bonnie is a former boxer who now works as a bouncer in L.A. and Lucky models in Paris. When the apartment they were raised in is being sold, they band together to stop the sale. But going home is never easy and as the sisters come together they find out more about themselves than they could have apart.

Dominicana by Angie Cruz - Ana Cancion at fifteen never dreams about America as many of her friends do. When 30 year old Juan Ruiz proposes and says he will take her to New York she doesn't think about anything but the chance to bring her entire family to America. She takes all she owns and moves into a small apartment in Washington Heights. Planning to escape her loveless marriage, Juan's brother Cesar talks her out of it. When Juan needs to go back to the Dominican Republic, Ana finds freedom under the care of Cesar. When Juan finally returns she must decide to either do the right thing or the right thing for her.

Do you have any coming of age books you'd like to share? Let me know.