Are you loving National Short Story Month as much as I am? Here's the first in our featured favorite story collections. (Cast an eye on our carousel widget at the top of the blog for more all through May!)
A Little Book of Mormon (and Not So Mormon) Stories by Ingrid Ricks
As a young Mormon girl, Ingrid fantasized about her real family—the Osmonds —who would soon rescue her from the drudgery of daily home church sessions, embarrassing trips to the church welfare office and the seemingly endless hours spent harvesting and canning fruits and vegetables in preparation for the Last Days.In this collection of ten poignant, funny and sometimes outrageous stories about life with an intensely devout Mormon mother and an absent, excommunicated dad, Ingrid takes readers into a childhood where caffeine is evil, Satan comes out at midnight, Native Americans are believed to be cursed descendants of an ancient prophet, and turning eight means a life marred by guilt and once-a-month starvation.
The stories follow Ingrid into her teenage years, when she accompanies her Austrian mother on a mental hospital rescue mission, battles her way through the humiliation of banned sex-ed classes and restricted Mormon dating, and escapes her religious home life by spending summers as a tool-selling vagabond with her freewheeling dad. Through her journey —which includes liquor-filled chocolate relationship building with her European grandmother and a disastrous stint as an East Coast nanny —Ingrid finds her voice and claims her own spiritual beliefs devoid of rules, guilt, heaven or hell.
So far, A Little Book of Mormon (and Not So Mormon) Stories has all rave reviews on Amazon: "What gets to me the most is how the writer mixes humor and youthful perspective and weaves them together into a brilliantly related and poignant memory. The author handles difficult details of her story delicately and respectfully while still preserving truth. Very worth the read."
During National Short Story Month, you can grab it on Kindle for just $1.99!
