Twelve-year-old Ruby Clyde Henderson's life suddenly changes the day her mother's boyfriend holds up a convenience store and her mother is wrongly imprisoned for assisting with the crime. Ruby and her pet pig, Bunny, terrified and very much alone, find their way to her estranged Aunt Eleanor's home. Aunt Eleanor is a nun who lives on a peach orchard called Paradise and has turned away from their family long ago. Ruby Clyde believes that she's the only one who can find a way to help heal old wounds to save her mother and bring her family back together again. But in the end, she learns that being in a family means that everyone has to work together to support each other.

A quirky and heartfelt middle-grade debut about a spunky girl determined to clear her mother's name.

For Will Schwalbe, reading is a way to entertain himself but also to make sense of the world, to become a better person, and to find the answers to the big (and small) questions about how to live his life. In this delightful celebration of reading, Schwalbe invites us along on his quest for books that speak to the specific challenges of living in our modern world, with all its noise and distractions. In each chapter, he discusses a particular book-what brought him to it (or vice versa), the people in his life he associates with it, and how it became a part of his understanding of himself in the world. These books span centuries and genres (from classic works of adult and children's literature to contemporary thrillers and even cookbooks), and each one relates to the questions and concerns we all share. Throughout, Schwalbe focuses on the way certain books can help us honor those we've loved and lost, and also figure out how to live each day more fully. Rich with stories and recommendations,  Books for Living is a treasure for everyone who loves books and loves to hear the answer to the question: "What are you reading?"