(Hardback)

This gritty, tragicomic memoir is set in one memorable year--1976, the Bicentennial, when Jimmy Carter ran for president and seven-year-old Doug Crandell lost two fingers in a farming accident. More than anything, Doug wants to shed his nickname, Pig Boy, and grow up to be a hog man like his father.

(Hardback)

A memoir that weaves a tale set in 1990 as the author is about to graduate from college. With very few job prospects and in need of tuition money, he joins his father working at a ceiling tile factory in tiny Lagro, Indiana. As the author struggles to finish his degree, he fights the urge to stay where he is and end up a lifer like his father.