Under a Summer Sky, page 30
Add browned beef, sausage, tomato sauce, tomato paste, and Roma or diced tomatoes. Simmer for one hour and add 1-½ cups red wine or more depending on preferred consistency.
Simmer on low for 2 to 3 hours, stirring occasionally, adding more wine if necessary.
Serve over your favorite pasta and sprinkle with freshly grated parmesan cheese.
For printable copies of the recipes found here, please visit www.nanrossiter.com and email Nan.
One further note . . .
Although Joan Benoit Samuelson won the Falmouth Road Race in 1983, her appearance in this book is entirely fiction.
Joan is an inspiration to people around the world, and I hope she won’t mind!
A READING GROUP GUIDE
UNDER A SUMMER SKY
Nan Rossiter
ABOUT THIS GUIDE
The suggested questions that follow are included to enhance your group’s reading of Under a Summer Sky.
Discussion Questions
Faith is a predominant theme in this book. Do you think people shy away from openly talking about their faith? Why?
Many people are turned off by religion and don’t even like to see it included in books. It seems Christianity is increasingly a target for oppression—especially at Christmastime. Why is this happening? Do you think it plays a role in the decline of our society?
One night at dinner, Asa, Maddie, Micah, and Beryl discuss the behavioral problems of today’s children. Asa blames the lack of discipline in the home and the breakdown of the family structure; Maddie, on the other hand, believes the inherent personality of the child must also be considered. With whom do you agree? Why?
Asher witnesses Jeff telling Jared he is going to kill him. Do you think if Asher had told someone it would have made a difference? In today’s society, threats are often taken lightly. How should this issue be addressed?
After Jared’s funeral, Noah and Laney have a similar discussion. Laney believes the world is a safer place without Jared. Noah counters that if Jared had been placed in a loving home and taught responsibility, he could have been rehabilitated. Who do you think is right? Do you think a boy like Jared—who seems inherently cruel—can be rehabilitated?
Laney worries that Asher will be a victim of cyber bullying someday. At the same time, she’s dismayed when he reveals he might not want a Facebook page. How has cyber bullying become a problem in our society and is there a way to prevent it?
One theme that threads through the book is the struggle to be forthcoming. Laney, Asa, and Asher all withhold critical information. Discuss their reasons and the impact their decisions have on others. Do you agree with their decisions?
From the beginning, it is clear that Noah feels very strongly about being honest and forthcoming . . . no matter what the consequences. In the end, his conviction is shaken. What is his dilemma and how is it resolved?
The Coleman household is often filled with chaos, or as Noah likes to call it, “blessed pandemonium.” Our lives, too, are filled with appointments, meetings, deadlines, and demands; and the overwhelming expansion of technology only seems to exacerbate the situation. Do you ever wish for simpler times? What are some ways we can slow down and get back to the basics?
In real life, joy and sorrow often walk hand in hand. How is this reflected in the story? Has it ever happened in your life?
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Nan Rossiter was born in Mount Vernon, New York, where some of her earliest memories include exploring every corner of her Pelham neighborhood on a green bicycle with a banana seat and sissy bar. She also remembers wearing a hooded sweatshirt, carrying a notebook, and pretending to be Harriet the Spy. She later moved with her family to Barkhamsted, Connecticut, and attended the Rhode Island School of Design, where she earned a degree in illustration.
She is the author-illustrator of several books for children, including Rugby & Rosie, an American Bookseller Pick of the Lists and winner of Nebraska’s Golden Sower Award, The Way Home, one of Smithsonian Magazine’s Notable Books for Children, Sugar on Snow, and The Fo’c’sle.
Nan lives in rural Connecticut with her husband and two handsome sons. When she’s not working, she enjoys hiking with her family . . .or curling up with a good book!
THE GIN & CHOWDER CLUB
The friendship between the Coleman and Shepherd families is as old and comfortable as the neighboring houses they occupy each summer on Cape Cod. Samuel and Sarah Coleman love those warm months by the water; the evenings spent on their porch, enjoying gin and tonics, good conversation and homemade clam chowder. Here they’ve watched their sons, Isaac and Asa, grow into fine young men, and watched, too, as Nate Shepherd, aching with grief at the loss of his first wife, finally found love again with the much younger Noelle.
But beyond the surface of these idyllic gatherings, the growing attraction between Noelle and handsome, college-bound Asa threatens to upend everything. In spite of her guilt and misgivings, Noelle is drawn into a reckless secret affair with far-reaching consequences. And over the course of one bittersweet, unforgettable summer, Asa will learn more than he ever expected about love—the joys and heartache it awakens in us, the lengths we’ll go to keep it, and the countless ways it can change our lives forever . . .
WORDS GET IN THE WAY
The modest ranch house where Callie Wyeth grew up looks just as she remembers it—right down to the well-worn sheets in the linen closet. But in the years since Callie lived here, almost everything else has changed. Her father, once indomitable, is in poor health. And Callie is a single mother with a beautiful little boy, Henry, who has just been diagnosed with autism.
Returning to this quiet New Hampshire community seems the best thing to do, for both her father and her son’s sake. Even if it means facing Linden Finch, the one she loved and left for reasons she’s sure he’ll never forgive. Linden is stunned that Callie is back—and that she has a son. Yet in the warm, funny relationship that develops between Henry and Linden’s menagerie of rescued farm animals, Callie begins to find hope. Not just that her son might break through the wall of silence separating him from the world, but that she too can make a new start amid the places and people that have never left her heart . . .
MORE THAN YOU KNOW
Losing her father on the night she was born could have torn Beryl Graham’s family apart. Instead, it knitted them together. Under their mother’s steady guidance, Beryl and her older sisters, Isak and Rumer, shared a childhood filled with happiness. But now Mia Graham has passed away after battling Alzheimer’s, and her three daughters return to their New Hampshire home to say goodbye.
Swept up in memories and funeral preparations, the sisters catch up on each other’s lives. Rumer and Isak have both known recent heartache, while Beryl has given up hope of marriage. But surprising revelations abound, especially when they uncover Mia’s handwritten memoir. In it are secrets they never guessed at—clandestine romance, passionate dreams, joy and guilt. And as Beryl, Rumer, and Isak face a future without her, they realize it’s never too late to heed a mother’s lessons—about taking chances, keeping faith, and loving in spite of the risks . . .
KENSINGTON BOOKS are published by
Kensington Publishing Corp.
119 West 40th Street
New York, NY 10018
Copyright © 2014 by Nan Rossiter
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the Publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.
Kensington and the K logo Reg. U.S. Pat. & TM Off.
ISBN: 978-0-7582-8391-7
First Kensington Trade Paperback Printing: May 2014
eISBN-13: 978-0-7582-8392-4
eISBN-10: 0-7582-8392-X
First Kensington Electronic Edition: May 2014
Nan Rossiter, Under a Summer Sky
