Pieces Missing by Larry C. Kerpelman, Ph.D.

Pieces Missing: A Family’s Journey of Recovery from Traumatic Brain Injury (Two Harbors Press, 2011) recounts the struggle of Larry's wife, Joanie, to recover from a devastating injury she suffered from a fall while jogging. This first-hand account is fraught with all the uncertainty of not knowing day-to-day what is coming next as Joanie experiences three emergency room visits, two hospitalizations, one brain surgery, and months of rehabilitation as she fights to recover the pieces missing from her memory, speech, and joy of life. This book is the story of how a marriage and family persevered and strove to survive the biggest crisis of their lives as well as a narrative of how health care is delivered and what traumatic brain injury is all about. Above all else, though, it is a memoir of love, hope, family, healing, and recovery. Reviewing Pieces Missing, Harvard researcher Jo Solet wrote: "This book is at once both inspiring and informative. It reflects their family's mutual support under difficult circumstances and joy in Joanie's recovery."

Concrete Steps: Coming of Age in a Once-Big City

With Baltimore, immigration, helicopter parenting, and best ways to educate our children so much in the news, Concrete Steps: Coming of Age in a Once-Big City (Pratt Brook Communications, 2016) is a fascinating read. This memoir of a boy growing up in Baltimore in the 1940s and ‘50s provides a glimpse into the mind of an intellectually ambitious son of immigrant parents as he struggles with his family and within himself to attain independence.At times irreverent and breezy, at times thoughtful and provocative, Concrete Steps takes an unvarnished look at the gritty realities of urban life in mid-20th-century America. It chronicles the life of a family new to this country and not yet fully assimilated, struggling to make a living, dealing with anti-Semitism, coping with war on the home front, and confronting social change, all while trying to live their lives as fully as possible. Historian and author Katherine Grandjean wrote of this book: "This is a wonderfully charming and poignant coming-of-age story. . . . Concrete Steps is a testament to how deeply we are defined by family and the city we call home."