Terry Carden's autobiographical "Coming of Age in Scranton" profiles his experiences as a child and young adult in the Anthracite Capital of the World during the 1940s and '50s. Based on an original series of 25 e-mail installments to his niece, describing the life and times of three siblings in Scranton, PA, it relates in detail the thoughts, fears, anxieties and aspirations of a boy as he struggles toward manhood.

Whimsical recollections of day-to-day challenges, accomplishments and setbacks move along at a comfortable pace, spanning earliest childhood memories to graduation from...