The Little Way of Ruthie Leming, Rod Dreher
The Little Way of Ruthie Leming, Rod Dreher
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The Little Way of Ruthie Leming
A Southern Girl, a Small Town, and the Secret of a Good Life

Author: Rod Dreher

Narrator: Rod Dreher

Unabridged: 8 hr 49 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 04/09/2013


Synopsis

The Little Way of Ruthie Leming follows Rod Dreher, a Philadelphia journalist, back to his hometown of St. Francisville, Louisiana (pop. 1,700) in the wake of his younger sister Ruthie's death. When she was diagnosed at age 40 with a virulent form of cancer in 2010, Dreher was moved by the way the community he had left behind rallied around his dying sister, a schoolteacher. He was also struck by the grace and courage with which his sister dealt with the disease that eventually took her life. In Louisiana for Ruthie's funeral in the fall of 2011, Dreher began to wonder whether the ordinary life Ruthie led in their country town was in fact a path of hidden grandeur, even spiritual greatness, concealed within the modest life of a mother and teacher. In order to explore this revelation, Dreher and his wife decided to leave Philadelphia, move home to help with family responsibilities and have their three children grow up amidst the rituals that had defined his family for five generations-Mardi Gras, L.S.U. football games, and deer hunting.
As David Brooks poignantly described Dreher's journey homeward in a recent New York Times column, Dreher and his wife Julie "decided to accept the limitations of small-town life in exchange for the privilege of being part of a community."


About Rod Dreher

Rod Dreher is the New York Times bestselling author of several books, including The Little Way of Ruthie Leming: A Southern Girl, a Small Town, and the Secret of a Good Life and Crunchy Cons: How Birkenstocked Burkeans, Gun-Loving Organic Gardeners, Evangelical Free-Range Farmers, Hip Homeschooling Mamas, Right-Wing Nature Lovers, and Their Diverse Tribe of Countercultural Conservatives Plan to Save America (or At Least the Republican Party). He is a senior editor at The American Conservative. His work has appeared in numerous publications including the New York Post, the Dallas Morning News, National Review, and the Wall Street Journal, and broadcast on NPR's All Things Considered and BBC Radio. Rod lives in St. Francisville, Louisiana, with his wife Julie and their three children.


Reviews

Goodreads review by William on June 04, 2013

I found a review of this book in a small journal that none of my friends read (First Things, the Journal of Religion and Public Life. Highly recommended.) So I thought that this book would also be one of those "under the radar" gems. Halfway through the book, I heard interviews on NPR, saw reviews i......more

Goodreads review by Amy on May 02, 2013

First, let me explain my perspective as a reader. I don't normally read this book's genre: no memoir, no EAT PRAY LOVE for me. I picked up THE LITTLE WAY OF RUTHIE LEMING because of a feature I heard on NPR. I was attracted by the theme of small-town community vs big-city isolation, and my own life......more

Goodreads review by Carlea on May 06, 2013

I heard this book featured on NPR and thought it sounded lovely. As a person who has family in a small town while I and my family live in the Washington, DC area, I felt like I could relate to that inner conflict the author grappled with before moving back home after the death of his sister. Unfortu......more

Goodreads review by The Book Maven on October 01, 2015

Someone has to stay home and tend to the family and the farm, and it sure wasn’t going to be Ron Dreher—since he was an adolescent, he had been yearning to escape the small Southern community in which he had been raised. And escape he did, going away to boarding school and college and a thriving car......more

Goodreads review by Gary on May 08, 2013

Here's the thing I want you to know about Rod Dreher: He evokes a loving but imperfect family in rural Louisiana, a bucolic oasis along the Mississippi River that paradoxically threatens to drown him in his youth, a life-changing experience at the Cathedral de Chartres near Paris, a brush with death......more