Reunion in Stringtown: Finding Faith, Family, and Healing

by Joyce A. Connelley, Scott Dailey (editor), Ronél Alberts

256 pages, Paperback

Published March 4, 2024

About the author

Joyce A. Connelley is a highly successful author, journalist, and marketing professional with two previous books to her credit. She has published hundreds of articles for national and regional periodicals and numerous trade journals. She began her career as a journalist for the Whittier Daily News and served as Managing Editor of Business Software, a consumer-oriented technology magazine. In 1986, she launched her own marketing agency serving Silicon Valley companies in the fields of technology, consumer electronics, and medicine. During this period, she co-authored “The Black and White Solution: Bar Code and the IBM PC” (Helmers Publishing, 1986), an authoritative guide to automatic identification technology, and “Our Century: 1960-1970,” an historical overview of the 1960s published by David S. Lake Publishers (1989). Joyce holds a B.A. in Journalism from San Jose State University. Currently, Joyce and her husband own Marshall Grain Company, an independent organic garden center and landscaping business in Grapevine, Texas where Joyce is the V.P. of Marketing. Under her leadership, Marshall Grain Co. has been ranked nationally as a Top 100 independent garden center and is one of the largest independent organic garden centers in Texas. Joyce has been recognized numerous times by the Daughters of the American Revolution and other civic organizations for her conservation and animal welfare efforts. She and her husband serve every whim of their six cats (3 who live in their retail store and 3 who live at home).

Reviews

[Larry Breault · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an amazing read!!!
I have been employed at Marshall Grain Company for 9 1/2 years and work side by side with Joyce. I also am adopted, but my story is a fairy tail with no comparison to her nightmare. She did an amazing job putting this book together, detailing her lifelong search with suspense, sadness and a bit of humor. I didn't want the book to end!!!!!! I am already nagging her to write another book!!
I have always respected Joyce (and Jim) as an employee of their store, however, that respect grew 10 fold after reading about all the challenges she conquered as a child and an adult.
Joyce, you are a shining star! You are AMAZING!
By the way, to anyone reading this review, she loves hugs!!!!!!!

[Laura L. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved reading your story as I was also adopted in 1954. I was blessed with wonderful, adopted parents, which is not always the experience. Your story touched me with your honesty about your abusive mother, overcoming additions and finding your birth parents. This book shows that we can overcome our past and come out as a better, more loving person. Anyone who has searched for their birth family knows the emotional highs and lows that come with meeting a new family. The book is well written, and I was captivated from the beginning. I highly recommend this to anyone interested in adoption and overcoming obstacles in life.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am really a 3.5 on this book. It is non-fiction -- the author's story of growing up as an adopted child in an abusive home and her quest as an adult to find her birth family. It is a fascinating story, and I thoroughly enjoyed it, reading most of the book in one sitting. It is very well written as the author had a long journalistic career. However, it is self-published. Like many self-published books, there are editing errors.

I would definitely recommend this book to those interested in the subject of adoption.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This deeply personal, well written, and seemingly cathartic memoir is about so much more than the authors' search for her biological family. It also deals with a multitude of family relationship issues, addiction, marriage, and faith. The book ends, but her journey--like all of ours--continues.