At once humorous and heartfelt, Loud and Sure of Myself is a rambling and luminous childhood journey through a simpler time—the 1970s—and a loving look at a place they once called Coal Country. Loud and Sure of Myself is a collection of essays that evokes a world of used-to-be: youthful adventures set in Catholic schools, at little league games, and inside a unique local radio station that helped to define the culture of a very different time. Stanek's second book is an affectionate glance at a lifestyle that has disappeared and follows on the heels of They Came Here Looking for Light: The Plattsville Stories.
"Stanek enchants us with ..indelible images of a small, specific place now lost to change." - Val Nieman, author of To the Bones.