This book is the last volume in a series of three memoirs and is co-authored by Marilea C. Rabasa and Gene Dunne.

This week, let’s take a look at two books that are based on the stories of real people, but that focus on different stages of life.

Longview, Washington, author Linda Eddleston based “Just Call Me Frank,” a work of historical fiction, after listening to tapes of her dad talking about his youth.

Gilbert Franklin Rose’s childhood in Portland had been difficult. His dad deserted the family when Frank was only 4 years old, and his mom was left to raise three sons on her own. To support her family, she trained as a nurse and had to put her boys in foster care while doing so.

This week’s books

“Just Call Me Frank” by Linda Eddleston

Karen Bonaudi Ink — 430 pp — $15

“Gene & Toots” by Marilea C. Rabasa and Gene Dunne

Sidekick Press — 274 pp — $18.95

Early chapters delve into Frank’s checkered experiences as a foster kid. But at the age of 17, Frank left Oregon to ride the rails and see the country.

He picked up jobs as a farmworker, meatpacker, longshoreman and boxer. A strong work ethic and simple needs made Frank’s life as a nomad possible. This book relates an interesting array of the interactions he had with many characters along the way.

But jobs became tougher to find when the stock market crashed in 1929, and then the Dust Bowl followed. The Great Depression deepened, so when newly-elected President Franklin Delano Roosevelt offered a New Deal, Frank took advantage of the Civilian Conservation Corps and wound up in Alaska, building docks, warehouses and roads in Juneau.

“Just Call Me Frank” is about coming of age and learning the difference between settling debts and settling scores.

While hefty at more than 400 pages, this book is easy to read. It isn’t highbrow literature, but it is an entertaining take on an interesting slice of American history.

The other book, “Gene & Toots,” is the last volume in a series of three memoirs that chronicle Marilea C. Rabasa’s journey of recovery from substance abuse, with support along the way from family.

This column reviewed her previous book, “Stepping Stones,” three years ago, as Rabasa was in her first years of sobriety.

“Gene & Toots,” co-authored with her partner, Gene Dunne, is written more than five years into her recovery. Dunne also is a recovering alcoholic, but he had grappled with that reality and achieved sobriety decades earlier.

“Every day when we wake up, life happens to us … How we face it, the choices we make, with or without a problem to wrestle with is a test of our mettle,” Rabasa writes.

Both Rabasa and Dunne had been in previous marriages that had ended in divorce.

Early chapters in this book offer a frank assessment of the couple’s love affair, begun thirty years ago, and how that affected their then-teenaged children.

But with the passage of time, and wisdom gained through experience and mistakes made, the pair have built a satisfying life that centers on their Camano Island home and extends to their kids and grandkids around the country.