Jayne's Picks

Last night we had a staff meeting and everyone came with their picks! Jayne loved both of these books and shares her reviews. Happy reading.

Shadow Tag by Louise Erdrich

Louise Erdrich takes you by the hand and invites you right into the inner most part of Irene America from the first page. She doesnt just take you by the hand, she snatches you into a world, where you know the steaming locomotive she brings you on is heading for a wreck. Irene and her husband Gil, both with a Native American heritage, struggle with who they are in their marriage, and how they have come to use one another. Their three children keep them together and provide to the world the happy picture of a whole marriage and family of some envy in their sophisticated lives. But love and hatred provide a pendulum swing throughout the story, and where it rests will surprise and haunt you.

Bloodroot by Amy Greene

Bloodroot is Amy Greene's debut novel. That is good news for those of us who want to hear more from this wonderful writer. Set in East Tenessee in the shadow of Bloodroot Mountain, both magical and enveloping, the author gives voice to Byrdie, Doug, Johnny, Laura and Myra. Unforgettable characters, and most especially Myra who is born with special powers that are passed along generations of 'granny women'. Amy Greene takes us into their inner world of hurt and healing amidst the natural beauty of the surroundings. The imagery of crooked dirt roads, thick trees, leaf patterns and the ridges of fungus on bark seep into the narrative and placed me where I had never been before. The author gives a knowing view into the lives of these few characters that struggle and try to survive in that place. Like the bloodroot plant, with properties both poisonous and curative, the love shared and rejected in this novel is both fatal and healing.