Bookn' with Friends: Mary Jane

Join the Winfield Public Library Bookn’ with Friends book club as we read this month’s book selection, Mary Jane by Jessica Anya Blau.  Copies of the book are currently available to check out at WPL’s front desk.  All are welcome to join in the book discussion, to be held on Monday, September 26 at 6:30pm in the WPL Discovery Room. 

Mary Jane is a coming of age tale, set in 1970s Baltimore, about a 14-year-old girl caught between her straight-laced family and the progressive family she nannies for – who happen to be secretly hiding a famous rock star for the summer.  Selected to meet the September Reading Challenge of a “music related” book, it is 320 pages and has a goodreads rating of 4.18.

From the publisher: 

In 1970s Baltimore, fourteen-year-old Mary Jane loves cooking with her mother, singing in her church choir, and enjoying her family’s subscription to the Broadway Show Tunes of the Month record club.  Shy, quiet, and bookish, she’s glad when she lands a summer job as a nanny for the daughter of a local doctor.  A respectable job, Mary Jane’s mother says.  In a respectable house.

The house may look respectable on the outside, but inside it’s a literal and figurative mess:  clutter on every surface, IMPEACHMENT: Now More Than Ever bumper stickers on the doors, cereal and takeout for dinner.  And even more troublesome (were Mary Jane’s mother to know, which she does not):  The doctor is a psychiatrist who has cleared his summer for one important job – helping a famous rock star dry out.  A week after Mary Jane starts, the rock star and his movie star wife move in.

Over the course of the summer, Mary Jane introduces her new household to crisply ironed clothes and a family dinner schedule, and has a front-row seat to a liberal world of sex, drugs, and rock and roll (not to mention group therapy).  Caught between the lifestyle she’s always known and the future she’s only just realized is possible, Mary Jane will arrive at September with a new idea about what she wants out of life, and what kind of person she’s going to be.

Bookn’ with Friends book talks are hosted by the Friends of the Winfield Public Library.  This group supports library activities such as the Summer Reading Program and the Discovery exhibits.  For those who believe in literacy programs, love the library and wish to support strong community, membership in The Friends is a great way to show support.