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.

A respectable job, Mary Jane’s mother says. Shy, quiet, and bookish, she’s glad when she lands a summer job as a nanny for the daughter of a local doctor. 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 Showtunes of the Month record club. 'I LOVED this novel.If you have ever sung along to a hit on the radio, in any decade, then you will devour Mary Jane at 45 rpm.' -Nick HornbyĪlmost Famous meets Daisy Jones & The Six in this 'delightful' (New York Times Book Review) novel about a fourteen-year-old girl’s coming of age in 1970s Baltimore, caught between her straight-laced family and the progressive family she nannies for-who happen to be secretly hiding a famous rock star and his movie star wife for the summer. Mary Jane: A Novel is available now at BookStoreOne Sarasota at 12 S.'The best book of the summer.' - InStyle Many times, people come into BookStoreOne yearning for a book that’s not bleak or trauma filled and Mary Jane: A Novel is the ticket for a fun, but poignant walk down memory lane. A fun subplot involving a celebrity couple reminiscent of Cher and Gregg Allman, who move in with the groovy parents whom Mary Jane works for, introduce her to everything from sex talk, risque fashions (think crocheted bikinis), and the rock and roll musical Hair. This is not to say that her employers are innocent or perfect, yet their honesty helps Mary Jane discover herself as an individual simultaneously converging with the universal epiphany that parents are simply fallible humans rather than gods.įor people who came of age in the 1970’s, this book is a retrospective blast involving all the kitsch of the ‘70’s, Bonne Bell lip gloss, Aqua Net hairspray, to starch ironed sheets, just to name a few. When she gets the chance to nanny for a summer for two liberal by-products of the 60’s types, she realizes just how uptight (and prejudicially close minded) her parents are. Mary Jane is an only child teen stuck in the middle of these extremes with two conservative parents still clinging to ‘traditional’ values. shows like All in the Family), and a period of wild decadence ie. A decade duly described as an oxymoron considering it was both an era of candid innocence (think of the t.v. Mary Jane: A Novel is the perfect summer time fiction read set in Baltimore, Maryland and Rehoboth Beach, Delaware during the oxymoronic 1970’s.

Mary jane jessica