2.5
Lucky
By Jane SmileyPublisher Description
From the best-selling, Pulitzer Prize–winning writer, a soaring, soulful novel about a folk musician who rises to fame across our changing times • “A robust, atmospheric coming-of-age story.” —People
Before Jodie Rattler became a star, she was a girl growing up in St. Louis. One day in 1955, when she was just six years old, her uncle Drew took her to the racetrack, where she got lucky—and that roll of two-dollar bills she won has never since left her side. Jodie thrived in the warmth of her extended family, and then—through a combination of hard work and serendipity—she started a singing career, which catapulted her from St. Louis to New York City, from the English countryside to the tropical beaches of St. Thomas, from Cleveland to Los Angeles, and back again. Jodie comes of age in recording studios, backstage, and on tour, and she tries to hold her own in the wake of Janis Joplin, Joan Baez, Judy Collins, and Joni Mitchell. Yet it feels like something is missing. Could it be true love? Or is that not actually what Jodie is looking for?
Full of atmosphere, shot through with longing and exuberance, romance and rock 'n' roll, Lucky is a story of chance and grit and the glitter of real talent, a colorful portrait of one woman's journey in search of herself.
Before Jodie Rattler became a star, she was a girl growing up in St. Louis. One day in 1955, when she was just six years old, her uncle Drew took her to the racetrack, where she got lucky—and that roll of two-dollar bills she won has never since left her side. Jodie thrived in the warmth of her extended family, and then—through a combination of hard work and serendipity—she started a singing career, which catapulted her from St. Louis to New York City, from the English countryside to the tropical beaches of St. Thomas, from Cleveland to Los Angeles, and back again. Jodie comes of age in recording studios, backstage, and on tour, and she tries to hold her own in the wake of Janis Joplin, Joan Baez, Judy Collins, and Joni Mitchell. Yet it feels like something is missing. Could it be true love? Or is that not actually what Jodie is looking for?
Full of atmosphere, shot through with longing and exuberance, romance and rock 'n' roll, Lucky is a story of chance and grit and the glitter of real talent, a colorful portrait of one woman's journey in search of herself.
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communities3 Reviews
2.5
Kyra
Created about 1 month agoShare
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“I feel like it had some parts that are quite slow but I think it had some emotional and fun moments.”
Characters change and growMulti-layered characters
tawndawn
Created 4 months agoShare
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“I chose this book by its cover. I hadn’t read Jane Smiley before, but I’ve seen her works praised for years. So, on a whim I requested an advanced audiobook and ended up listening to it all day, finishing this afternoon. The story is bittersweet, evocative, timeless. The book will take you on an absolute journey, culminating in the most explosive ending I’ve read in a long time. I was screaming in my car.
Smiley’s storytelling is sweet and lyrical and uncomfortable and raw, but ultimately is timely and honest.
Jane Smiley goes there.
And it’s awesome.
Thank you to RB Media and NetGalley for this arc, in exchange for my unbiased opinion.”
Sophie
Created 7 months agoShare
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About Jane Smiley
JANE SMILEY is the author of numerous novels, including A Thousand Acres, which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, and the Last Hundred Years Trilogy: Some Luck, Early Warning, and Golden Age. She is the author as well of several works of nonfiction and books for young adults. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, she has also received the PEN Center USA Lifetime Achievement Award for Literature. She lives in Northern California.
Other books by Jane Smiley
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