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Book Cover for: Sweet Jane, Joanne Kukanza Easley

Sweet Jane

Joanne Kukanza Easley

2019 Wisdom-Faulkner Award Finalist


A drunken mother makes childhood ugly. Jane runs away at sixteen, determined to leave her fraught upbringing in the rearview. Vowing never to return, she hitchhikes to California, right on time for the Summer of Love. Seventeen years later, she looks good on paper: married, grad school, sober, but her carefully constructed life is crumbling. When Mama dies, Jane returns for the funeral, leaving her husband in the dark about her history. Seeing her childhood home and significant people from her youth catapults Jane back to the events that made her the woman she is. She faces down her past and the ghosts that shaped her family. A stunning discovery helps Jane see her problems through a new lens.

Book Details

  • Publisher: Red Boots Press
  • Publish Date: Sep 20th, 2022
  • Pages: 280
  • Language: English
  • Edition: undefined - undefined
  • Dimensions: 9.00in - 6.00in - 0.63in - 0.91lb
  • EAN: 9798986713328
  • Categories: SagasHistorical - GeneralLiterary

About the Author

Kukanza Easley, Joanne: - A retired registered nurse with experience in both the cold, clinical operating room and the emotionally fraught world of psychiatric hospitals, Joanne lives on a small ranch in the Texas Hill Country, where she writes fiction about complicated, twentieth-century women. Her prize-winning short stories and poetry have appeared in several anthologies.

Praise for this book

Net Galley- I loved that the author touched on Jane's experiences at Haight-Ashbury during the "Summer of Love" in 1967, and dropped some famous names at the time. My emotions ran all over the place while reading this book. I felt anger towards her mother for what she did to her, but later felt sad for her. I even found myself chuckling a couple times. The themes of the book cover alcoholism, self-respect, forgiveness, and honesty. I would recommend this book to anyone.


Diane Donovan. Midwest Review- As Jane's evolution is traced, audiences will appreciate the process of survival, abuse, enabling, and discovery that propel Jane and her readers into new revelations. Sweet Jane's ability to take a family mystery and follow its roots and wings makes it an outstandingly warm read that is hard to put down and, like its protagonist, easy to love.