3. Sister Mine - Tawni O'Dell

Audio read by Renee Raudman
For: Adults
Book Published: 2007
Audio Published: 2007 Books on Tape
10 discs (11 hrs. 45 min.)
416 pgs.
Rating: 4
Finished Jan. 4, 2009

This is the third novel written by Tawny O'Dell. Her book, Back Roads, was an Oprah Pick. This was a good story with loads of great characters and a protagonist that was smart and sassy. A very enjoyable read/listen.

Shae-Lynn Penrose took care of her sister from the time their mother died, right after Shannon's birth. Their coal-miner father was abusive to Shae-Lynn. Pregnant at 17, she raised her son, Clay, to become a decent young man. At the time the story takes place he is 23 and a deputy sheriff, she is 40, retired from being a cop, and driving her own cab in a hick coal-mining town, Jollymount, in central PA. Shannan had disappeared 18 years before, and Shae-Lynn has always thought that their now-dead father killed her. Shae-Lynn's best friend, EJ, is a miner who, with four others, was trapped for four days in a much-televised mine explosion a few years earlier. This is where the story starts.

Shannon turns up in town, not dead, and very, very pregnant. She is cynical and a professional baby-maker, selling her babies as a living. She's on her tenth. Shae-Lynn is dealing with this unexpected arrival, trying to keep up with the three diffferent people who are looking for Shannon (a lawyer, a rich wanna-be mom, and a Russian mobster-type), helping Clay's best friend, Dusty, from hitting the bottom of the barrell, meeting and mothering ex-con, one-eared Choker's kids, Fanci and Kenny, trying to figure out her relationship with EJ AND dealing with having Clay find out the truth about his father - who is really a jerk. Never a dull moment.

I listened to this driving to Maine in the middle of a frigid night in December, driving back to Boston in a downpour, and driving in and around and across Tucson. It was a good one.