Library News & Views: "Milk Glass Moon'

by Francine Brady

After a break over the summer so that the library could write about all of the great things they were doing, I’m back with a review of “Milk Glass Moon.” This is the third book in Adriana Trigiani’s “Big Stone Gap” series.

All of Adriana Trigiani’s characters are back in “Milk Glass Moon,” including Jack Mack (Ave Maria’s true love), Ave Maria, Etta (daughter of Jack and Ave Maria), Theodore Tipton (who moves to New York to start a new life), Iva Lou Wade Makin (Librarian and sexpert), Fleeta Mullins (crusty cashier), Pearl Grimes (mountain girl turned savvy businesswoman) and Pete Rutledge (handsome stranger who turned Ave Maria’s head).

Travel takes the reader from the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia to the Italian Alps, from New York to the Tuscan countryside. The reader follows Ave Maria’s enduring marriage with its ongoing challenges.

Part of the story focuses on mother and daughter relations: Etta gets drunk. Etta’s practical joke that backfires and tries her parents’ patience with each other. Etta’s first love.

The community of Big Stone Gap faces a change. Tragedy strikes the family of Spec Broadwater. Friends move away and Ave Maria comes to the realization that Etta will soon be leaving. Etta gets married in Italy. Ave Maria finds she must reinvent her life if she is to go on with her life.

I love old myths and “Milk Glass Moon” includes a Scottish myth about fairy stones: “There is a valley in the Cumberland Gap. In this valley is a grove of dogwood trees and on Good Friday hundreds of years ago, the birds in the trees wept and when their tears hit the ground they turned into fairy stones. And until the end of time, the birds will cry every Good Friday until their sorrow is released on Judgement Day.”

In book four of the “Big Stone Gap Series” we return “Home to Big Stone Gap.” The final book of the series. Look for my review, coming soon.

“Milk Glass Moon” is available to be checked out from the Havre-Hill County Library.

Library hours are:

• Monday and Tuesday 9 a.m-.9 p.m.

• Wednesday and Thursday 9 a.m. 6 p.m.

• Friday 9 a.m.-5 p. m

• Saturday noon-5 p.m.

• Closed Sunday.