What I'm Reading -- Son Moon Stars Rain by Jan Cheripko

Cheripko writes this story with grace. Danny is home from college after a relationship went bad and he just couldn’t stay there anymore. He knows he is wasting his piano scholarship, but is trying to settle some things first as he returns home to his Mom in the Northeast. Once home, he meets an ornery land owner who is trying to save his woods from the government and Stephanie, a pretty single mother. Cheripko packs a lot in 160 pages including all of the emotions present as Danny is trying to figure out where to go next and how to deal with his part in his father’s accidental death. The characters, antagonists and settings of Sun Moon Stars Rain are written with simple and poignant observations. A comparable work is Tom Drury’s stark and haunting Driftless Area.