THE INTERNATIONAL PULPWOOD QUEEN AND TIMBER GUY BOOK CLUB
Just One Look by Joanne Kukanza Easley Set in Chicago during the turbulent 60s and 70s, Just One Look traces one woman’s journey through loss, grief, denial, and letting go. Dani Marek falls in love at age thirteen, stuck boy-blind by a tall handsome fifteen-year-old named John. She floats on a cloud of happiness and plans their future for five blissful years, but John is drafted into the Viet Nam war and loses his life. With her expectations shattered, Dani goes off the rails, wreaking revenge on the male population of Chicago. Her life is bereft of self-examination, but she is ambitious. When she meets a man with money, she marries him knowing she will use him for college tuition. She plans to leave him when she graduates and has a successful career. Their union is merely a mutual pact of convenience. After an unplanned pregnancy results from a night Dani would rather forget, her ambitions are derailed. When the marriage ends in Luke’s suicide, she’s left with a toddler, a fortune, and a budding career. At last, Dani turns a critical eye on how she’s conducted her life since John’s death. Her hard heart cracked open when Lorelei was born, then flowers when she meets John’s boyhood friend Noah, who served with him in the Army and has worshipped her from afar. Will Dani resolve 70 OCTOBER 2021
