Born Blue
Han Nolan
 This story is about the life of Janie, who later renames herself 'Leshaya'. The book starts with Janie recalling a memory at toddler age, where she was drowning because of her mother's neglect to Janie's personal safety. Linda, Janie's mother, is a heroin addict, and because of the neglect that nearly led to Janie drowning, Janie was placed in foster care. Janie lived in a strict foster home for roughly 4 years with her foster brother Harmon, who soon gets adopted by Mr. and Mrs. James, leaving Janie alone until she is kidnapped by Linda, who then trades Janie to her dealer, Mitch, for heroin. Janie lives for years with "Mama Shelly" and "Daddy Mitch" but then, while at a shopping trip she meets her former foster brother Harmon. She then moves in with Mr. and Mrs. James when her former foster parents get arrested for drug possession. Life with Mr. and Mrs. James was hard, because of her bad childhood she never could live with a good "normal" family. Instead Janie goes with a local jazz band and falls in love with the band's 18-year-old songwriter, Jaz. Under the influence of beer and cocaine, Leshaya (Janie) loses her virginity to an unknown man at the party, and gets impregnated. She soon after finds herself living with a woman named Joy Victoria, who fostered Janie during her pregnancy. 9 months later, 13-year-old Leshaya gave birth to a baby girl who she names Etta Harmony James, after one of "The Ladies" that she listened to as a small child. She convinces herself and everyone else that Harmon is Etta's father, due to wanting to have had sex with him (So much so that she had left her panties in his bed before running off with Jaz), and smuggles Etta back to Tuscaloosa, Alabama to give her to Harmon, who is bewildered at how he could be the father. Harmon, in the end, takes Etta so that she could grow up like a normal child. She then lives with Paul, who is also a musician. She lives with Paul on good terms until she breaks a major rule that Paul had set for her, no drugs. And after he (Paul) found a dead man, Jed, in his bed from an overdose. (Jed was who Lashaya was with at the time). She is then forced to move out from Paul's place. She soon ends up at Mama Linda's beach house, who is dying of AIDS. Leshaya, seeing her mother in this state, stays with her for her final days, and while with her, looks at herself, and comes to peace with the past. The book ends when Leshaya travels back to Tuscaloosa to re-unite with Etta, but after seeing Etta living happily in a normal family life, Leshaya instead, leaves Etta with Harmon. Through this decision, Leshaya finds a new sense of personal identity, and sets out to meet her own future.