Just Listen Review

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Just Listen ReviewHow beautifully written this book is, I cannot even begin to explain, nor would I ever do it justice. It's hard to believe that Dessen's books keep getting better and better, because I always wonder how she's going to top the last one. Somehow, she always does, and in a way that leaves you desperate for more. I have never been one to re-read books, but I absolutely cannot lay this book to rest. I want to re-live the story, because I can't bear to let the characters go.
Annabel is facing the hardest school year of her life. She's dealing with a lot of family issues including her sister's severe battle with anorexia, and trying to tell her mother that she desperatly wants to quit modeling. Her ex-best friend Sophie no longer talks to her, because she thinks that Annabel slept with her boyfriend, but the truth is far deeper and the worst part is that nobody knows. Now that her friends have turned on her she has nobody until Owen Armstrong, the most unlikely person, befriends her and makes her see life in a new light.
Dessen did a beautiful job of portraying family relationships and how difficult it can be when you have to sacrifice for them. You feel so much a part of this book that it's as if you are sitting at the table with them arguing, crying, screaming, laughing, talking, or holding one another. The struggle with friendships is so real and honest that I'm sure every one of us can relate in some sense to the loss of a best friend, or a misunderstanding that never was resolved that Annabel deals with on a daily basis. The pain she has to endure while desperately hiding the truth from everyone else is incredible and you feel so deeply for her that it may bring you to tears or just want to reach into the book and give her a big hug.
Every young woman should read Dessen's books, but especially this one. It has so many lessons to offer girls on topics that are extremely important for them to be aware of. Everything from love and loss to anorexia and rape, this book has it all and it is so very beautifully done. I cannot express enough just how highly I reccomend this book to women of all ages, but especially to high school girls. Dessen is absolutely brilliant.Just Listen Overview

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You Think You Hear: A Novel Review

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You Think You Hear: A Novel ReviewIn his debut novel Matt O'Keefe presents an engaging cast of characters - some likable, others not - but all of them real. The details of life on the road are funny and poignant and perfectly drawn - I read this book while driving across the U.S., and kept hoping to run into Matt O'Keefe's narrator along the way. "You Think You Hear" is a great book that deserves a big audience.You Think You Hear: A Novel Overview

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Life Between the Keys: The (Mis)Adventures Of The 5 Browns Review

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Life Between the Keys: The (Mis)Adventures Of The 5 Browns Review"Life Between the Keys" is the story of The 5 Browns - the Juilliard-trained family of piano virtuosos who have taken the classical music scene by storm. The book consists of a series of essays, written by each of the five Brown siblings - Ryan, Melody, Gregory, Deondra and Desirae. These essays are filled with anecdotes about their childhood, their piano training at Juilliard, their performance tours and other experiences.
As a pianist myself and a graduate of a university piano performance program, I found their stories of long hours of practicing, auditioning for college, preparing for degree-required recitals and "living" in the practice rooms to really hit home with me. I definitely could identify with many of their experiences, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading these sometimes humorous/sometimes touching reminiscences.
Melody's recollection of long hours in the practice rooms was my favorite:
"...looking back on the room with blue velvet curtains, I see a home...I'd visit with friends and argue with enemies. I'd cry my eyes out, throw music across the room, and bang on the piano. I'd laugh until I couldn't breathe and play until I transcended the room. This was what I found in the practice rooms. Razor blades were the least of my worries. For life was between those keys, nothing else."
A few other things I loved about this book:
-This book illustrates that hard work and dedication really can pay off. I found myself inspired and motivated to practice the piano after reading this book!
-The importance of family is a theme that pervades this book. I was very impressed by how close these siblings are.
-Their passion and love for music is very evident. These siblings are literally changing the face of classical music, making it "cool" and inspiring young people everywhere.
While I would highly recommend this book especially to other pianists and musicians, I am positive that many people, musicians and non-musicians alike, will enjoy this inspiring book.Life Between the Keys: The (Mis)Adventures Of The 5 Browns Overview

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Taking Woodstock: A True Story of a Riot, a Concert, and a Life Review

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Taking Woodstock: A True Story of a Riot, a Concert, and a Life ReviewThe above would be an appropriate subtitle for this heartfelt but energetic and witty coming-of-age autobiography/memoir by Elliot Tiber, whose main claim to fame is that he fought the petty politics and narrow-mindedness of his small town of Bethel, NY, in order to make possible the Woodstock Festival in 1969.
The author (born Eliyahu Teichberg) grew up in the richly ethnic neighborhood of Bensonhurst, Brooklyn in an emotionally-starved but hardworking family with his Russian-Jewish immigrant parents. His father worked as a roofer, while his mother ran a housewares store in which they all helped out. Elliot finished college and began a moderately successful career in art design, primarily starting out dressing store windows and painting murals for rich Manhattanites. A trip to the Catskills resulted in the family buying a run-down motel right off Highway 17B at White Lake, in the town of Bethel NY, and Elliot found himself splitting his time, working weekdays in NYC and spending weekends doing whatever had to be done to keep the motel operational and barely financially afloat.
At the same time, Elliot came to the realization that he was gay, and - for whatever reason - favored the underground S&M flavored scene that existed in NYC in the mid 1960's. He met and partied with Robert Mapplethorpe, Truman Capote, Tennessee Williams, and even encountered Rock Hudson at one point. Of course, coming out to his conservative parents wasn't an option for him at the time, but his "secret life" during the week somewhat served to make bearable the weekends at the motel, scrubbing toilets and dealing with customer complaints (The Teichbergs cut a few corners in customer service. For example, they had phones in each room, but they weren't connected to anything. The TV was an empty box, as was the air conditioner sleeve below the window. Need soap and a towel? It'll cost ya extra, but you're lucky you made it in today, since Dad has hosed off your sheets - the only cleaning they ever got - just yesterday.)
In early 1969, Elliot read with interest the news accounts that the promoters of the planned Woodstock Music and Art Festival had been denied a permit by the town of Walkill, their planned location. As president (nobody else wanted the job) of Bethel's Chamber of Commerce, he had the authority to issue festival permits, and contacted the promoters about the possibility of moving the festival to Bethel, and offered the meadow of a friend, dairy farmer Max Yasgur, as the perfect venue. Much of the book details the whirlwind events that followed, as the festival took on a life of its own, eventually attracting around 500,000 people to the small town, resulting in threats by locals, payoffs to those who opposed it, nudity, drugs, gangsters, people bathing in the lake, shortages of food and water, but - despite it all - the most historic event in music and counterculture history, after which nothing would ever be the same again for Elliot and his family.
The author has a gift in telling a story, even one as obviously self-centered as this one is, for the most part. Witty and engaging, sure to bring back memories of that era. Loved the reversible (regular/psychodelic) dust jacket! 5 stars out of 5.Taking Woodstock: A True Story of a Riot, a Concert, and a Life Overview

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Ten Thousand Saints: A Novel Review

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Ten Thousand Saints: A Novel ReviewThe new novel TEN THOUSAND SAINTS is certainly interesting and to me at least quite original. The book begins on New Year's Eve 1987 in fictional college town Lintonburg,VT (um if you notice Lintonburg contains the exact same letters as Burlington the home of the University of Vermont and the fictional and real cities have many similarities). Two young teenagers, Teddy and Jude, are out partying with their new friend Eliza from Manhattan and tragically Teddy is found dead the next morning after among other things huffing Freon and snorting cocaine. Both Jude and Eliza feel very guilty because Jude pressed the Freon on him and Eliza supplied the cocaine. Actually Eliza offered Teddy more than cocaine that night and she soon discovers she is pregnant from her one time encounter with the now deceased teenager. Eliza, Jude and Teddy's older half brother Johnny form a family of sorts who hope to raise Teddy's baby.
Adults are as important to the story as the teenagers and the effects of parents' actions on their children is a major theme of the book. Jude and his sister Prudence's divorced parents both make their living from marijuana as their dad Les is a prosperous grower and dealer while their artist mother Harriet, perhaps the most stable parent in the novel, makes her living from blowing glass bongs and pipes. Eliza's mom who at the beginning of the story is also Les's girlfriend is a self absorbed ballerina while Teddy and Johnny's mom is an aging hippie known for disappearing when ever things get uncomfortable. Johnny's dad is a prison inmate and Teddy's dad is an unknown man of Asian Indian descent who turns up toward the end of the book and is not what this reader at least expected.
The teenagers turn to Straight Edge music with the accompanying austere lifestyle strongly influenced by Hare Krishna beliefs. It is implied that this is a reaction against their parents' hedonistic ways. Johnny who is a musician and tattoo artist living in the Tompkins Square Park area of Manhattan's alphabet city marries Eliza in hopes of giving his dead brother's baby a chance to stay under his influence even though he has no romantic interest in women. Johnny seems to epitomize the Straight Edge lifestyle and is known as Mr. Clean because of his shaved head and vegan habits.
TEN THOUSAND SAINTS is a novel well worth reading. AIDS, homelessness, gentrification, parenthood, adoption, and drug use are among the many topics incorporated in the book. The author does a great job of bringing the late 1980's in the East Village to detailed life and the choices of the kids and parents in the book will linger in the reader's memory.And the book ends with a very appropriate and effective postscript from 2006 on the last night the famed punk venue CBGB's was open.
Ten Thousand Saints: A Novel Overview

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