Review: The Music Teacher by Barbara Hall

Book Review: The Music Teacher by Barbara Hall


Description: The Music Teacher is a penetrating and richly entertaining look into the heart and mind of a woman who has failed both as an artist and as a wife. Barbara Hall, award-winning writer and producer of such hit television series as Judging Amy and Joan of Arcadia, tells the story of a violinist who has accepted the limitations of her talent and looks for the casual satisfaction of trying to instill her passion for music in others. She gets more than she bargains for, however, when a young girl named Hallie enters her life. For here at last is the real thing: someone with the talent and potential to be truly great. In her drive to shape this young girl into the artist the teacher could never be, she makes one terrible mistake. As a result she is forced to reevaluate her whole life and come to terms with her future.



I received The Music Teacher as an Advanced Reading Copy as part of LibraryThing Early Reviewers. This is the story of a woman named Pearl who teaches violon lessons in a music shop in LA after not making it professionally. Pearl focuses on one student, Hallie, who she feels has potential to be a prodigy. Hallie has a difficult home life and Pearl gets overly involved and makes mistakes in judgement that effect both of their futures. There are other characters in the book, mainly Pearls coworkers who are all floundering in life trying to find their way. I found the story a gritty, dark and sad representation of music teachers. The book wasn't about music as much as it was about how music relates to life and relationships. The story fell flat for me and I didn't find myself caring that much for Pearl or the characters in the book.

• You can read other reviews with different perspectives including 5 star reviews of The Music Teacher at BookBrowse HERE.
• You can read more about the author Barbara Hall HERE.
• This book will be published in February 2009.

Book Review: Bitter Sweets by Roopa Farooki

Book Review:

Bitter Sweets

Description: With this spellbinding first novel about the destructive lies three immigrant generations of a Pakistani/Bangladeshi family tell each other, Roopa Farooki adds a fresh new voice to the company of Zadie Smith, Jhumpa Lahiri and Arudhati Roy. Henna Rub is a precocious teenager whose wheeler-dealer father never misses a business opportunity and whose sumptuous Calcutta marriage to wealthy romantic Ricky-Rashid Karim is achieved by an audacious network of lies. Ricky will learn the truth about his seductive bride, but the way is already paved for a future of double lives and deception--family traits that will filter naturally through the generations, forming an instinctive and unspoken tradition. Even as a child, their daughter Shona, herself conceived on a lie and born in a liar's house, finds telling fibs as easy as ABC. But years later, living above a sweatshop in South London's Tooting Bec, it is Shona who is forced to discover unspeakable truths about her loved ones and come to terms with what superficially holds her family together--and also keeps them apart--across geographical, emotional and cultural distance.

This book is already out in publication in Hardback. I received a copy of this book as part of the Early Reviewer group at Library Thing and from St. Martin's Griffin Publishers. My copy is an Advanced Readers' Edition Trade Paperback that will be published in October 2008. The book also includes a Reading Group Gold Section in the back of the book that includes:

• An Interview with the author Roopa Farooki


• Food For Thought


• Reading Group Questions
  
  

Roopa Farooki's debut novel is a richly woven tale of three generations of a family with Indian, Pakistani and English backgrounds. The author was able to tell the story through the viewpoints of many characters in the book very smoothly. The main character that stood out for me in the story was Shona, the daughter of Henna and Ricky-Rashid who were brought together through an arranged marriage filled with deception. Shona, their only child, married Parvez a young man of Pakistani descent that her parents did not approve of as they were of Bangladeshi descent. They had twin boys who grew up to be very different in nature and personality. The main theme of the book is on the impact that lies and deception can have on a family. At one point, near the end of the story, Shona comes across a quote in a book that makes her question if deception is something she could change. She made a decision that would change the dynamics of her family. I liked Shona's character in the story and how her character along with other characters grew and matured. I disliked Henna, as she appeared to be a very selfish woman who rarely showed love or attention to her husband or daughter unless it was for her own personal gain. The author commented in an interview in the back of the book that explains much about the characters "...in Bitter Sweets the moral conflicts of the characters which lead them to deceive are not a result of religious dilemmas or culture clashes, but rather due to their very personal and ambiguous emotions." Forbidden love as well as faith and fidelity are other strong themes in the book. There were surprises and twists and turns all through the story. I enjoyed reading each creative chapter title as it was a glimpse ahead to the next storyline and it made me want to keep on reading. I was pleased with the ending of the book and where each character ended up in their stage of life. I can imagine a sequel to this book as it would be very interesting to see what happens to the characters next and how their choices may efffect the next generation.

I look forward to reading more books by this author and from information on the authors website and blog a new book will be out in the US next year in 2009.

My First Book Review:No One You Know by Michelle Richmond!

No One You Know
by Michelle Richmond



From the Publisher:

Michelle Richmond dazzled readers and critics alike with her luminous novel The Year of Fog. Now Richmond returns with an intensely emotional, multilayered family drama—a woman’s search for her sister’s killer that spirals into a journey of secrets, revelations, and damaged lives. All her life Ellie Enderlin had been known as Lila’s sister. Until one day, without warning, the shape of their family changed forever. Twenty years ago, Lila, a top math student at Stanford, was murdered in a crime that was never solved. In the aftermath of her sister’s death, Ellie entrusted her most intimate feelings to a man who turned the story into a bestselling true crime book—a book that both devastated her family and identified one of Lila’s professors as the killer.Decades later, two Americans meet in a remote village in Nicaragua. Ellie is now a professional coffee buyer, an inveterate traveler and incapable of trust. Peter is a ruined academic. And their meeting is not by chance. As rain beats down on the steaming rooftops of the village, Peter leaves Ellie with a gift—the notebook that Lila carried everywhere, a piece of evidence not found with her body. Stunned, Ellie will return home to San Francisco to explore the mysteries of Lila’s notebook, filled with mathematical equations, and begin a search that has been waiting for her all these years. It will lead her to a hundred-year-old mathematical puzzle, to a lover no one knew Lila had, to the motives and fate of the man who profited from their family’s anguish—and to the deepest secrets even sisters keep from each other. As she connects with peoplewhose lives unknowingly swirled around her own, Ellie will confront a series of startling revelations—from the eloquent truths of numbers to confessions of love, pain and loss.A novel about the stories and lies that strangers, lovers and families tell—and the secrets we keep even from ourselves—Michelle Richmond’s new novel is a work of astonishing depth and beauty, at once heartbreaking, provocative, and impossible to put down.


This is the first book that I have read by Michelle Richmond and I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed the book. I reviewed the book as an Early Reviewer at Library Thing and have modified my review a bit here. The author was kind enough to send me an email thanking me for my review. She seems very devoted to her books and her fans. I found the book a combination of literary fiction and mystery and this is not a typical mystery. The story draws you in from the start as it is truly about the relationship between two sisters, Ellie and Lila and how relationships effect all areas of your life. Even hidden secrets can turn full circle and be understood in some way and bring understanding and meaning to your life. After Lila's death, Ellie confided in a "friend" who turned her confidences into a book and she felt betrayed and the guilt affected her life in many ways. She was able to face her own fears and in the end to find the truth of what happened to Lila. This was very freeing and healing for her. As Ellie is the main storyteller and narrator you learn through her experiences that stories that you believe are the truth can sometimes be deceiving. Yes, parts of the story were focused on math and theory concepts but I found much of that written in a way that was interesting and held my attention. It did not detract from the story at all for me but made sense pulling it all together. I enjoyed the anecdotal stories related to math history as well. I found reading about Ellie's job in the coffee industry and her experiences very well written and detailed in ways that I could sense the aroma of the coffee beans and learned how important the sense of smell can be for a coffee buyer. I highly recommend this richly written and moving novel. I will definitely keep my eye on this author and check out her other books.

~Bonnie