CBR16 Book 49: "Not Another Love Song" by Julie Soto

Page count: 384 pages

Rating: 3.5 stars

Smart Bitches Summer Bingo: Rock star or musician (this one has both)

Gwen Jackson started playing the violin at eleven and now, over a decade later, she is part of a popular ensemble orchestra and dreams of one day being famous enough to play solos and tour on her own. To pay the bills, she occasionally plays weddings on weekends with her roommate. Being told by the wedding planner that the bride wanted cello and piano, rather than violin, Gwen is forced to do her best and improvise, even though she's barely ever played the cello. She's even more flustered when the cello she's allowed to borrow belongs to Xander Thorne, popular rock star and master cellist. 

Gwen knows her performance is mediocre at best, and is painfully aware of the scrutiny of one of her musical idols. While she's loved Thorne and Roses, Xander's band for years, as well as played with him in the same orchestra for over a year, Xander doesn't seem to even know she existed prior to this wedding appearance. He certainly notices her afterward. Shortly after their first proper meeting, Gwen is promoted to First Chair at the Pops Orchestra, a position that Xander has wanted for years. He wants to despise this seemingly timid nobody but is forced to admit that she is very talented, and has every potential to become a star if she just learns to let go and forget about the audience watching her. 

While they initially dislike and distrust each other, there is also an undeniable attraction between them, and after a memorable evening when Xander invites Gwen back to his apartment to see his instruments (not actually a euphemism), it becomes clear that they collaborate beautifully together (and also really want to bang each other). Once their relationship becomes public, however, it turns out Xander's manager is less than thrilled, while Gwen's superiors at the Pops Orchestra want to mine it for ticket sales. Gwen and Xander also have very different ideas of where their career paths should lead. Will they be able to find a happy ending together?

I read Julie Soto's first novel, Forget Me Not, last year and mostly enjoyed the story of wedding planner Ama eventually reuniting with her lost love, florist extraordinaire Elliot. Both characters turn up in cameos in this novel as well. It seems that Soto, who like a lot of authors out there today, got her start as a fan fiction writer, and this book is actually a reworked Reylo fan fic that she didn't initially get a publishing deal for. There are obvious signs throughout the book that the protagonists are based on Rey and Kylo Ren, but I didn't mind it all that much. Obviously, this is a rivals to lovers story, and while it ended up being quite a cute romance, it starts out a bit rough, mainly just because I am never really a fan of the 'being mean and rude to the object of your infatuation' trope. Most of the book is written from Gwen's POV, with the occasional chapter from Xander's, so the reader is aware of how fascinated and besotted he is before Gwen is clued into the fact, mostly again, because he's rude, dismissive and outright unpleasant to her when they actually interact. 

Neither Gwen nor Xander have had the easiest time growing up. It also turns out that despite being from very different backgrounds (Xander's very privileged, Gwen's not so much so), the same woman actually taught them to play their instruments. Once Xander shows a more vulnerable side, he becomes a much less frustrating character. Part of what made this book so enjoyable was some of the supporting characters. Gwen's roommate and some of Xander's band members were a lot of fun. The villain of the story and their motivations could have been more nuanced and thought out, though.

In my review for Forget Me Not, I wrote that I hope Ama's photographer stepsister gets her own book. I still hope that, and I also hope that in the next story, the protagonists aren't Rey and Kylo Ren with the serial numbers filed off. 

Judging a book by its cover: I totally get why the author is excited to have this image on the cover of the book, it's a very memorable and sexy scene in the story. However, the cello in question is very clearly an electric one, which is NOT what is pictured here. I know that this might not matter to most readers, but I find it exasperating. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read

CBR15 Book 56: "Hook, Line and Sinker" by Tessa Bailey

Page count: 400 pages

Rating: 4 stars

Seven months ago, Hannah Bellinger left the little fishing town of Westport, Washington to go back to her life in Los Angeles. Her former socialite sister, Piper, stayed behind, happily engaged to a gruff crab fishing captain. While her sister at first mainly argued with and then fell like a ton of bricks for the gruff captain, Hannah spent quite a lot of time with his second in command, the very handsome Fox Thornton. Because of his womanizing ways, Hannah very quickly decided that no matter how good-looking and charming the man was, she was not going to become another conquest for him, but nevertheless enjoyed his company a lot. As a farewell present when she was about to return to LA, Fox left her a coveted Fleetwood Mac album that she had seen at a record expo but decided against buying for herself. Since music is as important to Hannah as breathing, the present was obviously very meaningful. She and Fox keep communicating via text messages, which both try to pretend mean less than they do, despite the fact that after a while, they communicate more with each other than anyone else in their lives. 

When in LA, Hannah works as a production assistant to an artsy film director, whom she's had a crush on for years. Since her stepfather is a very influential movie producer, she could probably have gotten a much swankier job, but Hannah wanted to work her way up the ranks honestly. Two years later, just fetching coffee and doing grunt work is getting a bit stale, though. Hannah dreams of working on movie soundtracks, but also struggles to make anyone actually notice her. She thinks of herself as a supporting character in the lives of others. Nevertheless, because she misses Westport, her sister (and if she allowed herself to admit it, Fox), she summons up the courage to pitch the fishing town as an alternate location to the film her movie director boss is currently making, since LA clearly isn't creating the correct vibe. Her absolutely lyrical descriptions of the town sell the temperamental director on the idea, and soon Hannah will be back near her sister and the man she keeps thinking about (as a friend) for an extended period.

Because this is a romance, and circumstances need to conspire to throw our potential lovers closer together, of course, Piper and Brendan, her handsome captain, can't let Hannah stay at theirs for the duration of the film shoot. No, she'll have to stay with Fox, in his spare room. But this is totally OK because they're just platonic friends, Fox won't even be there half the time because he'll be off on fishing trips, and Hannah still nurses that crush on her director, right?

Of course, once Hannah actually spends some time with Fox, she discovers not only that he actually has terrible self-esteem issues, literally seeing himself as nothing but a walking one-night stand, but that the attraction she feels towards him, and that he clearly returns is far from platonic. Fox witnessed his dad's womanising from an early age until it broke his parents up, and everyone around him, including his own parents, teachers, and others in the community seemed to believe that because he looked a lot like his dad, he was going to turn out exactly like him. This became a self-fulfilling prophecy - Fox started dating early and subscribed to the 'leave them before they leave you' attitude, never believing himself worthy of anything else or capable of change. He thinks Brendan is crazy for suggesting he take over as captain on Della Ray once Brendan's new, bigger fishing boat is completed. He makes self-deprecating jokes at his own expense and laughs at all the jokes about what an unreliable manwhore he is. 

Everyone warns him away from Hannah because she's the sister of his best friend's fiancée and someone who is clearly looking for a long-term relationship, not some brief and empty hook-up. Since Fox never really brought his female conquests to Westport, no one has really noticed that in the seven months since Hannah left, he hasn't been hooking up with anyone, being quite content with celibacy (because he's head over heels for Hannah). She, on the other hand, very quickly realises that her feelings for Sergei, her director boss, must have faded at some point. The only one whose attention she wants is Fox.

Fox's terrible self-image and how he's never even tried to break free of his man slut reputation (with one notable exception, which ended terribly and just further confirmed to him that his only worth is to give short-term sexual gratification to random ladies) is the biggest obstacle Hannah and Fox have to work through. There's also the fact that Hannah's home and work are in LA, and her stay in Westport isn't going to last longer than the film takes to complete. Fox doesn't believe himself capable of a long-term relationship, nor that he is in any way good enough for Hannah. Neither of them thinks a long-distance thing is going to work, but it might be career suicide for Hannah to move to the Pacific Northwest just as she's actually starting to make her boss notice her and consider her for a promotion. 

It Happened One Summer was cute and a very quick read. In that, Piper had the self-esteem issues and had to figure out who she really was, because no one had ever expected anything of her or believed her capable of anything except being a walking fashion plate. In this book, the esteem issues go even deeper and there is definitely more angst. Frankly, it's clear that most people have been hella judgmental and shitty to Fox, and he's let them and laughed along with it because he never thought to argue with their opinions. Because Hannah wants to show him that he has more to offer than just sex, she refuses to sleep with him for most of the book, wanting him to see that she likes him and his company, not just his looks and his body. 

Tessa Bailey seems to be a bit up and down quality-wise, with some of her books getting a lot of praise, while others seem borderline unreadable. I picked up these books because a very persuasive bookseller promised me I'd like them based on other romance titles I mentioned. I'm glad she was right, but I'm not sure I'm going to run out and get a bunch more of Bailey's books just because these two worked for me. 

Judging a book by its cover: I like how the cover artist manages to give Fox really awkward body language, while Hannah, who initially is very timid and reluctant to speak up, looks happy and confident. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read

CBR15 Book 37: "The Heart Principle" by Helen Hoang

Page count: 352 pages

Rating: 4 stars

Official book description:

When violinist Anna Sun accidentally achieves career success with a viral YouTube video, she finds herself incapacitated and burned out from her attempts to replicate that moment. And when her longtime boyfriend announces he wants an open relationship before making a final commitment, a hurt and angry Anna decides that if he wants an open relationship, then she does, too. Translation: She’s going to embark on a string of one-night stands. The more unacceptable the men, the better.

That’s where tattooed, motorcycle-riding Quan Diep comes in. Their first attempt at a one-night stand fails, as does their second, and their third, because being with Quan is more than sex—he accepts Anna on an unconditional level that she herself has just started to understand. However, when tragedy strikes Anna’s family she takes on a role that she is ill-suited for, until the burden of expectations threatens to destroy her. Anna and Quan have to fight for their chance at love, but to do that, they also have to fight for themselves.

OK, so anyone looking for a light-hearted, fluffy romance read should very much look elsewhere for their fix. Ms. Hoang took more than three years to finish this novel because she was going through a lot of the same things as her protagonist Anna in her actual life. In her afterword, Hoang writes that this book is half memoir and the hardest thing she's ever written. She was going through severe writer's block and autistic burnout because her mother got severely ill and required a lot of intensive care from her family. In the novel, it's Anna's father who gets very sick and is taken home by his family to be nursed by his close family members. This happens when Anna is already struggling with anxiety, depression, and undiagnosed autism. 

The early parts of the book, when Anna and Quan first meet and get to know each other are the easiest to read, even with Anna's perfectionist struggles to master her music. However, as the challenges keep building for the couple, the book also gets a lot heavier in its subject matter, and it actually took me a full 18 days to finish this book, despite its relatively low page count, because I kept having to put it down and didn't really want to come back to it too often, since the struggles Anna has in her personal life, and the difficulties she and Quan have to make their relationship work were really kind of bumming me out.

Nevertheless, Hoang is a good writer, and the heavy topics in the book feel all the more real since they're based in part on the author's own experiences. I don't regret reading the book and finishing the series, and I deeply sympathise with Ms. Hoang for having to go through such a hard time - but she probably got a better and more heartfelt book out of it in the end. 

Judging a book by its cover: As animated romance covers go, you could do a lot worse. I love the bright red background and the subtle heart behind the elegant woman, seemingly traced by a rider on a motorcycle is a nice touch. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read. 

CBR15 Book 1: "After Dark with the Duke" by Julie Anne Long

Page count: 384 pages

Rating: 4 stars

Mariana Wylde arrives at the Grand Palace at the Thames only seconds after curfew, dripping wet and terrified, since she escaped her own lodgings because a literal angry mob blocked her residence. The talented opera singer, dubbed "the Harlot of Haywood Street" by the press after two rich, young noblemen fought a duel for her favour (something she very much didn't want them to) and one of them nearly died. Her reputation is in tatters and she's almost broke but begs the proprietresses of the boarding house to let her stay, at least for a night. Delilah (first introduced in Lady Derring Takes a Lover) and Angelique (who found her HEA in Angel in a Devil's Arms), the women who own and run the house, are intrigued by her presence. Since they recently built a ballroom with a stage in their annex and would love to bring some publicity to their boarding house, they agree to let Mariana stay for a month, room and board included, as long as she performs in a musical evening they will all share the profits for. The ladies hope that by that time, the press and outraged rabble will have found a new target to persecute.

The other notable guest staying at the Palace is General James Blackmore, made Duke of Valkirk after his successes on the battlefield in France. Known far and wide for his strategic brilliance, his impeccable manners, and valorous conduct (he even wrote a book entitled Valour), the former general has snuck away to the boarding house to have peace and quiet to write his memoirs. He makes some rather ungenerous assumptions about Mariana's character early on and is forced to apologise not only to her, but to the proprietresses and the other long-term guests at the inn. As the duke used Mariana's inability to understand Italian to humiliate her in the drawing room one evening, Delilah and Angelique believe it would be fitting for the duke to offer her free lessons in Italian during her stay. Being the daughter of a cobbler, Mariana has not had access to a classical and rounded education and has so far in her career learned all the operas she sings by sound. While she wants to tell the arrogant duke to go to the devil, she can't reject the chance to learn to understand and better interpret the words she sings (if she's ever forgiven for her role in the current scandal and actually hired anywhere ever again). 

It's not exactly surprising that the daily lessons in the duke's chambers lead to a better understanding of each other's true natures while exploring the mysteries of Italian, and from going to deep antipathy for one another, Mariana and Valkirk are soon unable to deny the sizzling chemistry and growing attraction between them. Valkirk is widowed, with a recently-married son only a few years younger than Mariana. While he also came from humble circumstances, he has worked hard and relentlessly and is now one of the most powerful and respected men in the country. Of course, absolutely no one knows who he really is, they only see the stern and professional mask he presents. Mariana can't set foot outside the door of the boarding house for fear of the public finding her and subjecting her to society's harsh judgment. While she too has worked hard to get where she is, being an opera singer is a lot less respectable than being a lauded general and she makes no attempts to hide that while she in no way wanted or encouraged the behaviour of the two men dueling over her, one of them was her former lover, and she doesn't regret no longer being a virgin. 

As the month progresses, it seems as if very few people will actually be coming to the planned musical evening because the parents of the noblemen involved in the duel have demanded she be shunned. Delilah and Angelique try not to fret. Neither Valkirk nor Mariana have the time to worry, however, as they embark on a passionate love affair, meeting in secret every night, knowing all too well that their time together is unlikely to lead to a life-long future together. Mariana is offered a part in an opera in Paris (either playing a mermaid or a singing lobster, no matter which, she's determined to give it her all) and will have to leave the boarding house pretty much the day after the planned concert. Neither expects to ever see the other again after this date - it's not like a celebrated duke can marry a tarnished opera diva. 

While this book will never hold the exalted status in my heart as my beloved What I Did for a Duke, Ms. Long once again proves herself adept at writing a couple with a significant age difference without it becoming creepy or inappropriate. It also doesn't seem strange that Valkirk and Mariana are drawn to one another once you realise that they are both from humble backgrounds and have had to be very driven to succeed in their chosen careers. While Valkirk was married and has a son, he and his wife were from different social classes, and it's clear that it was a marriage of convenience and he doesn't really mourn his departed wife much. He seems sad that he doesn't have a closer relationship with his son, but takes steps to improve that connection over the course of this book. Valkirk has been alone for a long time, not letting anyone see the real him. For reasons he can't really explain, he wants to show his vulnerable side to Mariana. 

Refreshingly, for all that Mariana is currently in rather dire straits because of the scandal surrounding the duel, and it becomes clear from the Italian lessons that she is frequently the object of unpleasant comments and handsy men around the theatre, she seems to have had a good childhood and a loving relationship with her parents, until the tragic loss of her father when she was 14. For much of the book, she's composing hypothetical letters to her mother in her head. Her mother has been forced to go live with relatives in Scotland, and Mariana sends her as much money as she can. Normally she's a regular correspondent with her mother, but after the scandal and her new lodgings at the Palace, she can't seem to sit down and commit words to fool scrap. 

While she very occasionally writes an absolute classic, mainly I rely on Julie Anne Long to write witty, uncomplicated and interesting romances that never veer into the too angsty or shocking and which allow me to relax and enjoy myself for the hours I'm reading. Her Pennyroyal Green books had some recurring characters, in the Palace of Rogues series, there's a whole cast of recurring characters, like Delilah and Angelique, their husbands, servants like the maid Dot and the cook Helga, and long-time lodgers like the comical Mr. Delacorte. There are small storylines running throughout the series for the enjoyment of the regular readers (the hunt for a competent and non-lecherous footman progresses), but there is nothing that demands that you have read earlier books to get a fun read. I'm now only one book behind in the series, with a new book coming in June. I look forward to it.

Judging a book by its cover: For some reason, this cover, with the red flower on the mantelpiece, the roaring fire, and Mariana's luxurious-looking furlined pelisse made me think this was set during the holidays. It is not. So I hadn't needed to save it for a December read. Ha!

Crossposted on Cannonball Read

#CBR12 Book 60: "Born to Run" by Bruce Springsteen

Page count: 528 pages

Audio book length: 18 hrs 12 mins

Rating: 4 stars

#CBR12 Bingo: Music

Official book description:

In 2009, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band performed at the Super Bowl’s halftime show. The experience was so exhilarating that Bruce decided to write about it. That’s how this extraordinary autobiography began.

Over the past seven years, Bruce Springsteen has privately devoted himself to writing the story of his life, bringing to these pages the same honesty, humor, and originality found in his songs.

He describes growing up Catholic in Freehold, New Jersey, amid the poetry, danger, and darkness that fueled his imagination, leading up to the moment he refers to as “The Big Bang”: seeing Elvis Presley’s debut on The Ed Sullivan Show. He vividly recounts his relentless drive to become a musician, his early days as a bar band king in Asbury Park, and the rise of the E Street Band. With disarming candor, he also tells for the first time the story of the personal struggles that inspired his best work, and shows us why the song “Born to Run” reveals more than we previously realized.

Born to Run will be revelatory for anyone who has ever enjoyed Bruce Springsteen, but this book is much more than a legendary rock star’s memoir. This is a book for workers and dreamers, parents and children, lovers and loners, artists, freaks, or anyone who has ever wanted to be baptized in the holy river of rock and roll.

When this book came out in December 2016, it was a natural Christmas present for both my husband and my mother. I always had plans to read it for myself but was in no immediate hurry to do so. Nevertheless, when there was a bingo square devoted to music, it seemed like the perfect book to choose. I listened to the audiobook version, narrated by Springsteen himself, and featuring snippets of some of his most well-known music. Springsteen is an excellent storyteller, as evidenced in much of his lyrics over the years, and I already knew that he could be funny and self-deprecating from interviews I've seen or live shows I've been lucky enough to go to myself. I'd also experienced some of his openness and honesty about his life in the Springsteen on Broadway show, but this book gives you so much more detail about his life and career.

I've been listening to Bruce Springsteen's music since long before I knew what it really was. For all that Norway has fewer than 6 million inhabitants, he really does have a very large following of die-hard fans in this country. My mother is one of them. We would listen to cassette tapes of Springsteen's music in the car on longer journeys (by no means only Springsteen, there was Abba and Leonard Cohen, Paul Simon and a bunch of other artists too), The Boss holds a special place in my mother's heart, and as I've grown older, in mine too.

My husband, the man I've been together with for twenty years at this point, also loves Bruce Springsteen. He's camped outside ticket offices in all kinds of weather many times, which is one of the reasons we've been lucky enough to see Springsteen live almost every time he's toured Norway since we moved back here from Scotland in 2004. Buying concert tickets online is too risky, you see, the systems inevitably crash and get overloaded. Springsteen sells out arenas in Norway in minutes (I think the record is seriously something like 6 minutes for 30 000 tickets) and the best way to be guaranteed tickets is buying in person at the arena ticket office (where they reserve a small amount of the tickets). Springsteen is an amazing live performer, and he has never given less than an absolutely awesome show when he tours.

Bruce Springsteen and Steve van Zandt (who starred in the Norwegian-set and produced drama Lillyhammer for several seasons) were also the only international artists to perform during the 2012 memorial concert for the victims of the 22nd of July 2011 mass shooting. Springsteen and the E-Street Band had done a concert in Oslo the day before and wanted to show their respect to the victims and their families. So it's no wonder he's beloved by his Norwegian fans.

I don't listen to or care about music in the way my husband does. For him, music is absolutely essential and he can't believe how often I can listen to a certain song, yet never seem to pick up specifics from the lyrics. He wrote his Masters' Thesis on the lyrics of Bob Dylan. To me, music is something perfectly nice to have on in the background when I'm reading or doing chores or wandering around, but I might just as well listen to an audio book. Music rarely moves me to tears or gets me emotional, in the way it affects my husband. Hence, I don't really tend to read in-depth artist interviews and the like, and this is the first musician autobiography I've read. Even having seen the Springsteen on Broadway show, where he's very honest about his rather dark childhood and his own struggles with depression, I hadn't realised the extent to these things. 

Things I learned while reading this book: despite being famous for writing about cars and driving, Springsteen didn't learn to drive until he was in his 20s. His father was a paranoid schizophrenic who wasn't diagnosed until late in life. Springsteen has had several really serious bouts of crippling depression, but touring is one of the things that helps him combat them. Springsteen wrote The River, possibly one of my two favourite songs of his (the other being Thunder Road) about his sister Virginia and her husband, who are still happily married to this day. The politicians working to make Born to Run as the official song of New Jersey really haven't listened very well to the lyrics of the song. Springsteen didn't realise that Courtney Cox was an actress hired to be in the Dancing in the Dark video until much later, he just thought she was a fan of his selected to dance on stage with him. Patty Scialfa is clearly an awesome lady. 

I really don't know how this book would work for someone who isn't at least a casual fan of Bruce Springsteen, as I'm not sure you'd care all that much about his life and career if you're not. It's an entertaining and really well-told book, however, and I can very much recommend listening to the audio.

Judging a book by its cover: The cover photo of Springsteen was taken in 1978, a year before I was born. By this point, Springsteen had released four studio albums, including Born to Run and Darkness on the Edge of Town. The car he's sitting on is a Corvette, a car he could well afford, as his career was really starting to take off. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read. 

#CBR12 Book 58: "Bellweather Rhapsody" by Kate Racculia

Page count: 352 pages

Rating: 4.5 stars

#CBR12 Bingo: No Money (in fact, won in the prize raffle for the first annual CBR Bingo)

Official book description:

Fifteen years ago, a murder-suicide in room 712 rocked the grand old Bellweather Hotel and the young bridesmaid who witnessed it, Minnie Graves. Now hundreds of high school musicians have gathered at the Bellweather for the annual Statewide festival; Minnie has returned to face her demons; and a blizzard is threatening to trap them all inside. When a young prodigy disappears from infamous room 712, the search for her entwines an eccentric cast of conductors and caretakers, teenagers on the verge and adults haunted by memories.

As I mentioned above, I won a signed (!) copy of this a few years ago in the first Cannonball Bingo raffle. It's also been favourably reviewed by a bunch of people I trust, and so it felt appropriate to read it for this year's bingo. 

Because I never seem to learn, I'm back to reviewing things I read about two months ago, and despite promising myself that I will be good and take notes while reading and especially after finishing a book, I never do. It's not like I'm lacking in pens or notebooks (I have SO many!), I just can't seem to find the time or energy to actually sit down and jot down my thoughts upon completing a book. So this review will be a bit of a jumble of things I remember liking in the book.

As I'm sure you can guess from the book description, this is a mystery novel featuring a large and eclectic cast of characters in an old, rather spooky hotel. There are strong personalities both among the teenage and adult cast, there are mysterious disappearances, there are unreliable narrators, strange coincidences, and unexpected connections between individuals who initially seem to have nothing whatsoever to do with one another. 

We meet the wonderfully named Hatmaker twins, Alice and Rabbit, who are both going to the now pretty delapidated Bellweather hotel (think the hotel from the Shining) for a weekend retreat for talented young musicians. Alice is ambitious, outgoing and despite wanting to be a star actress, struggles with empathising with anyone else. Her twin Rabbit is introverted, reserved, nerdy and devoted to his instrument. He also very much wants to come out to his sister at some point during the weekend, but has no idea how to begin approaching the subject. 

There's also the Hatmaker's chaperone, a woman with a lot of buried trauma and violence in her past. There's Alice's roommate, a child prodegy with a very contentious relationship to her icy and controlling mother, the eccentric conductor of the student orchestra (a former prodigy himself), the aging concierge at the hotel who wants everything to run smoothly and fondly remembers the hotel's glory days, as well as the mystery guest with her emotional support dog who shows up right as things start getting really dramatic.

All the characters felt wonderfully real and complex. Some of them are deeply dislikable, but they all seem like actual people, and just seeing the various ways in which they interacted would have kept me turning the pages, even if there wasn't a mystery to be solved. There are a lot of twists and turns. I think I'd figured out a couple before they were actually revealed, but mostly, I was frequently surprised and entertained by this story. I can see why so many people have rated it highly.

Judging a book by its cover: The cover of this unusual mystery might not make a lot of sense until you've actually finished the novel. The big hotel in the background, all the snow, and the lonely grand piano, with the knocked over piano stool. The choices the cover designer has made make more sense after you've finished the story. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read. 

#CBR11 Book 68: "Daisy Jones and the Six" by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Page count: 368 pages
Audio book length: 9 hrs 3 mins
Rating: 4 stars

From Goodreads:
Everyone knows Daisy Jones & The Six, but nobody knows the reason behind their split at the absolute height of their popularity . . . until now.

Daisy is a girl coming of age in L.A. in the late sixties, sneaking into clubs on the Sunset Strip, sleeping with rock stars, and dreaming of singing at the Whisky a Go Go. The sex and drugs are thrilling, but it’s the rock and roll she loves most. By the time she’s twenty, her voice is getting noticed, and she has the kind of heedless beauty that makes people do crazy things.

Also getting noticed is The Six, a band led by the brooding Billy Dunne. On the eve of their first tour, his girlfriend Camila finds out she’s pregnant, and with the pressure of impending fatherhood and fame, Billy goes a little wild on the road.

Daisy and Billy cross paths when a producer realizes that the key to supercharged success is to put the two together. What happens next will become the stuff of legend.

This is one of those books I've seen on pretty much all "Must Read" lists of books from 2019, and absolutely everyone seems very taken with it. Personally, I thought the book was entertaining, but if it hadn't been for the excellent work of the ensemble cast performing the audio book (including, among them, the wonderful Judy Greer), this would have easily been a three star book for me. Maybe it's just that I'm not all that interested in musicians and how music gets made?

Obviously, this is a fictional account of a famous musical collaboration, and every time I read about the book before I got the audio book for myself, it seemed like something my husband would really enjoy. He has wide and varied music tastes and buys and reads music magazines. With certain artists, he loves to listen to countless early versions of songs (or different live versions) that to me don't really sound all that different. Having been with my husband for nearly twenty years now, I've learned to tune a lot of music out, and even songs that I've probably heard hundreds of times, I can't necessarily remember the lyrics of, because I just don't really listen to the words. I certainly don't care much about how the music is played, or produced or mixed, as long as it sounds agreeable to me. Having now listened to the book, I'm still sure that he'd enjoy it more than I did - as he probably knows more about the sort of musical tradition it's fictionalising.

So I'm really not the target audience for this book, I think. I also found Daisy Jones annoying and spoiled for much of the book, while Billy Dunne was an arrogant, rather self-involved macho douche. What made me like the book at all were the supporting characters, and as I've already mentioned, that the various voice actors performing the audio book (seriously, there's like at least 20 different people involved) did an absolutely superb job. This is the first of two books by Ms. Jenkins Reid that I've listened to in audio book (I'm so far behind on my reviews again, you guys) and I much preferred the second, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. 

Judging a book by its cover: I'm going to guess that the red-headed woman on the cover is supposed to be Daisy, and can only say that based on the descriptions of her in the book, they either had a very different beauty standard in the 60s and 70s, or the publishing company could have tried to find a prettier cover model. I can only imagine that the book cover is meant to evoke one of the album covers of the fictional band this book covers, but I don't particularly like the image and think they should have picked something better for the cover.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

#CBR10 Book 45: "Hamilton: The Revolution" by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Jeremy McCarter

Page count: 285 pages
Rating: 5 stars

A quick search suggests that this book has been reviewed for Cannonball at least eight times already, so it's not like anything I say about the book is likely to be new or revolutionary (see what I did there). I don't think there was ever any doubt that I was going to love this book, considering just how much I love the musical.

I don't remember exactly when I first heard about Hamilton, but it's likely to be early in 2016 (I got this as a birthday gift that year from my best friend, and then postponed reading it until spring this year, in preparation for seeing the musical live in London). Enough people I know on the internets (it's where almost all my friends "live" now) were talking about it in such enthusiastic tones that I was curious. I discovered that the music was available on Spotify, and don't think I've been so immediately taken with a musical since I first heard Les Miserables (another musical where I'd listened to the music countless times before I actually got to see it on stage. The first time I heard it, it was the Norwegian translation - not as good as the English, but still great). I had shivers down my spine, I cried buckets, especially during the second act. I'd listened to it more times than I could count by the time the husband and I visited New York in the summer of 2016, so when I saw this book in a bookstore, there was no question it was going to go on my birthday wish list.

Yet when I finally had the beautiful hardcover, I didn't feel like starting it right away. Other things kept getting in the way, and once I secured tickets to the show in London, I made the conscious decision to wait to read it until our trip was getting closer, so the reading experience would be fresh in my mind. Of course, this spring, there's a little someone who takes up most of my time and also tends to wreck my concentration. I can get a fair bit of reading done, by either listening to audio books or holding my Kindle in one hand while nursing, but juggling a big hardback book and turning pages while also half-wrestling a rapidly growing infant (he's getting squirmier by the day) on my lap isn't the easiest. So I would usually get a few chapters read at a time while he was sleeping or being entertained by his father. I also listened to the cast recording on Spotify several times while reading the book, following along with the annotated lyrics for the songs included at the end of each chapter. In the end, I read the last two chapters the evening before we flew to London, once we were done packing, because the wee one was refusing to go to sleep. While reading a big hardback while nursing isn't ideal, it can be done and I was determined to get the book finished before we left.

Hamilton: An American Musical is a wonderful musical. It's a great show and seeing it on stage in London was a dream come true. While I pretty had all the lyrics memorised, seeing the actual staging and character interactions just blew me away. I was crying on and off throughout the entire show, much more so than when I just listen to it (and It's Quiet Uptown and Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story never fails to have me in tears). Having the back story of how the show came to be, with all the work and loving labour that went into it probably made it an even better experience.

It's a beautiful book, with so many behind the scenes pictures and I can't imagine any fan of the show wouldn't get a lot out of reading this book.

Judging a book by its cover: The cover of my hardback is very simple, with the now pretty iconic image promoting the musical at the centre. The background colour is chosen to bring to mind old paper or parchment, I suspect (the pages of the hardback are the same, it's lovely). Simple, yet elegant. I don't think they needed a flashy cover design for this book to sell.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

#CBR9 Book 74: "This Song Will Save Your Life" by Leila Sales

Page count: 288 pages
Rating: 3.5 stars

Elise Dembowski has always been painfully uncool at school, and spends an entire summer pretty much studying up on how to become popular, spending much of her savings in the process on a new wardrobe, without any success at all. Things may in fact have gotten even worse for her. In a moment of despair, she cuts herself pretty deeply, and while bleeding, calls a school mate, who naturally freaks out and has paramedics sent to Elise's house. After this event, Elise's divorced parents are extremely protective and worried about her, while Elise is pretty much seen as an even bigger freak at school.

Her life starts changing for the better, when one night, wandering aimlessly near her mother's house, she comes across an underground dance club, where she is taken under the wing of some of the regulars, and seems to hit it off with 'Charm', the DJ (His full DJ name is DJ This Charming Man - I honestly can't be bothered to look up what his given name was, it is eventually revealed). The slightly older girls who come there to dance seem to accept her for exactly who she is and 'Charm' is all too happy showing her some of the technical aspects of DJ-ing. On the dance floor, she is able to let go and finds a lot of release. She manages to convince her musician father to get her some mixing equipment and starts teaching herself to DJ, with helpful assistance from 'Charm'. When she actually gets to try it out herself at the club, she discovers her true passion.

To be able to get to the underground club, she needs to spend more time with her mother and her new family, causing tension and friction with her dad, who's losing out on time with his daughter. She keeps having to lie to her parents, which isn't easy for her. To add to her complications, someone at her high school has started an online journal, pretending to be Elise, writing exaggerated posts about how lonely, angry and depressed she is, apparently counting down towards her eventual suicide. While Elise doesn't exactly have a lot of friends, she does have people who care about her, and this blog is making people concerned about her - especially in light of her cutting incident a few months back.

While my escape from the hardships of life has always been books, I know enough people who find solace in music that there was a lot in this book that rang true to me. While Elise is setting off on her project to become more popular, one of the things she simply cannot do is get into the modern disposable pop that most of her peers seem to like. To her, the music of the 1980s and 90s is the only thing that properly counts, music she's learned to love growing up with a musician father. Her extensive knowledge is one of the things that initially impresses 'Charm' and makes him think she might be interested in DJ-ing.

The first half of the book, with Elise's extreme loneliness and despair is quite hard to read. No amount of patient encouragement from her well-meaning parents about being yourself and staying strong helps when everyone your own age seems to think you're a pathetic loser. It's not like Elise is actually being bullied, she's simply entirely over-looked and ignored, which is an insidious type of bullying in itself. When all the people you see at school every day don't seem to care whether you're there or not, it can be easy to convince yourself that you don't matter and that it may be easier if you just died.

After her somewhat botched self-harm attempt, Elise is forced to get counselling and she does actually find a couple of sort of friends, although it takes her a long time to appreciate them, as they may be even more outcast and oddball than she is. With her newfound passion for DJ-ing and going to the dance club, she finds something to truly care about and no longer really cares what her high school peers think of her.

I was never popular in school, and really didn't want to be. I was always extremely lucky enough to be an outcast in a little group of equal-minded unpopular girls. We hung out in the school library and talked about fantasy novels, TV shows and were frankly shocked and somewhat uncomfortable if we ever got invited to parties (they were so loud and full of tedious people, and I tended to end up in a corner wishing I was at home reading). I know my husband was not as lucky, which is why he can still visibly shudder whenever he has to enter a school. For people who suffered bullying or being ignored in the way of Elise, this book could be hard to read. I think the topic is dealt with in a good way, though, and Elise reads like a very believable teenager, even when she makes some rather poor choices over the course of the book.

Judging a book by its cover: This cover is pretty decent for a young adult novel. There's a slightly geeky looking girl wearing big headphones, which seems appropriate based on Elise's DJ passion. Since the girl's in profile, you don't get that much of an impression of her, and can project your own ideas as to who she is. The red letters in the title, spelling out LOVE is also a nice touch.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

CBR3 Book 21: "Juliet, Naked" by Nick Hornby

Publisher: Penguin
Page count: 256 pages
Rating: 3 stars
Date begun: March 22nd, 2011
Date finished: March 22nd, 2011

Duncan is a big old-music nerd and a self-styled expert on the music career of Tucker Crowe, a singer-songwriter (think Dylan) who released one really critically acclaimed album in the 80s, and then suddenly during a tour disappeared and went into hiding. Duncan frequents internet message boards where he and other fans debate and analyze every aspect of Crowe's career in detail, speculating on what made him suddenly drop everything, and on what he may be up to now. Annie has lived with him in an increasingly more unsatisfying relationship for the past 15 years, and is realizing that she's suddenly middle-aged, living in a boring little English seaside town with a dead-end job at the town's tiny museum, and she doesn't know how to change things.

The thing that does trigger sudden change in Annie's dreary life is an advance copy of the demos for Tucker Crowe's lauded breakup album Juliet, sent to Duncan through one of his message board mates.  Annie opens the post and listens to it before Duncan gets a chance to. They end up having extremely differing opinions on the quality of the album (called Juliet, Naked - see what they did there), and while Duncan posts a glowingly enthusiastic review of it on the internet, Annie decides to post her own. Having posted her e-mail address with the review, she is contacted shortly after by none other than the elusive Tucker Crowe himself, who is now a middle aged man living in the American country side, trying to come to grips with his own years of wasted potential and the various children he's fathered over the years turning up on his doorstep. They start an e-mail correspondence, and soon Annie knows more about the obscure Mr Crowe than his devoted fans have ever dreamed of.

Juliet, Naked is the third Hornby novel I've read, the first one being High Fidelity, which I found dreadfully dull, and finished out of stubbornness. I also read About A Boy, as I'm a fan of the movie, and found it much better, if a bit dark at times. I was a bit dubious, since in this one, Hornby once again portrays a music obsessive, but the book was for the most part very entertaining, and Duncan is clearly meant to be a bit pathetic, abrasive and unlikable. Anyone who's ever frequented an internet message board where lots of obsessive fans voice their opinions on whatever subject they're passionate about has encountered someone like Duncan. Yet Hornby also manages to make us see that he's a complex person, not just a caricature.

Obviously, I preferred the parts of the story from Annie and Tucker's point of view. Tucker has clearly not been the nicest or wisest person over the years, he's made a whole load of mistakes, and is only now starting to realize that he may have made a bit of a mess out of a lot of things in his life. Both he and Annie have a lot of regrets about their pasts, and develop a friendship through their correspondance that helps them affect necessary changes. If it hadn't been for the rather sudden ending (termed by some online reviewers as tantalisingly open-ended and bittersweet), but which I found a bit lazy and cowardly and would've criticised one of my pupils for ending a story with, I would have really enjoyed this a lot. As it is, it's probably my favourite Hornby book, but I would've liked it more if it had another 10 pages or so and wrapped up the story a bit more.