The Weight of a Piano by Chris Cander

The Weight of a Piano by Chris Cander

"Just as a photo album grew thick with memories of holidays, vacations, family and friends - the piano gain the weight of each owner and his or her music."

Clara Lundy has been dumped by yet another boyfriend and is forced to move her beloved piano once again.  She struggles to learn to play the piano but it's a Bluthner, given to her by her father shortly before both of her parents were killed in a house fire.  In a fit of frustration she decides to sell the piano and be done with it once and for all.  It's holding her back from the life she's longing for.

An eager buyer offers Clara more than the asking price causing her to have second thoughts.  When Greg holds her to the contract, she gets in her car and follows him.  He's a photographer with big dreams for the shots of the piano in Death Valley.  But why there?  Clara wonders as she continues to keep tabs on her piano.  And what she finds is a connection deeper than either she or Greg could ever have imagined.

The Weight of a Piano is a story of finding love as well as letting go of love.  The story goes from the past to the present and back again which allowed the story to unfold quite naturally.  The backdrop of Death Valley and all its beauty was captured with wonderful prose.  The love displayed on all different levels of life was warm, compassionate and believable.  If you're in the mood for love, you'll find The Weight of the Piano very satisfying.

There There by Tommy Orange

There There by Tommy Orange

I have not read a book this powerful in a very long time.  The characters and their stories will grip you and never let go.  All the more reason to add this title to your reading list.

The novel tells the stories of twelve characters, all Native Americans living or with connections to Oakland, California.  They range from young to old, male and female who are all struggling to understand who they are and where they fit in this world.  Many are alcoholics which is a topic that really hits home with me.  One young man overeats to compensate for what he feels he's missing.  Others turn to drug dealing.  And all feel helpless to change.

All of the characters stories converge at the Big Oakland Powwow.  I'm hesitant to tell you any more than that simply because I believe this is a book that needs to be experienced first hand.  Sometimes I had a little difficulty keeping all of the people and their relationships straight in my head but the deeper I got into the story the easier it became.  There There is an impactful look at our society and what it means to be Native American.

There is so much to be learned within these pages.  You will laugh, you will cry, you will feel happiness and anger.  You will feel sadness and compassion.  But what's for certain is you will feel differently about something when you read the last page than you did when you opened the cover at page one.

There There is a powerful book.  Read it.

The Paris Architect by Charles Belfoure

The Paris Architect by Charles Belfoure

Lucien Bernard is a struggling architect in Nazi occupied Paris.  That is until he meets a man who employs him for a very unusual reason, create hiding spaces in luxury apartments for prominent Jews being hunted by the Nazis.  Lucien is reluctant at first until he's given an introduction to German engineers wanting to build armament factories on French soil. This was his chance to prove his talents to the world even if the Germans were the enemy. Lucien didn't care.

I don't typically like to read World War II occupation stories.  I've read my share and then some and they are always very sad and heartbreaking.  The Paris Architect was no different. In fact there was a part so gruesome I almost put the book down for good.  My heart raced to an uncomfortable level and since I like to read before bed, that wasn't good.

I stuck with it and I can't say I'm overly glad that I did but I never like to leave a story unfinished.  Lucien was not a likable guy in my mind but he did show some compassion for others as the war around him escalated.  For me, however, he never completely lost his selfish ways.

The Paris Architect is without question, a page turner.  Keep in mind that the subject matter is often difficult.  We need respect and remember this portion of our history.  It's so important that we never forget these dark days. The Paris Architect is a gripping story and although often hard to read, I'm glad I did.  

The Only Woman in the Room by Marie Benedict

The Only Woman in the Room by Marie Benedict

The young and beautiful Hedy Kiesler steals the stage in the 1930's pre war Austria.  Her incredible beauty and talent doesn't go unnoticed.  Wealthy arms manufacturer, Fritz Mandl fills her dressing room with roses each night until Hedy, along with her parents agree that a marriage with this man is in all of their best interests.  The honeymoon has barely started when Hedy realizes this will never be a marriage of love.

Fritz locks Hedy inside their various homes during the day and host dinner parties at night. Hedy, however keeps her mouth closed and ears opens while she plays hostess to Fritz's customers who include those in power and hoping to come to power all over Europe.  When Austria falls into Hitler's hands, Hedy plans her escape.

Hedy becomes Hedy Lamarr as she sails across the Atlantic with Louis B. Mayer.  Her Hollywood career has begun.  But that's where the telling of this story begins to fall apart.  I'd heard about Hedy Lamarr's inventions and patents but her scientific mind is barely highlighted leading up to her invention intended to help the Navy launch torpedos.  To the reader, that she even had the ability to create such a technical machine seemed far fetched.

The Other Woman in the Room is a fictional depiction of the true accomplishments of actress Hedy Lamarr.  But the book fell short in allowing the reader to believe she had the guts, gumption and knowledge to accomplish such a feat.  I wanted more from this story.  We need more women role models in history and we need to know Hedy Lamarr's motivations but this novel only skimmed the surface.

An American Marriage by Tayari Jones

An American Marriage by Tayari Jones

An American Marriage is the story of Celestial and Roy, a young couple trying to navigate love and marriage.  An unforeseen event lands Roy in prison for a crime he didn't commit.  That is of course where things begin to fall apart.

Celestial is a spoiled self centered young artist who wants what she wants, when she wants it.  When Roy is no longer around to cater to her every wish, she turns to her childhood friend, Andre.  A love triangle is often the downfall of many American marriages regardless of race, religion or economic position in society.  Roy is helpless to defend his love for her because he's stuck in jail.

The writing in this book is wonderful.  It is full of jailhouse letters and I always love a good story revolving around handwritten letters.  The author created great characters, who I could choose to love or hate. I never warmed up to Celestial, who in my mind was a spoiled brat from a wealthy family.  Roy grew up poor, in a loving family, who taught him to reach for more out of life.  So when he moved to the big city and found the charming and beautiful Celestial, he believed he's succeeded.  But life happened all around them and they had no foundation for support.

For the first half of this book I felt this American marriage had nothing to do with the American marriage I was living in.  I didn't relate to their self serving approach to those around them.  As the story progressed I came to see that this really was the story of an American marriage.  We glamorize love, flowers, and over the top weddings every day on television and in the movies.  Young girls grow up thinking that's what marriage is and that love will keep us together.

Marriage is hard work and is the foundation of a good, stable family life.  Until we start instilling those ideas in our children, our divorce rate will continue to climb and our society will fracture.  Celestial and Roy never saw anything past their own desire and I came to realize that this book was spot on in describing An American Marriage. 

The Witch Elm by Tana French

The Witch Elm by Tana French

Toby is young, in love and looking to make a upward career move until one day he participates in a huge faux pas in the art world.  I hesitated to use the word faux pas when in reality it was all out fraud but after the fallout, Toby lands on his feet right back where he began.  His colleague did not.  He's back on easy street until one day intruders break into his apartment in the middle of the night and beat him almost to death.

As part of his recovery, Toby moves in with his dying Uncle Hugo in the old family home.  Toby and his cousins, Susannah and Leon, spent many summers at the Ivy House while their parents left them to travel.  Uncle Hugo turned a blind eye to most of the teenage adventures which suited the cousins just fine.

I have friends who love to read only mysteries and I'm trying to understand what they find so captivating.  Tana French is a popular writer in this genre so I wanted to give her latest a try.  I will say what I enjoyed most was the conversation between the cousins.  They had a tendency to drink alot, smoke pot and share Toby's never ending supply of Xanax.  But their conversations were so real and natural I felt I was sitting in front of the fire with them, chatting and laughing while trying not to wake Uncle Hugo who was sleeping upstairs.

What I didn't like is, the rest of the story was a real slog.  And I still don't know who did it.  The crime made no sense to me whatsoever ever.  If you love solving crimes and piecing together the clues, you might like this story.  After reading other reviews, most fans liked other Tana French novels much better.  The writing is top notch but the story telling left me cold. I'm going to give mystery novels a rest for a while.  After 500 plus pages of confusion, I need to get my thoughts back in order.

The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton

The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton

I selected The Outsiders as this month's book club read.  We like to mix things up, contemporary, classic, sci fi, young adult, just about anything.  As a group we followed the Great American Read and The Outsiders fell near the top of that list so as the book picker, I thought we should give it a try.

How this book came to be written is as interesting as the book itself.  S. E. Hinton was a teenager herself in Oklahoma in the 1960's.  She was disturbed by the division of the kids in her school and I also read that she was looking for a good book to read herself.  So she wrote one.  As I understand it, through the mother of a friend who knew someone the book got published.  But again with a hitch.  Her initials were used instead of her name because no one believed a book written by a woman would sell.  Thank God things have changed.

I vaguely remember reading The Outsiders in high school by have no recollection of it having any impact on my life.  This time around however, the impact was quite different.  Ponyboy, Sodapop and Darry are brothers left without parents due to a tragic accident.  Darry as the oldest, is desperately trying to keep them together.  They live in the neighborhood on the greaser side of town. Their rivals, the Socs live on the richer, preppie side of town.  When Ponyboy and his friend, Johnny meet a Soc girl, Cherry, at the movies, the storyline is set in motion.

I fell in love with Ponyboy, a good, thoughtful teenager trying to figure out how to be in the world.  But what struck me most is that the world of a teenager hasn't changed.  It's a time for learning and growing and figuring out how to make a mark in this world.  And that involves alot of jockeying among friends and foes.

The Outsiders is a must reason matter what age you are.  Everyone will take something, no matter how big or how small away from this story.  America loves this book because it's as current today as the day it was written.