Liner Notes [Paperback]

Emily Franklin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 30, 2003

Side A: Laney's Going Solo

Laney has just finished graduate school in California and sees her cross-country drive as the perfect chance to reflect on the past before facing her future back East. With 3,000 miles ahead of her and a box of mix tapes as her only companion, she envisions a trip spent reminiscing; whether it's her first camp kisses, high school parties and crushes, or college loves and losses, Laney's most treasured memories -- good and bad -- are all just a song away.

Side B: A Change of Tune

Laney's mother, in town for graduation, thinks a mother-daughter road trip sounds like much more fun than going it alone -- and Laney can hardly refuse. Soon, she's giving her mother a crash course not only in pop music of the '70s and '80s but also in her own life...for somehow Mom doesn't know her daughter as well as she'd like to. Together, as America whizzes by, Laney and her mother are turning up the volume of their relationship...and learning that there's nothing more revealing than the soundtrack of our lives.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

As a writer for NPR's Car Talk, first-timer Franklin seems particularly qualified to pen a rollicking road-trip novel but a smooth ride requires more than just a basic familiarity with mechanics. Fresh out of grad school, Laney can't wait for a cross-country drive to a new job in her hometown of Boston. To Laney's horror, however, her mother in for a visit and in remission from non-Hodgkin's lymphoma decides to come along. The narrative moves unswervingly forward, toward home and a friendship between mother and daughter. From Carmel, Calif., through Tulsa, Okla., to Graceland and home, Laney and Annie grow closer. Readers learn about Laney as she chats in the car, filling her mother in on all she missed while she was ill and reminiscing about summer camp and old best friends. These flashbacks depend on a heavy-handed and not entirely effective gimmick: each recollection is sparked by a mix tape. Laundry lists of chart-toppers, cult hits and novelty songs spanning the cassette era "Dancing on the Ceiling," "Burning Down the House," "Blister in the Sun" are offered as road signs to Laney's feelings. Said signs may be indecipherable to all but the most reverent fan of 1980s music, however, and the string of titles fails to tie Franklin's scattered anecdotes together. The book's romantic element, telescoped into a few final chapters, turns on a long-lost mix and a happy coincidence. It's wildly unlikely, but so heavily foreshadowed that readers won't put up much resistance.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

Tom Perrotta Author of Election and Joe College Emily Franklin's charming debut novel is a grab-bag of delights.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Pocket Books; Original edition (September 30, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743469836
• ISBN-13: 978-0743469838
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,627,780 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Emily Franklin is the author of Too Many Cooks: Kitchen Adventures with 1 Mom, 4 Kids, and 102 Recipes. One part David Sedaris, one part Julia Child, this food memoir has over one hundred original recipes and funny, poignant stories about parenting. Emily is a former chef.

She is also the author of two adult novels, The Girls' Almanac and Liner Notes and more than a dozen books for young adults including the critically-acclaimed seven book fiction series for teens, The Principles of Love. Other young adult books include The Other Half of Me the Chalet Girls series, and At Face Value, a retelling of Cyrano de Bergerac.

She edited the anthologies It's a Wonderful Lie: 26 Truths about Life in Your Twenties and How to Spell Chanukah: 18 Writers Celebrate 8 Nights of Lights. She is co-editor of Before: Short Stories about Pregnancy from Our Top Writers.

Emily writes regularly about food and parenting for national magazines and newspapers and her work has been published in numerous literary magazines.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best Mix Tape in Print, June 26, 2005

By 

Little Willow (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Liner Notes (Paperback)

Laney gets a new job after graduate school and plans on driving cross-country by herself, listening to her old mix tapes and enjoying the solitude. Her mother surprises Laney by asking if she can along for the ride. Her lymphoma caused her to miss out on a great deal of her daughter's life, and now in remission, she wants to reconnect with her eldest child. Every tape Laney plays has a story to tell, be it from summer camp or college, and each tape is filled with golden oldies, music from her childhood, and modern tunes as well. This book is a rare one - the gimmick is actually well-executed, making this story as good as it sounds. With realistic characters, fantastic flashbacks, and a great soundtrack, you are sure to laugh, cry and sing along with Laney as you read her Liner Notes.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Road-trip story with a twist!, October 24, 2003

By 

Ex-Pat Reader "Ex-Pat Reader" (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Liner Notes (Paperback)

Liner Notes is an engaging road-trip story with a twist. Instead of a group of friends or two lovers, it's Laney and her mother, working through their mottled pasts as they drive across the country. They delve into family relationships, the mother's illness, and Laney's failed romances, all memories sparked by intriguing mixed tapes, the soundtrack to Laney's life. Some of the most gorgeous scenes are the tender renditions of the mother's long fight with cancer and the shadow this illness cast on Laney's young adult years. A great read for mothers and daughters or anyone who loves the kind of music found on cassette tapes under the seat of a well-worn car.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Music and memories, January 16, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Liner Notes (Paperback)

I stumbled onto this book at an airport and it kept me captivated throughout my cross-country flight. Following Laney and her mother as Laney explained herself via her old tapes, I felt I knew her. Or maybe it's just an easily-relatable book. In any case, Liner Notes is the kind of book you'll and and then buy for your best friend.