Customer Reviews

The Song Reader

5 star:		(35)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Every once in a while a book comes along that inspires us and moves us to tears all at the same time all the while making it hard for us to tear our eyes away. That's what this book did for me: It gave me the gift of an equally rare and wonderful reading experience that will resonate within me for a long, long time.

The Song Reader is the story of two sisters who are seemingly alone against the world. Mary Beth is the legal custodian for her younger sister, LeAnn. Mary Beth supports them both as a waitress and a Song Reader, which if you're anything like me and associate a certain year with what was playing on the radio, or your favorite song with a paticularly happy time in your life you will understand the concept of song reading. Through these girls' indescibably strong bond they somehow make it work, but their life certainly is not without struggle and pain. Mary Beth doesn't understand LeAnn and vice versa and it's the unanswered questions and years of bottled up anguish that [possibly may] tear this family apart.

I am a [fan] for a coming of age story, but this one is a cut above all the rest. LeAnn is struggling with her feelings and finding her place in the world. Both she and her Sister, Mary Beth are honest, hearwrenching characters that will take up residence in your heart and mind for a long time.

Lisa Tucker has out done herself on her first time out. She has important things to say and a very unique way of saying them. If she hasn't already, I'm sure she will soon become quite an important strong voice in cotemporary fiction. I am anxiously awaiting another wonderful novel by Ms. Tucker!!

in praise of Lisa Tucker's first novel.

Tucker's story winds around the "gift" that big sister Mary Beth has been given in a small southern town. Mary Beth, a waitress raising her younger sister and a small adopted son, is a caretaker by nature. She discovers a unique talent, "reading people's lives". Unlike a fortune teller, MaryBeth talks to others about the songs that are important to them, and have been important to them throughout their lives. Mary Beth does "readings" and keeps charts on everyone who comes to her for help, and her advice, gained through an analysis of the lyrics that keep popping up in a client's head at odd moments. To Mary Beth ..."I have a calling in life" .. and her help is usually so on track that a large following in their little town relies on the premise that their own songs are not random, but rather that they have meaning just waiting to be uncovered; something that, it seems, only Mary Beth can do.

It's an interesting premise, and it is background music to the story told by LeeAnn, Mary's Beth's adolescent sister. To LeeAnn, the gift inspires others and puts their little family in the heart of the town....

"... wishing I could go back to when the music was like a spirit moving through our town, giving words to what we felt, connecting us all."

As the tale unfolds, parallel secrets about a prominent town citizen are uncovered through song reading, leading Mary Beth's reputation to tarnish, and her spirits to unravel. At the same time, secrets of their own family -- why their father disappeared, and what role their deceased mother played, are covered up by Mary Beth, who thinks that she is sheltering LeeAnn from knowledge that will hurt her.

Eventually, unhinged by the responsibility for both the family and the town's opinion, Mary Beth begins to fade, and it is then that LeeAnn takes over the indomitable spirit that has kept them going for years.

Although based on a unique and whimsical premise, Tucker's book is really about relationships, the bond between sisters, and about never giving up, no matter how difficult the terrain of your life. Tucker writes lyrically and well, bringing each and every character to life, including the mystical father figure, who finally comes to be a part of their lives again. Both sisters in the tale finally find the one thing, the love between the two of them, that will give them "the strength to handle all the rest".

I so look forward to more from this author, and highly recommend this lovely debut.

I bought this book yesterday and finished it this morning, and the entire time, I was telling myself, slow down, make it last, but I just couldn't do it. The story is just too interesting! Mary Beth & Leeann pulled me into their lives and I felt like I was right there with them each step of the way. They are both such great characters! I rank them both right up there with Susie in The Lovely Bones. In a lot of ways The Song Reader reminds me of The Lovely Bones. For one, I found out about both of them in Seventeen magazine. . .but deeper in, they're both told from a girl's point of view, and told as the girl looks at the rest of her family. Also they both have a lot of sadness but also lots of hope. I can't imagine anybody not being touched by what these two sisters go through, and the love they have for each other.

It's a great story, and it also has the song reading!! A double treat when you pick up Tucker's novel. How did she think up something as unique as song reading? Everyone who hears about it tells me they have to get this book!

I highly recommend this book to every man, woman, and child (over 12 or 13, not for language or graphic sex but just to understand it) in America. Buy The Song Reader, I know you won't be disappointed!

This book is riveting! I started reading it because a friend recommended it. I didn't expect to like it that much because I'm not that into music. I was amazed. Lee Ann has one of the most original, sympathetic, TRUE voices I have ever read. From almost the first page, I was rooting for her and Mary Beth. These girls/women seem so real, so courageous, so interesting. I don't think any of the other reviews talk about how funny Lee Ann is. I would love to have a sister like her. I stayed up late into the night because I just couldn't stop reading. I found myself dying to see what happens but feeling sad because I didn't want it to end. The Song reader is the best book I have read in years!

I didn't pick up The Song Reader expecting a deep novel. The cover seemed "hip girl," and the idea of song reading, interesting enough, but deep? Yes. Deep is the word, along with other words like original and even profound. The relationships between the people in The Song Reader are developed with a sensitivity and nuance and wisdom that is unusual in any novel, and astonishing in a first work.

Each character is utterly unique and yet as familiar as some part of ourselves. Leeann is the wise eye of the book, watching over her family, wishing she could protect them, and understanding them in ways they can't understand her. Henry, the father, is as odd as any fictional character I've encountered, and yet Tucker makes him make sense, quite an achievement. Mary Beth, the song reader and ostensible star of the book, a hero because of her ability to help others, is both larger than life and completely vulnerable. This is what makes the story so fascinating, watching what happens when a gifted woman like Mary Beth, a woman with a big heart and a big soul, collapses under the weight of her own charity--and knowing, tragically, that her greatness and her grief are so entwined that to starve one would be to starve them both.

This is a great first novel.

This is a touching, honest tale, simply written and starkly lyrical. Lisa Tucker is a born story teller. Once I picked up The Song Reader I couldn't put it down because I was mesmerized by the narrator's young voice. When the novel ended I wanted to keep following Leeann into her future.
The best part of the book is the essential generosity of spirit. Toward the end Leann thinks "I want to be a kid who didn't know that damn near everybody's secret was the same: that their life had been full of heartbreak." This quote is actually a signal of the hopefulness at the heart of this story. Yes, terrible things happen. Yes, people sometimes hurt those they love, but we go on. Everyone I've recommended The Song Reader to has thanked me.

This book is fantastic! It's a page-turner and an incredible character study of two sisters and their troubled family. It's a love story, too, and Leeann & Mike are one of the most touching teenage couples I've ever read about. Add in Mary Beth & Ben to the mix, another love story. Juanita & Henry, broken people, finding each other. This is one of the many truths in The Song Reader: that no matter how damaged we are, we can still open up our hearts and find people who will understand what we've been through.

What a beautiful book. I picked it up on a whim, because I like music, but I wasn't prepared for how deeply it would move me. Like a haunting melody, The Song Reader will stay with you forever.

I love this book! Mary Beth and Lee Ann have inhabited my soul. Their story is beautifully written by Tucker, but the book is also a great read. I found myself stopping to treasure a lyrical phrase or a challenging idea and then wanting to race ahead to find out how Lee Ann (or if Lee Ann) is able to pull herself and her family out of the situation that they find themselves in. I won't say more because I am encouraging every person I know to read this wonderful work. The Song Reader will live in my heart and in my head for a long, long, time.

I was first interested in this book by the title and the other reviews I read here on Amazon.

Music has always had meaning, for me, and I thought it was really cool that someone wrote a book about how songs may affect people.

What I liked most about this book is the strength of the characters. The relationship between the two sisters is unshakable, even during the most trying times.

This book is about love and the ways it changes us or makes us look at things differently. Even about the seemingly stupid and regretful things we will do in the name of love. It also explores family dynamics and how any member(s) of the family unit can affect the entire system with even a simple decision.

I recommend this book to anyone.

Davina - BookBrowse.com

The cover of this book led me think that it would be a bit of fluff - probably targeted at a relatively young teenage audience, but luckily I read a few pages to be sure, and then a few more, and found myself hooked. The plot device itself is original - one of the lead characters earns her living performing 'song readings' (during which she analyzes the songs that people can't get out of their heads for their hidden psychic meaning). However, a good plot device isn't enough to keep most people turning the pages - you also need characters that compel you into their lives and keep you reading. Lisa Tucker's debut novel is filled with mainly female characters who are compellingly odd whilst remaining thoroughly believable.

Recommended for women of all ages, including older teenagers. It would make an excellent reading club choice, especially for mixed aged groups.