Body and Soul/Build a Better Book Club

 Body and Soul by Frank Conroy

The story of a 6 yr old boy who, left alone all day in a tiny basement apartment while his mother drives a taxi, finds an old piano in a storage room and is both startled and thrilled by the sound that comes out when he presses a key. His curiosity about how that sound is made increases exponentially when he finds pages full of black lines and dots that he thinks might tell him what keys to press if he only understood how it worked. 

He asks the man at a nearby music shop to show him what it means and so begins his education in the making and playing of music. The shop-keeper gives him lessons in return for help in the shop, and later the boy receives a scholarship to a prestigious music school and travels the often bumpy road to a career as a professional pianist. 

I loved the story and was particularly impressed by the wonderful depictions of his interaction with the music - learning and experimenting with how the piano produces sound and how printed music can be interpreted in different ways on the keys. The author did a stellar job of portraying the boy's thoughts and feelings as he made those discoveries.   

I've had this book for a few years and can't think why I waited so long to read it. It's an excellent story with interesting and appealing characters and the kind of writing of that leaves you wanting more. This one is worth reading and reading again.

 I'll end with some of the beautifully articulated lines that stood out to me... 

"It was a shock when the movies ended, as if his soul had been flying around in the dark and had now slammed back into his body. Outside, the unnaturally still street and the implacable heat seemed to claim him, to smother the quicksilver emotions of the films and flatten him in his contemplation of the meaningless, eternal, disinterested reality of the street, of its enduring drabness and familiarity." 

"Telephone poles whipped by with metronomic precision."

"There was a vibrancy to the man's image, as if he were packed into himself, as if the specific gravity of his body were higher than that of ordinary men."

Build A Better Book Club by Harry Heft and Peter O'Brien

This is my second reading, and though I'm completely happy with my book club of 32 yrs and am not looking to build a better one, I did think it might have some helpful suggestions to review for my own personal reading. And it did. It has lots of suggestions for any book club just starting up but also has some ideas helpful for individual readers.

Remember / The Company We Keep

 Remember by Lisa Genova

An interesting (non-fiction) book that looks at the science of memory: what we remember and why, and how and why we forget. She teaches techniques to improve memory, and there's some enlightening information about dementia and what we can do now to try to avoid it. Sketchy health and medical information comes at us from every direction these days, so it was nice to read something that made sense and sounded credible; with a Harvard degree in neuroscience the author is qualified to speak about these things. If you haven't read any of her fiction yet, check out Every Note Played, Left Neglected, Still Alice, Inside the O'Briens, and Love, Anthony. The stories center around characters diagnosed with different neurological conditions and are well-written and riveting, every one.      

The Company We Keep by Francis Itani

Three years after losing her husband, Lew, Hazzley is still trying to figure out who she is on her own. A spur of the moment decision has her pinning a notice to a grocery store bulletin board inviting people to a "Grief Discussion Group, Tuesdays 7-8:30 pm". 

Four people turn up: Gwen, widow of bullying husband Brigg, and now temporary caretaker of a persnickity parrot named Rico; Chiyo, a fitness instructor grieving the loss of her demanding mother; Tom, a dealer in antiques, writer of poetry, and widower of Ida; and Addie, a health administrator whose best friend, Sybil, is dying of cancer. Later they will be joined by Hallam, a Syrian refugee whose wife was killed in a bombing raid. Hazzley has no real plan for the group, hoping only for each one to tell their story so they can all hear how others cope with the many aspects and complications of loss.

Though the subject is grief, the tone is warm and uplifting. What these six grieving people find as they get to know each other is community, a place to listen and be heard, to accept and be accepted. A quiet book about people more than plot, it's a lovely story.