Welcome to Litsy!

You all know I can‘t say no to a memoir! This one was on the periphery of my radar and took the plunge after stumbling across the #audiobook on #hoopla. It was repetitive (many memoirs are) but it had something to say about post-9/11 America through the lens of a musical group traveling across the states on a tour to “perform” for audiences in malls, opera houses, etc. music that reminds audiences of the Titanic soundtrack. Decent read.

Why would you write a memoir in the second person?!! All the you, youing is just doing my head in! 🙄

It‘s insane to me that something like this can happen and no one find out. This book made me realize that not everything is as it seems.

I still need to read this after hearing an interview with the author back when the book came out. It‘s about a group of fake musicians who go on tour so there has to be a #concert in it! #LitsySpringBreak

This was definitely a blame it on Litsy, last min purchase before I start the New Year and put myself on a reading ban, purchase! This book really stood out for me on that list you posted @TrishB It sounds so interesting!! 😯 👍

Wow I LOVED this, and not just because I am a big Titanic person

I haven‘t read this memoir yet but I heard an interview with the author on NPR. The story sounds bizarre! #MusicalInstrumentOnTheCover #BiblioMAYnia

I'm a bit on the fence on this one: One part of me enjoyed reading some portions and another part of me was wanting to DNF this at various points while reading it.⁠
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There wasn't enough in this book about this to warrant an entire book, maybe a magazine article but not an entire book, even with the childhood flashbacks, musings and thoughts from the author.⁠
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A 2 ⭐ read for me.⁠

Funny and insightful, especially when she talks about being a young girl in the 90s. I liked this little memoir a lot.

Impulse buys! All of these are Kindle deals today! I already had The Gown but it‘s a deal too. I had been resisting daily deals for a while!

This memoir is fascinating. Really makes you think about the difference between real vs. fake. . . especially as it relates to concerts and music. Very good so far.

Vicious! Perfect.

A tale of two books. Both finished in the last two days. The tagged book was just a whim at the library, I guess they both were... I am not a memoir fan, but Hindman‘s story of working for The Composer was very intriguing and before I knew it I had read the whole thing. Highly recommend! I can‘t say the same for Tremblay‘s Cabin. The premise was great and horrifying, but the execution was so-so. Plus the narrator was bad.

I loved the author‘s stories about her time in an ensemble that was led by a super eccentric composer and faked its live performances (“Milli Violini,” she nicknamed it). Beyond that, the memoir (written in second person - fine by me, though I know that‘s off-putting for some) is structured around the author making sense of self/body/identity through the prism of fake vs. real. I wished that part went deeper sometimes but enjoyed overall.

Pick!!
The main theme is 20-something college student struggling to pay tuition at Columbia gets hired as a professional violinist. She soon discovers she‘s just for show, and at all the performances the mics are off and a CD is played instead. The audience has no idea.
This memoir also explores the terror of being young and having bursting enthusiasm and no experience, and doing whatever it takes to be noticed.
A 5-star memoir.

Ack! No! 😱 Homophone gone awry!

Such an odd book. Yeah it's about gigging for an ensemble that air-plays over pre recorded music, but it's also about how deeply americans wanted to bury their heads in the sand in the post-9/11 years. I do like her writing style and the mixing of first and second person, but thought this was edited strangely-- instances of describing a thing that was already described, as if it's the reader's first time coming across it....

I didn't enjoy this as much as I hoped, mainly because the writing style wasn't a good fit (long passages written in second person are like nails on a chalkboard for me). But there's a lot to think about here: post-9/11 life, imposter syndrome, anxiety, honesty and personal integrity, what "success" means, learning it's okay to be "average". And I'd love to chat with other musicians about this, because that would be one interesting conversation.

A strangely fascinating memoir about the author‘s years working with The Composer (who is real - I‘ve figured out who this is) as a violinist in his touring ensemble where all the mics were dead and the music came from a CD. The music sounds as much like the soundtrack of Titanic with out getting sued by James Horner and people LOVE it, claiming that it helps them through tough times. I‘m stuck between FRAUD and he genuinely wants to help people.