The Song Reader

By Lisa Tucker

Mary Beth and her younger sister Leeann are trying to support themselves in their small Southern hometown. So, to make ends meet, alongside her job at the diner Mary Beth works by practicing her own unique talent: 'song reading'. By making sense of the song lyrics people have stuck in their heads, Mary Beth can help them make sense of their lives. In no time, Mary Beth's readings have the entire town singing her praises, including scientist Ben, who falls hard for Mary Beth and her unearthly intuition.

But Mary Beth's gift leads her to a secret truth about a prominent neighbour and, as a consequence, the fragile structure of the girls' orphaned life comes tumbling down around them. Each secret seems to domino another until the sisters' whole complex emotional history is laid bare. And without Mary Beth's music the town's silence is louder than ever. Could it be that the lyrics to all those foolish love songs really aren't so foolish after all?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK
• Release date: Dec 9, 2008
• ISBN: 9781847397379

Lisa Tucker

Lisa Tucker is the author of The Song Reader and Shout Down the Moon; she has also published short work in Seventeen, Pages, and The Oxford American. She has advanced degrees in English and math, and has taught creative writing at the Taos Conference and UCLA. Lisa lives in Pennsylvania and New Mexico with her husband and son.

Reviews for The Song Reader

[a_reader_of_fictions · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A friend recommended this book to me, saying how amazing it was, so I picked it up at a used book store when I spotted it. I tried reading it last year and could not get through it. This time, I was able to push through, but I never felt really absorbed into it. The story is about two sisters, Mary Beth and Leeann. Leeann, the younger sister, adores Mary Beth, her beautiful, clever, song reading sister. Song reading is sort of like psychoanalysis through music and without professional schooling. Everything spirals out of control when one of Mary Beth’s suggestions has bad consequences. The sisters both struggle to come to terms with their family drama and romance.

[catien_3 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a story about secrets, mental illness, love, and healing. Mary Beth is the older sister, a waitress with a side job as a song reader. Her clients tell her what songs continually pop into their heads, and Mary Beth, using charts and her own scientific method, helps them figure out what a certain song is telling them about their life and what they should do about it. Little sister Leeann is in high school and worships her older, beautiful sister. Dad left the family when Leeann was very young, and Mom died in a car accident, so Mary Beth is the caretaker and does an excellent job. She even adopts a 1-year-old little boy, Tommy, who is abandoned by one of her clients. All of this, though, is taking an unseen toll on Mary Beth, and everything comes to a head when a situation with a client takes a tragic turn. That's when the family secrets come out, and Leeann learns the truth about her parents and her sister. Leeann is the narrarator of the book and has lots of teenage moments but is also heartbreakingly honest and sweet and tough when she needs to be tough. Based on the cover, I thought this was going to be a light, chick-lit-type read and didn't have high hopes for it, but I was pleasantly surprised.

[phoebesmum · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A bit Richard-and-Judy-pick-of-the-monthish, but a nice easy read. Quite different from the book I thought it was going to be – I assumed it would focus more on the song reading, with quaint, heart-warming tales of the respective clients (and I’d quite like to read that book), but it turned out to be an interesting study of mental illness and how it affects not only the sufferer but also the entire family.

[brittbrann · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The Song Reader was a quite intriguing look at a very troubled family, and community in general. The idea that reading the songs people have in their heads, as signs to help them in their personal life, is very creative and quite unigue.Though,by the end I couldn't wait to have read it and be done with it.I'm sorry to say it did not satisfy my curiousity I had with it to begin with. Perhaps I cannot relate to it because I do not have a sister, or a dad that is that mentally unstable, or a mom that was that tough on me or my brother.I really didn't like the character of the mom. I understand that she had a hard life growing up and wanted her kids to be tough, but that isn't a good enough excuse to make Leeanne feel so unloved or to basically squash Mary Beth's future.All in all the book left something to be disired.

[mbergman_15 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I'm sure the review's description of the premise intrigued me. A young woman is able to help people solve personal problems by analyzing the songs that stick in their minds. But in the first half of the book where that's the focus, the book feels like what the cover looks like--lightweight chick lit. But then midway through the book takes a sharp turn to a domestic dram of a deeply troubled family in which the mother has died & the mentally ill father has left. It's not very satisfying.

[ibeardsell_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is the second book I've read by Lisa Tucker, the first being, Once Upon A Day, and again I was impressed. Although I liked Once Upon A Day a little more, The Song Reader is an enticing story that eventually uncovers the hidden history of a family comprised of two young sisters. The younger sister, Leeann, is moving through adolescence yearning for her absent father, dealing with the death of her mother, and being raised by her overly responible older sister, Mary Beth. Mary Beth creates a business of "song-reading": helping people in their small town come to terms with their minor neuoroses by examining the songs they can't get out of their heads. A chain of events around Mary Beth's song-reading pulls the plot along, helping us discover the reasons behind the family's disintegration. Although a subject of heavy, psychological undertones, the author skillfully crafts in some humour and always an underlying sense of hope about the future.