Exit Lines - Joan Barfoot

An eye-opening read for a self-obsessed youth. The characters are real and revealing, making the book riveting. It starts strongly, once everyone was straight in my head, and then it carries. Written in a style that crams many things into a sentence, similar to the way people actually think. In fact there seem to be occasions were multiple narrators take on a paragraph and there were a number of re-reads, moving the emphasis around, but it was worth it once you got it. Setting the stage was my favourite part of the book as I was not thrilled by the plot line once it was eventually revealed but persistence easily paid off. A fine, grounding read that manages to cover a lot of 'life' and ends up as an inspiration.

8
November 2012

This is Your Brain on Music - Daniel J. Levitin

Two very intriguing topics merged into one book it brings the study of the function of the brain to the forefront while focusing on its reaction and processing of music. Slightly heavy on the jargon from both disciplines some aspects were skimmed over but other pieces were very rewarding. The brain is still an emerging area of scientific study and so there is still much left unknown which makes it exciting. Some of the physiological reasoning behind things like musical expectations and earworms are quite neat to finally have explained. Plenty to chew on here.

6
August-September 2012