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Liner Notes
Side Laney's Going Solo
Laney has just finished graduate school in California and sees her cross-country drive as the perfect chance to reflect on the past before facing her future back East. With 3,000 miles ahead of her and a box of mix tapes as her only companion, she envisions a trip spent reminiscing; whether it's her first camp kisses, high school parties and crushes, or college loves and losses, Laney's most treasured memories -- good and bad -- are all just a song away.
Side A Change of Tune
Laney's mother, in town for graduation, thinks a mother-daughter road trip sounds like much more fun than going it alone -- and Laney can hardly refuse. Soon, she's giving her mother a crash course not only in pop music of the '70s and '80s but also in her own life...for somehow Mom doesn't know her daughter as well as she'd like to. Together, as America whizzes by, Laney and her mother are turning up the volume of their relationship...and learning that there's nothing more revealing than the soundtrack of our lives.
Laney has just finished graduate school in California and sees her cross-country drive as the perfect chance to reflect on the past before facing her future back East. With 3,000 miles ahead of her and a box of mix tapes as her only companion, she envisions a trip spent reminiscing; whether it's her first camp kisses, high school parties and crushes, or college loves and losses, Laney's most treasured memories -- good and bad -- are all just a song away.
Side A Change of Tune
Laney's mother, in town for graduation, thinks a mother-daughter road trip sounds like much more fun than going it alone -- and Laney can hardly refuse. Soon, she's giving her mother a crash course not only in pop music of the '70s and '80s but also in her own life...for somehow Mom doesn't know her daughter as well as she'd like to. Together, as America whizzes by, Laney and her mother are turning up the volume of their relationship...and learning that there's nothing more revealing than the soundtrack of our lives.
320 pages, Paperback
First published September 30, 2003
8 people are currently reading
127 people want to read
About the author
Emily Franklin
36 books142 followersGrowing up, Emily Franklin wanted to be “a singing, tap-dancing doctor who writes books.”
Having learned early on that she has little to no dancing ability, she left the tap world behind, studied at Oxford University, and received an undergraduate degree concentrating in writing and neuroscience from Sarah Lawrence College. Though she gave serious thought to a career in medicine, eventually that career followed her dancing dreams.
After extensive travel, some “character-building” relationships, and a stint as a chef, Emily went back to school at Dartmouth where she skied (or fished, depending on the season) daily, wrote a few screenplays, and earned her Master’s Degree in writing and media studies.
While editing medical texts and dreaming about writing a novel, Emily went to Martha’s Vineyard on a whim and met her future husband who is, of course, a doctor. And a pianist. He plays. They sing. They get married. He finishes medical school, they have a child, she writes a novel. Emily’s dreams are realized. She writes books.
Emily Franklin is the author of two adult novels, The Girls' Almanac and Liner Notes and more than a dozen books for young adults including the critically-acclaimed seven book fiction series for teens, The Principles of Love. Other young adult books include The Other Half of Me the Chalet Girls series, and At Face Value, a retelling of Cyrano de Bergerac (coming in September 2008).
She edited the anthologies It's a Wonderful Lie: 26 Truths about Life in Your Twenties and How to Spell Chanukah: 18 Writers Celebrate 8 Nights of Lights. She is co-editor of Before: Short Stories about Pregnancy from Our Top Writers.
Her book of essays and recipes, Too Many Cooks: Kitchen Adventures with 1 Mom, 4 Kids, 102 New Recipes ~ A Memoir of Tasting, Testing, and Discovery in the Kitchen will be published by Hyperion.
Emily’s work has appeared in The Boston Globe and the Mississippi Review as well as in many anthologies including Don't You Forget About Me: Contemporary Writers on the Films of John Hughes, When I Was a Loser: True Stories of (Barely) Surviving High School by Today's Top Writers, and Because I Love Her: 34 Women Writers on the Mother-Daughter Bond. Emily writes regularly about food and parenting for national magazines and newspapers. She travels, teaches writing seminars, and speaks on panels, but does not tap dance. Emily Franklin lives outside of Boston with her husband and their four young children.
Having learned early on that she has little to no dancing ability, she left the tap world behind, studied at Oxford University, and received an undergraduate degree concentrating in writing and neuroscience from Sarah Lawrence College. Though she gave serious thought to a career in medicine, eventually that career followed her dancing dreams.
After extensive travel, some “character-building” relationships, and a stint as a chef, Emily went back to school at Dartmouth where she skied (or fished, depending on the season) daily, wrote a few screenplays, and earned her Master’s Degree in writing and media studies.
While editing medical texts and dreaming about writing a novel, Emily went to Martha’s Vineyard on a whim and met her future husband who is, of course, a doctor. And a pianist. He plays. They sing. They get married. He finishes medical school, they have a child, she writes a novel. Emily’s dreams are realized. She writes books.
Emily Franklin is the author of two adult novels, The Girls' Almanac and Liner Notes and more than a dozen books for young adults including the critically-acclaimed seven book fiction series for teens, The Principles of Love. Other young adult books include The Other Half of Me the Chalet Girls series, and At Face Value, a retelling of Cyrano de Bergerac (coming in September 2008).
She edited the anthologies It's a Wonderful Lie: 26 Truths about Life in Your Twenties and How to Spell Chanukah: 18 Writers Celebrate 8 Nights of Lights. She is co-editor of Before: Short Stories about Pregnancy from Our Top Writers.
Her book of essays and recipes, Too Many Cooks: Kitchen Adventures with 1 Mom, 4 Kids, 102 New Recipes ~ A Memoir of Tasting, Testing, and Discovery in the Kitchen will be published by Hyperion.
Emily’s work has appeared in The Boston Globe and the Mississippi Review as well as in many anthologies including Don't You Forget About Me: Contemporary Writers on the Films of John Hughes, When I Was a Loser: True Stories of (Barely) Surviving High School by Today's Top Writers, and Because I Love Her: 34 Women Writers on the Mother-Daughter Bond. Emily writes regularly about food and parenting for national magazines and newspapers. She travels, teaches writing seminars, and speaks on panels, but does not tap dance. Emily Franklin lives outside of Boston with her husband and their four young children.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
July 25, 2014
This book was blurbed by Tom Perrotta, which made me think it might actually be funny. Or, you know, good. It isn't. I spent three weeks trying to get through this before I finally gave up. But if you think a featureless main character reminiscing endlessly about her past boyfriends sounds like fascinating stuff, this is the book for you.
June 28, 2013
I read this book when I was taking a break from the Lincoln book and wanted to read something light but I was disappointed. The author tries to tackle too many themes - reviewing one's life through popular music, dealing with a critically ill parent, mother-daughter communication, cross-country road trip, reconciling with old friends - and the result is a bit of a mess.
February 14, 2016
actual rating 3.5 - Here is the thing I wanted from this book - a CD of all of the playlists. Many songs listed in the mixed tapes Laney made or someone made for her were songs that I had never heard. Otherwise, I liked the road trip descriptions. I liked that Laney and her mother connected during the road trip. I thought the ending a tad too predictable.
June 22, 2011
A re-read. Laney has graduated from her master's program in California and is about to start a job on the east coast. She opts to forgo the easy out of flying home, and decides to road trip across the country, listening to mix tapes from her past. In a change of plans, her mother decides to come along. Once her mother spots the box of tapes, she won't let up until Laney shares her history with her mother. We're along for the ride, which is mostly told in past stories via the tapes (the book includes the playlists). The "now" of the book isn't as present, but it's not as important. I feel like the end is a little rushed, but at the same time I like seeing how everything plays out, and a fast forward is necessary to keep the book concise.
June 4, 2013
Almost everyone has a soundtrack to different parts of their lives and this book simply a story about a young woman's soundtrack as she travels across country with her mother as a way to form a closer bond between the two. Overall, there wasn't really anything exceptional about it, but it does make for a decent summer reading.
August 6, 2014
Scanned to finish. It seemed to be the same thing, over and over and over. A most disappointing novel
September 1, 2020
I chose this from a library used book store as the main character is named Laney; a nickname of my own daughter. She and I love music and have taken week long road trips together where musical preferences get played and discussed as to their importance in our heads.
I did love the stories in this book that helped us understand how Laney arrived in this ‘place’ in her life where she was worried that her (though the author doesn’t say this) the person she had the spoken/unspoken agreement/belief that if you didn’t find your ‘soulmate’ by the time you hit X, you’d marry your best friend ... had actually found his soulmate. THAT option now...off the table.
But because I am the mother of an equivalent daughter (who by the way has found her soulmate and is an artist) I felt Annie told Laney and us very little during the trip. I know often with our daughters trying very hard to listen with love, not freak out, and not judge so they will be open and honest. AND it’s hard, or we recognize our past mistakes repeating and we want to offer warnings or compassion but I felt there was very little Annie side to this story. All we truly know about Annie is an ‘as told by’ Laney with a very small exception at the end.
So again, from the reader mind of a mother, I found that disappointing. Annie had so much to tell us about her own fears and struggles with cancer but it wasn’t there.
Otherwise, a very GOOD READ!
I did love the stories in this book that helped us understand how Laney arrived in this ‘place’ in her life where she was worried that her (though the author doesn’t say this) the person she had the spoken/unspoken agreement/belief that if you didn’t find your ‘soulmate’ by the time you hit X, you’d marry your best friend ... had actually found his soulmate. THAT option now...off the table.
But because I am the mother of an equivalent daughter (who by the way has found her soulmate and is an artist) I felt Annie told Laney and us very little during the trip. I know often with our daughters trying very hard to listen with love, not freak out, and not judge so they will be open and honest. AND it’s hard, or we recognize our past mistakes repeating and we want to offer warnings or compassion but I felt there was very little Annie side to this story. All we truly know about Annie is an ‘as told by’ Laney with a very small exception at the end.
So again, from the reader mind of a mother, I found that disappointing. Annie had so much to tell us about her own fears and struggles with cancer but it wasn’t there.
Otherwise, a very GOOD READ!
August 20, 2019
I’m sorry this book is just all over the place I got to the 6th chapter maybe? The plot it just confusing couldn’t bare to finish it and I hate not finishing books. I thought it was gonna be love story then a road trip then a book about mother daughter relationship? Nope it’s just jumbled and jumbled and constantly all over the place
September 6, 2023
Almost a 4 star but something didn’t quite connect for me. Shame because it involved travel and music. Two things close to my heart.
It’s a series of recollections as a mother and daughter bond during the course of a road trip across The USA. Gentle entertainment
It’s a series of recollections as a mother and daughter bond during the course of a road trip across The USA. Gentle entertainment
July 25, 2007
this book is...well, a chick book. it's about a late twenty-something who is road tripping back from LA to her family's home in Boston (i think, it's been a couple of years). it's first person, and we learn about this woman's life through her mix-tapes she has made since she was a little girl.
mostly, i remember how interested i was by her life, the author did i really great job of fleshing out the character and her life, and i think it just brings me back to the place i was at in 2005--boarding school with my close friends, about to graduate and the summer of hell afterwards (temperature-wise and the loneliness i felt because all of my friends were elsewhere) and all the good (and not-so-good-but-life-learning) memories. okay, 'nuff said.
mostly, i remember how interested i was by her life, the author did i really great job of fleshing out the character and her life, and i think it just brings me back to the place i was at in 2005--boarding school with my close friends, about to graduate and the summer of hell afterwards (temperature-wise and the loneliness i felt because all of my friends were elsewhere) and all the good (and not-so-good-but-life-learning) memories. okay, 'nuff said.
September 1, 2007
I picked this book up at a used book sale and was pleasantly surprised to find a more complex and interesting book than the chick lit cover and back page would suggest. Though the idea of mix tapes runs throughout, this novel explores mother-daughter relationships and fears of committment in a highly readable way.
November 2, 2007
I enjoyed the 'soundtrack' with each experience - brought back many memories of my own. I thought the ending was all wrapped up with a big shiny bow but it worked.
February 2, 2008
Makes you want to make your own mix.
April 12, 2008
Mother & daughter relating on a car trip by listening to music.
March 5, 2009
An interesting take on a mother-daughter relationship but the songs thing just comes across as gimmicky. An average to good read that doesn't quite live up to its potential.
January 10, 2016
I liked it a lot; I classify it as smart chick lit, or the female equivalent of Nick Hornby's High Fidelity.
March 19, 2009
This book made me want to make mix tapes for everything!
March 24, 2009
Reading this book while listening to Dave Matthews Band made me re-live a lot of memories, and remember all the mix tapes I made along the way!
April 30, 2012
Loved this concept of review her life in song. I do this! I associate songs. When I hear Joni Mitchell come on I think of our house in the Berkeley Hills the last year of college for example.
May 27, 2012
A fun, nostalgic look back at life through "mix tapes," gotta love that!
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews