The Song Reader

She can hear the music in peoples' souls.Mary Beth and her younger sister Leeann are trying to support themselves in their small Southern hometown. So Mary Beth works to make ends meet 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 people make sense of their lives. In no time, Mary Beth's readings have the entire town singing her praises, including the handsome scientist Ben, who falls hard for Mary Beth and her unearthly intuition.What happens when she can't make out the lyrics?When Mary Beth reveals a long-muted secret in the community, however, she turns off the music and gives up song reading for good. Soon everyone's lives are out of tune: Leeann worries she'll never graduate from high school, and Ben can't conduct his experiments. Without Mary Beth's music the town's silence is louder than ever. Could it be that all the lyrics to all those foolish love songs really aren't so foolish after all?

Lisa Tucker grew up in small towns outside of Kansas City and St. Louis, Missouri. She has toured the Midwest with a jazz band, and worked as a computer programmer, waitress, writing teacher, office cleaner, and math professor. She has a graduate degree in English from the University of Pennsylvania, and a graduate degree in math from Villanova University. Her book reviews and essays have appeared in a variety of journals, including The Philadelphia Inquirer. She currently lives with her husband and son in the mountains of northern New Mexico, where she is at work on her second novel.