false 154409 2176660 0399155066 9780399155062 597 http://www.goodreads.com/images/books/21/660/2176660-m-1255588000.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/books/21/660/2176660-s-1255588000.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2176660.The_Soloist_A_Lost_Dream_an_Unlikely_Friendship_and_the_Redemptive_Power_of_Music 3.87 1778
When Steve Lopez saw Nathaniel Ayers playing his heart out on a two-string violin on Los Angeles' skid row, he found it impossible to walk away. More than thirty years earlier, Ayers had been a promising classical bass student at Juilliard -- ambitious, charming, and also one of the few African-Americans -- until he gradually lost his ability to function, overcome by schizophrenia. When Lopez finds him, Ayers is homeless, paranoid, and deeply troubled, but glimmers of that brilliance are still there.

Over time, Steve Lopez and Nathaniel Ayers form a bond, and Lopez imagines that he might be able to change Ayers's life. Lopez collects donated violins, a cello, even a stand-up bass and a piano; he takes Ayers to Walt Disney Concert Hall and helps him move indoors. For each triumph, there is a crashing disappointment, yet neither man gives up. In the process of trying to save Ayers, Lopez finds that his own life is changing, and his sense of what one man can accomplish in the lives of others begins to expand in new ways.

Poignant and ultimately hopeful, The Soloist is a beautifully told story of friendship and the redeeming power of music.]]> 154409 3.86 2293 722 2008 264408 0140239456 9780140239454 15 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1173246290m/264408.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1173246290s/264408.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/264408.Third_and_Indiana_A_Novel 3.95 92 154409 3.86 2293 722 1994 2128406 0151002649 9780151002641 2 http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2128406.The_Sunday_Macaroni_Club_A_Novel 3.76 17 PW. "]]> 154409 3.86 2293 722 1997 264403 0940159309 9780940159303 2 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1173246289m/264403.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1173246289s/264403.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/264403.Land_of_Giants 4.00 7 154409 3.86 2293 722 1995 2176659 0151002843 9780151002849 0 http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2176659.In_the_Clear 4.00 4
Twenty-five years and one marriage later, it looks as if life might finally give him a break. Albert is offered a job as chief of security at a new casino at a salary he has only dreamed of. Not that his dreams were ever very grand.

Of course, not everyone in town is equally happy. Albert can live with the death threats. And the bombings. Even a dead body provides some professional excitement. He can take his father's tirades about selling out and he can cope with his girlfriend, Rickie, losing her business--at least he's always been a good friend to her son, Jack. What bothers him is that he might have to arrest one of them for murder.

Lopez throws his irresistible characters into the whirlwind that threatens to destroy the increasingly fragile world of Harbor Light, and makes us care both for them and for what they tell us about getting from one day to the next. As Albert realizes, you can get to your future only by way of your past.
]]> 154409 3.86 2293 722 2002 264414 1901982009 9781901982008 0 http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/264414.Macaroni_Club_B_Abandoned_ 0.0 0 154409 3.86 2293 722 1998 6463176 0 http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6463176-tyrannicide 0.0 0 364390 3.00 1 0 154409 3.86 2293 722 2007