Somebody Everybody Listens To by Suzanne Supplee (Full Book Review)

Title: Somebody Everybody Listens To

Author: Suzanne Supplee 

Pages: 245

Content: V=1, D=1, S=1, L=2

Plot: Retta Lee Jones has dreamed of Nashville all her life.  The summer after graduating high school she takes her guitar and heads to that city of country music.  She knows it won’t be easy and she isn’t expecting fame overnight… but when her car breaks down her first night and she’s mugged the second she begins to doubt she can really make it.  Things don’t get any easier.  In fact, the friendship of Ricky Dean and book sales girl Emerson and her best friend from Starling, Brenda, seem to be the only things pulling her through.  Can Retta make it as a country music singer?  Pick up the book to find out!

What I liked: Alright, I like country music myself so it was really cool that before every chapter there was a half page “biography” of country music artists of where they were born, where they worked, their “big break,” and a life event.  Also, it had their full names (Did you know Faith Hill’s name is really Audrey Faith Perry?  Or Toby Keith’s last name is Covel?  How about “Richard Keith Urban”?  Also, all of the chapters were titled after a song that a country music artist wrote.  So that was super cool!

I also felt like I connected with Retta and how she had done all this research on country music and knew she wasn’t going to be famous overnight… and she wasn’t.  I feel like the same thing has happened with me: I started a handmade card business and did a lot of research and I knew I wasn’t going to have millions of orders on *my Etsy shop* overnight… and I didn’t.  I think Retta might have felt a bit like me, where you *know* something isn’t going to be easy in your head, but in your heart you hope by some miracle it will be – or that it will at least be easier then it was for others.

I really liked that there were actually a few songs of Retta’s in the book.  Sometimes it peeves me to read a book about how a character is really good at writing, or poetry, or whatnot and then you don’t see any of their work.  I only wish this book came with a CD so I could actually listen to the tune of the songs! =]

Also, just detail wise – on the page of the country music artist bio and the first chapter page there was some *really* pretty grey swirly-flowery printing.

Negative: I didn’t find anything I really disliked about this book!  There was some language, if you are worried about that, but I didn't find it particularly overwhelming.

Who would like this book: Anyone who enjoys country music!  Of course, if you are totally hate the country twang the book would still be a good read (after all, it’s not like you can actually hear the music.  Although, if you’ve listened to the artists, maybe you can.)

You can visit Suzanne Supplee’s website here: http://www.suzannesupplee.com/index.html  (Read through her Q&A or even the “Contact” page – I got a giggle from both.)

View book discussion questions (after you've read the book of course!) here: http://justbyjosephine.blogspot.com/2011/08/somebody-everybody-listens-to-by.html