The Pianist's Only Daughter: A Memoir by Kathryn Betts Adams
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The Pianist’s Only Daughter: A Memoir by Kathryn Betts Adams
The Pianist’s Only Daughter is a sometimes humorous, sometimes heartbreaking memoir that follows two creative academics—a pianist and a poet—from their youth, in love and full of vigor and artistic self-expression, to their poignant efforts to hold on to their unique gifts and maintain their humanity in old age.
First-time memoirist Kathryn Betts Adams, a social worker and academic gerontologist, is the only daughter of this couple and at the center of the story. In lyrical prose, she depicts their evolving family dynamics through the more than six decades that she is immersed in her parents’ vivid emotional lives. Her story culminates in a hero’s journey: shepherding her parents through their final years as they face chronic illness and diminishing capacities. Despite her professional expertise as a social worker, managing her parents’ care is not at all easy, as the eldercare services available come up short, and she must make a series of no-win decisions for first one and then the other parent.
Grounded in insights about mental health, health, and aging, and overlaid with a deep devotion to music and words, The Pianist’s Only Daughter is the story of one family’s—one daughter’s—experience of the human condition. Although it is not a self-help book, readers will find useful information and ideas that resonate with their own experiences with aging and family relationships.
Chick Lit Book Café Review:
Written with stunning clarity and skill, The Pianist’s Only Daughter: A Memoir by Kathryn Betts Adams Ph.D. chronicles her life experiences as the daughter of two creative parents. It includes glimpses into her parents’ personal and professional lives and her role as their caregiver later in their lives.
A social worker and professor by profession, Adams grew up in a family where her father’s music career took center stage. Her mother was a poet and English scholar. Adams describes her childhood and the dynamics within her family. She documents the shifts that occurred in their family and how they adjusted to the changes. She describes her role as her parents’ caregiver during their senior years.
While the work is intimate, readers will enjoy it very much and find value in reading it. It covers familiar topics that include familial relationships, talent, creativity, age and illness that readers will find relatable. Adams shares her many unique experiences as an only child and describes the relationships she shared with her father and mother. She documents the influence her parents’ careers had on her and how their lives changed gradually as they approached their old age.
Her writing is luminous and precise. Each person and experience included is described in vivid detail. Adams describes her beautiful relationship with her mother. She covers her father’s attachment to his craft and how his music career framed her childhood and impacted her family. Her relationships with other family members are also deftly captured in the memoir. Her reflections on her experiences and relationships are insightful.
The memoir offers informative content about elderly care. It explores the challenges of caregiving and details the humorous, loving, and joyous moments that Adams shares with her parents in her later years.
A powerful retelling of a family’s life and intriguing and heartwarming evolution, The Pianist’s Only Daughter is an emotional memoir that captures the ebbs and flows of family, love, aging, and caregiving. It is a brilliant work that readers will find unforgettable and comes highly recommended by Chick Lit Book Cafe. Book reviewed by Anna Davis for Chick Lit Book Café Reviews & Author Marketing Solutions.
A former clinical social worker and social work professor,
Dr. Adams researches and writes about aging, health, and mental health.
Originally from St. Paul, Minnesota, she now lives in West Hartford, Connecticut.
For Book Clubs – Book Questions
Website
Buy on Amazon
The Pianist’s Only Daughter: A Memoir by Kathryn Betts AdamsThe Pianist’s Only Daughter is a sometimes humorous, sometimes heartbreaking memoir that follows two creative academics—a pianist and a poet—from their youth, in love and full of vigor and artistic self-expression, to their poignant efforts to hold on to their unique gifts and maintain their humanity in old age.
First-time memoirist Kathryn Betts Adams, a social worker and academic gerontologist, is the only daughter of this couple and at the center of the story. In lyrical prose, she depicts their evolving family dynamics through the more than six decades that she is immersed in her parents’ vivid emotional lives. Her story culminates in a hero’s journey: shepherding her parents through their final years as they face chronic illness and diminishing capacities. Despite her professional expertise as a social worker, managing her parents’ care is not at all easy, as the eldercare services available come up short, and she must make a series of no-win decisions for first one and then the other parent.
Grounded in insights about mental health, health, and aging, and overlaid with a deep devotion to music and words, The Pianist’s Only Daughter is the story of one family’s—one daughter’s—experience of the human condition. Although it is not a self-help book, readers will find useful information and ideas that resonate with their own experiences with aging and family relationships.
Chick Lit Book Café Review:
Written with stunning clarity and skill, The Pianist’s Only Daughter: A Memoir by Kathryn Betts Adams Ph.D. chronicles her life experiences as the daughter of two creative parents. It includes glimpses into her parents’ personal and professional lives and her role as their caregiver later in their lives.
A social worker and professor by profession, Adams grew up in a family where her father’s music career took center stage. Her mother was a poet and English scholar. Adams describes her childhood and the dynamics within her family. She documents the shifts that occurred in their family and how they adjusted to the changes. She describes her role as her parents’ caregiver during their senior years.
While the work is intimate, readers will enjoy it very much and find value in reading it. It covers familiar topics that include familial relationships, talent, creativity, age and illness that readers will find relatable. Adams shares her many unique experiences as an only child and describes the relationships she shared with her father and mother. She documents the influence her parents’ careers had on her and how their lives changed gradually as they approached their old age.
Her writing is luminous and precise. Each person and experience included is described in vivid detail. Adams describes her beautiful relationship with her mother. She covers her father’s attachment to his craft and how his music career framed her childhood and impacted her family. Her relationships with other family members are also deftly captured in the memoir. Her reflections on her experiences and relationships are insightful.
The memoir offers informative content about elderly care. It explores the challenges of caregiving and details the humorous, loving, and joyous moments that Adams shares with her parents in her later years.
A powerful retelling of a family’s life and intriguing and heartwarming evolution, The Pianist’s Only Daughter is an emotional memoir that captures the ebbs and flows of family, love, aging, and caregiving. It is a brilliant work that readers will find unforgettable and comes highly recommended by Chick Lit Book Cafe. Book reviewed by Anna Davis for Chick Lit Book Café Reviews & Author Marketing Solutions.
A former clinical social worker and social work professor,
Dr. Adams researches and writes about aging, health, and mental health.
Originally from St. Paul, Minnesota, she now lives in West Hartford, Connecticut.
For Book Clubs – Book Questions
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