Benny Lament's Songbook: A Musical Journey Through a Novel

K. Rogers: Amy Harmon has some amazing reads and this is another one to add to the list!
Great characters, storyline and love story throughout!

United States on Oct 19, 2023

Jason Miller: I loved how many different groups, ethnic and musical, are represented and I loved how everyone was tied together. I found it interesting that Benny’s view of
“Family” changed so much from his youth through his relationship with Esther. And that you choose your true family!

United States on Sep 28, 2023

Kindle Customer: I could hear Esther sing, Benny playing the piano and the band brothers arguing. I could feel the tension, the longing between Esther and Benny throughout the story, the fear of being in each other's company in segregated 60's America. The telling of the story reflecting the charcters struggle through later radio interviews between Benny and the host, and current life as it was happening was seamless, not always achievable in novels. Such is the skill of the author to place the reader right inside this beautifully crafted story, a stunning blend of fact and fiction. A reminder for all of us that history has taught what can't be tolerated must be changed and if we are brave enough, we can make that change. First time I have read this author, I believe she will become an absolute favourite and look forward to the next novel.

Australia on Sep 25, 2023

Susan Aylworth: Amy Harmon is never content with the easy stories. She hunts out hard times, difficult situations, and throws her fictional characters into the worst of them. Unlike the author, I did live through the 60s, and my heart hurt when I saw Benny and Esther struggling through. As always, Harmon has created a story that immerses her reader in another time and place.

United States on Sep 07, 2023

Gill Rowlands: Engaging, twisting and turning storyline, fabulous, enthralling characters and the music scene of the 60s....now add in the segregation and abhorrent treatment endured by so many, and you have a recipe for an explosive yet touching story....I loved it ❤️

United Kingdom on May 07, 2023

Karen: “May we seek to learn each other’s stories so that we might love each other a little better.” ~ Amy Harmon

Let me start off by saying I LOVE Amy Harmon and her stories. What I love most is the characters she creates and how I am pulled into their journey, wanting them to succeed and normally ugly crying along the way. The Songbook of Benny Lament didn’t do that for me but as always, I can’t fault Amy’s beautiful prose.

The storyline was interesting; it was set in the 60s, it involved music, an interracial relationship and gangsters. The plot took the lead and for me, I felt their quest to make music and avoid the grip of the gangsters overshadowed the romance. I didn’t get hooked into Benny and Esther’s relationship. It was a slow burn and I felt it was missing that ‘can’t eat, can’t sleep, reach-for-the-stars, over-the-fence, World Series kinda love’.

I loved Esther, she was sassy and seemed like a fun character. Her experiences of discrimination were lightly explored and I understand it had to be that way without first-hand experience but perhaps that’s what was missing for me.

Overall, this was an easy read, Amy’s writing...

United Kingdom on May 02, 2021

Annie: This book was so beautiful. At a glance it is about Benny, a white man, is a songwriter who prefers to be behind the limelight. He is also running from himself as he's trying so hard not to be like his father that he doesn't take the time to know himself. Esther, a mixed woman, with a voice that haunts you, dreams to make it in life and a story to share with the world.

At the start of the novel I didn't really gel with either character, but the more time they spent together the more I saw them grow and become more confident with themselves. I think they were each others wake up call in a sense. Through it all they show the 60's, and people reading it today, that it is possible for people, regardless of race, to come together. As Esther said 'If you want people to change you have to show them what it looks like' and they do show it, by performing on stage together each night throughout the trials and tribulations.

The book has so many little things that bring a sense of life to the story as a whole, and make you feel like Benny and Esther could have existed in the 60's, from tying shoe laces, to making a song about chicken and celebrating Christmas. These small...

United Kingdom on Apr 21, 2021

peasel: There is something truly special about this book, with the messages and lessons in it as relevant today as they were in the book's setting of the sixties. This is a book that deserves an audience, because it is also an important book, one that teaches about perseverance, about facing long odds, and about love. Love for the family you're born to, and love for the family you choose. I fell in love with these characters so fast, and became very invested in their journey, to the point where I'm writing this after listening to it most of the night. This book is a triumph for Amy Harmon, who is on of my favorite authors of all time and now has written one of my favorite book of all time. If you give this book just two chapters, I swear you'll be sucked in to Benny and Esther's world and not want to leave until the last page is turned, or the last words listened to. Congratulations to Amy Harmon and I am already plotting when I can fit in a reread.

Canada on Mar 24, 2021

AlohaD: -"If you want to know what's happening in a nation, look at the music".-

I recently just finished this book and felt like I had my heart handed to me on a platter. And it isn't pretty. I had my heart broken, then pieced hastily together and then a smashed a bit all within that process. My words and thoughts won't be adequate for what I just read and experienced, but know that it definitely has a different feel to it. It's historical fiction but with real people included and from a time not so long ago. There's beauty and darkness and it felt true and honest. So important to the past and even more important and relevant to our world today.

The Songbook of Benny Lament was told in a back and forth past/present sort of manner and completely from Benny's POV. Preceding each chapter, we have The Barry Gray Show interviewing Benny Lament on December 30, 1969. He tells the story of meeting Esther Mine and the band Minefield in 1960 and how they came to be a group, activists, and a love story. But within that interview, we also get Benny's past, Benny's dad and "the family". Because all of those people in the past had some sort of connection to the future and what Benny was...

United States on Mar 17, 2021

Wendy LeGrand: I know already that this book will be one of my most favorite reads of this year. If I could give this a million stars, I would!

I have read a lot of authors in my many years, but I cannot think of very many who have managed to sweep me up so completely in their stories the way Amy Harmon does. She has this magical ability to make her stories leap off the pages and wrap themselves around you so fully, you feel like you are living and breathing in them right along with the characters. So, when they are happy, you are deliriously happy too. And when they are suffering, you feel like nothing is ever going to make it better again. But somehow, Amy does make it better, and even though tough things, bad things, sad things happen, you make it through and find a way to smile at the beauty she pulls out of the scenes, even when they are in the darkest of moments.

Benny Lament and Esther Mine are two characters that will stay with me for a very long time. I cheered so hard for these two people to find love and happiness. To find acceptance and tolerance. It is not much to ask for, but society very often has a different opinion on what tolerance and acceptance looks...

United States on Mar 16, 2021