The Soloist

By Steve Lopez,

Book cover of The Soloist: A Lost Dream, an Unlikely Friendship, and the Redemptive Power of Music

Book description

The New York Times bestselling true story that inspired the major motion picture—an “unforgettable tale of hope, heart and humanity”(People).

Journalist Steve Lopez discovered of Nathaniel Ayers, a former classical bass student at Julliard, playing his heart out on a two-string violin on Los Angeles’s Skid Row. Deeply affected by…

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Why read it?

1 author picked The Soloist as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

When Steven Lopez spotted a homeless Black violinist playing classical music on Skid Row he saw material for his column in the L.A. Times.

He succeeded in making Nathaniel Ayers, a Julliard dropout with schizophrenia, a cause cĂŠlèbre—and a friend for life. Lopez was determined to find answers. Couldn’t Nathaniel be forced into a facility that would help him? From, counselors with experience on Skid Row, and from Nathaniel himself, he learned why not: coercion destroys trust and the ability to provide any assistance.  

Since Lopez’s encounter in 2005, two overlapping crises have only intensified: homelessness for those down on…

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Tap Dancing on Everest by Mimi Zieman,

Tap Dancing on Everest, part coming-of-age memoir, part true-survival adventure story, is about a young medical student, the daughter of a Holocaust survivor raised in N.Y.C., who battles self-doubt to serve as the doctor—and only woman—on a remote Everest climb in Tibet.

The team attempts a new route up…

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