Michael has been teaching at Settlement since 1986. So that’s where, one Monday afternoon, I met Michael Caruso, a white-haired gentleman in his 70s who is ebullient and erudite and seems to know absolutely everything about any piece of classical music ever composed. Six of Philly’s Best Writers on How the Past Year Changed the City - and Us All (Spoiler alert - it can!) Maybe I’d seen Lizzo playing her flute and wondered what might have been if I’d stuck with it. Maybe I’d read an article about aging and how mastering new skills can help you feel young. I can’t remember exactly why I decided to restart my lessons after all that time. Didn’t touch a keyboard again for 30 years. That would leave me no time for sports or any of my other extracurriculars. In high school, I realized that if I wanted to keep getting better at the piano, I’d need to practice at least an hour a day.

Over the years I progressed from “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” to “Für Elise” and “Moonlight Sonata.” Starting when I was seven years old, once a week, instead of walking home from school, I’d walk around the block to my teacher’s house, where for half an hour I’d dutifully practice my scales and play whatever piece I’d been working on. When I was a kid growing up in the suburbs in the 1970s, my first encounters with a piano were fairly typical. Set against the fascinating backdrop of Los Angeles show business culture, with an insider's ear for writer's room showdowns and an eye for bad backstage behavior and set politics, Jennifer Weiner's new novel is a rollicking ride on the Hollywood roller coaster, a heartfelt story about what it's like for a young woman to love, and lose, in the land where dreams come true.Kyla Edmonds sits at the piano at the Mary Louise Curtis branch of Settlement Music School in Queen Village. But her dreams of Hollywood happiness are threatened by demanding actors, number-crunching executives, an unrequited crush on her boss, and her grandmother's impending nuptials. Six years later, she hits the jackpot when she gets The Call: the sitcom she wrote, The Next Best Thing, has gotten the green light, and Ruthie's going to be the showrunner. Blockbuster #1 New York Times bestselling author Jennifer Weiner returns with an irresistible story about a young woman trying to make it in Hollywood.Īctors aren't the only ones trying to make it in Hollywood.At twenty-three, Ruth Saunders left her childhood home in Massachusetts and headed west with her seventy-year-old grandma in tow, hoping to make it as a screenwriter.

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