The Piano Shop on the Left Bank by Thaddeus Carhart (2002, Paperback, Reprint)

If you ever took piano lessons as a kid, you'll enjoy this book (even if you didn't enjoy your piano lessons!). I checked this book out from my local library as my husband and I are planning a trip to France, and we like to read books about our destinations. But it was so much more than just a book about Paris and the French, as the author gets below the surface of French culture through his attraction to a small piano shop on a back street in Paris. There is fascinating information about the history and business of pianos, as well as interesting thoughts and observations about why we love or hate to play them. As my mother was a piano teacher by vocation, and my brother is a piano tuner and rebuilder, I'm inextricably tied to pianos, but this book helped me clarify my own sometimes ambivalent relationship with them. I enjoyed the book so much that I wanted to have my own copy to share with others.