Book completed

Beethoven: A Life in Nine Pieces, by Laura Tunbridge. I read this for the Oregon Bach Festival book club. This is a relatively advanced biography of Beethoven, as it expects the reader to already have a basic familiarity with the details of his life and of his music. The organization is very interesting, though - she's chosen nine life themes (success, friends, heroism, ambition, love, liberty, family, spirit, and endings), and for each she's chosen a representative Beethoven work. Then each chapter discusses its theme both as it relates to Beethoven's life and the chosen work. I feel now that I know him a little better. I liked that the author was quite reasonably concise, too.