The opening sentence of this book was a great hook, and the rest of the story was just as gripping. I'd love to read a sequel in which we found out what happened to the other employees of the music store. It was a fascinating look at wannabe musicians in L.A.

The title and topic of this book were intriguing, but the "good news" of the subtitle was hard to find. Halpern is a proficient pop science writer, but one might suspect she was either testing our cognitive abilities or trying to exercise them by making the reader jump back and forth in time and place. The book does get fairly technical, but if you're interested in memory and memory loss, stick with it. Through Halpern, you'll meet many of the major names in the field and learn what they're working on.