Monday 17 October 2016

Book Review | Hassan El-Tayyab | Composing Temple Sunrise

Composing Temple Sunrise: Overcoming Writer's block at Burning Man

I received this book for free from publishers. This book was brought to my attention through a contact form on my blog. This book was sent to me in exchange for an honest review. 



Author: Hassan El-Tayyab
Title: Composing Temple Sunrise
Genre: Memoir, Biography, Autobiography, Music, Art, Festival, Relationships
Pages: 202
Price: £6.84

Started:
27th August 2016
Finished: 2nd September 2016

Synopsis: 
This is a memoir by musician Hassan El-Tayyab and recounts his trip across the US looking for that elusive muse. He arrives in Berkeley and hooks up with a group creating a metal sculpture called Fishbug. They go to Burning Man in the Nevada dessert and here he writes the musical piece Temple Sunrise. Hassan is a musician singer/songwriter with his group America Nomad. This is a book of travel, personal exploration, community, and that elusive finding of the creative source. A beautiful song comes of this journey as well as a beautiful, insightful book. Hassan El-Tayyab is an award-winning singer/songwriter, author, teacher, and cultural activist currently residing in San Francisco, California. His critically-acclaimed Americana act American Nomad performs regularly at festivals and venues up and down the West Coast and beyond. In addition to performing Hassan is also a music educator, having taught songwriting and guitar classes for the Freight and Salvage and The East Bay Center for the Performing Arts. Hassan has also been a guest lecturer on song writing at the University of California, Berkeley.

Review:
 I would like to thank the publisher for sending me a copy of this book. When I received this book I was unsure whether I would like this book or not as I mostly read fiction and fantasy books. When buying or reading books I normally do not opt for memoirs so this book didn't jump out as something I would be gripped by. However, when I started reading this book I found that the adventures of the writer pulled me in and then I just could not break away from the pages. The author excellently portrayed his emotions in relation to the events that he wrote about in this book. When reading about the events he experienced and took part in I could almost feel exactly what he was feeling at these times or maybe what he was feeling when looking back on these memories. This was an excellent read and I am glad that I accepted this book for review. I would highly recommend this book to anyone, whether they are a reader of fiction or enjoy auto-biographies/memoirs. 

Rating:
5 out of 5 stars

2 comments:

  1. Thanks so much for being on the blog tour. I'm so glad that the memoir grabbed your attention.

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