"It will get worse before it gets better," I heard the full-bosomed tarot card reader tell my husband, who was being investigated for raping one of his drum line students.  Two weeks later, my husband of 11 years was officially charged with forcing himself on his student, and the crime was reported in detail in the newspaper. I wanted to categorize the whole mess as a foolish choice made by my husband. What I simply could not absorb -- even when it was presented to me in the black and white of a dispassionate newspaper story -- was the impact of his sexual encounter with a high school senior in my home while I was out of town.   The fortune teller was right. It got worse. And the "better" was nowhere in sight.  ***  Author Monica Lee explores themes of fidelity, faith and justice in "The Percussionist's Wife: A Memoir of Sex, Crime & Betrayal," the true story about the demise of a marriage after revelations of adultery and criminal sexual conduct. In a perverse age when politicians hide children bred by their mistresses and coaches prey upon their charges, "The Percussionist's Wife" is a modern parable on the nature of betrayal and atonement for those who have endured the shame and mystery of unspeakable secrets.  Monica Lee, a former journalist and writer, draws on her skills as a daily newspaper reporter and relies on the police evidence file to recreate her husband's ongoing philandering with his students throughout their marriage and to illustrate how she coped -- or didn't -- with the criminal charges against him.

The Percussionist's Wife: A Memoir of Sex, Crime & Betrayal

Biographies & Memoirs

Lee, Monica

Memoirs

Monica Lee

<p>After buying an old Methodist church to renovate into their home, a plucky 50something couple who gets excited by reclaimed wood and deals on Craigslist goes to work, undaunted by risks to their marital relationship, creaky bodies and bank account.The 126-year-old structure has been stripped of pews, the altar, even the kitchen sink. The wiring is a Frankenstein mix of early 20th century knobs and tubes, copper wire and modern Romex. And the seller discloses the 40-foot bell tower is "rooted," which the intrepid homebuyers Tyler and Monica take to mean as "rotted." Friends wonder if there are bats in their belfry, literally and metaphorically, as the pair spends months juggling contractors of varying dependability, wandering around a thousand home improvement stores and sanding miles of wood floors, laboring to prove the doubters wrong. Based on the real-time memoir Monica blogged by night, Church Sweet Home chronicles the amusing, exhausting and ultimately satisfying fixer-upper follies of turning a derelict community treasure into a dream home.</p>

Church Sweet Home: A Renovation to Warm the Soul

See the best price to sell, buy or rent books by the Monica Lee publisher. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Monica Lee

See the best price to sell, buy or rent books by the Monica Lee publisher. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Percussionist's Wife: A Memoir of Sex, Crime & Betrayal

Church Sweet Home: A Renovation to Warm the Soul