** Eric Hoffer Book Award 2025 Category Finalist ** The Pianist’s Only Daughter: A Memoir is a frank, humorous and poignant exploration of aging in an aging expert's own family. Only daughter and geriatric social worker Kathryn Betts Adams brings to life her colorful, emotionally volatile parents, an English teacher/poet and a music professor/concert pianist, from their heady youth through their final years. As they reach old age and need her help, the author struggles with recurring family dynamics and disappointments, along with limitations to the American healthcare system for older adults. Between her mother's decline with Parkinson's disease and her dramatic father's wish to be in charge, managing their care proves challenging despite the author’s social work and aging expertise. In a clear, wry and authentic voice, the author shares intimate details of her parents’ aging, the efforts she makes to help them maintain their unique identities and quality of life, and the mix of resentment, overwhelm and deep empathy she feels for them. ~~~~ "This powerful account is both personal and deeply emotive, recounting Adams's experiences while also memorializing her parents." ~The BookLife Prize "I think there is a great beauty in this story that shares the honest happenings of life as it happened to the author and her family. In describing the difficulties of separations, health problems, her parents' relationship as it progressed, the author has created a beautiful and poignant work of love, and what living with other people in heart and action really looks like. Readers of memoir, and personal narratives will adore it." ~J udge, 32nd Annual Writer’s Digest Self-Published Book Awards **A Winner of the 2024 PenCraft Seasonal Book Award Spring Competition in the non-fiction, memoir genre.** "It’s both a beautiful narrative history of your/our parents’ era and creative life, as well as the bittersweet, difficult decline of our loved ones and the challenges of caregiving all at once. Brava!" ~Ginger McKnight-Chavers, Author of In the Heart of Texas: A Novel "A powerful retelling of a family's life and intriguing and heartwarming evolution, The Pianist's Only Daughter is an emotional memoir that captures the ebbs and flows of family, love, aging, and caregiving. ~ Chick Lit Book Cafe Reviews " Wistful and endearing, sad and poignant, engaging and page-turning , this memoir is not stodgy or boring. It shows the highlights and lowlights of life and how other people's choices shape our own lives and the choices we, too, make..." ~Reedsy Discovery "An enthralling account that traces the highs and lows of a family dealing with aging. This debut memoir centers on a woman's spirited life with artistic parents whom she helped care for in their later years...Adams' sharp prose delivers...an unflinching portrait of aging and a not-always-flattering picture of medical care in the United States..." ~Kirkus Reviews Adams writes with a refreshing candor that strikes a reader as wholly authentic, and with a clear voice and a rollercoaster of a story to tell, she's someone I would be happy to listen to a whole lot more going forward. Very highly recommended." ~ Readers' Favorite THE PIANIST'S ONLY DAUGHTER: A Memoir is a clear-eyed and poignant account of one of the most difficult chapters of American life. Kathryn Betts Adams writes with a grace and generosity of spirit that will disarm even the most cynical reader. IR Approved: 4 Stars. ~IndieReader I started writing my memoir, The Pianist's Only Daughter  when it dawned on me just how tough it was to be a caregiver to my parents—even though I'm a social worker who specializes in practice and research with older adults! I felt a sort of calling to share the story of my caregiving journey with others who might be dealing with similar issues with older loved ones. An overarching theme of the book is "Family caregiving stories are FAMILY stories." The personalities of the family members and our childhood experiences within the family have a huge impact on the emotions we experience later in life. This is why I chose to begin my memoir at the beginning, briefly exploring the early lives of my parents and some highlights of our nuclear family from my youth which impacted my parents' aging and my caregiving journey. I sincerely hope that readers will find this memoir to be relatable, moving, entertaining, informative and overall, reassuring.      ~Kathryn Betts Adams