Music

Listicles

AMAs After-Party: 8 Music-Themed Books That Will Rock Your Bookshelf

In the spirit of the 2025 American Music Awards, I’ve compiled a discography (if you will) of eight unskippable music-themed books. A remix of nonfiction about some of the most iconic artists alongside fictional stories that transport you to your favorite music decades, this collection is dripping in gold records,…

Natalie GarrisonMay 30, 2025

Fiction

“The Musician” Will Stop at Nothing to Have His Name Among the Stars

Musicians are often tragic characters. They struggle with poverty, their own spirit and passion, drug addiction, alcohol abuse, depression and love. The list of accomplished musicians who came to ruinous ends is long — from Billie Holiday to Amy Winehouse, Charlie Parker to Kurt Cobain. But Mike Shaw’s novel The…

Sherri DaleySeptember 13, 2021

Fiction

‘Windy City Blues’ Explores Racial Tension and Music in 1950s Chicago

Read on for a review of Renée Rosen's Windy City Blues by Modern Girls author Jennifer S. Brown. The world Renée Rosen creates in Windy City Blues sounds not just with the rhythms of the music of Chicago in mid-20th century, but with the beats of racial tension, of women’s struggles…

Jennifer S. BrownMay 23, 2017

Fiction

Taiwanese Author’s English Debut is a Musical Journey of Self-Discovery

“Anyone with enough experience can make up stories, but only those who truly understand the world have something meaningful to say.” That quote, from a Nobel literature laureate, is used by a nameless piano tuner to describe what defines for him a widower grieving for his young wife in The…

BookTribJanuary 3, 2023

Nonfiction

Q&A With Linda Ronstadt: Unique Memoir Addresses Heritage, Immigration and Food

Linda Ronstadt’s latest offering began as a group cookbook. Thankfully, Feels Like Home: A Song for the Sonoran Borderlands (Heyday) morphed into a profoundly moving and visceral memoir and travelog, rooted in place, family heritage, history, and, yes, food. Co-written with New York Times editor Lawrence Downes, Feels Like Home explores…

Susan BaileyNovember 14, 2022

Romance

Playlists for 2 Romance Novels We Adore

As a huge lover of books and music, it only makes sense that the two would go together. When I’m sitting down to read, I’m not just picking a random playlist, I’m searching for those specific songs that I know will go perfectly with the tone and the atmosphere of…

Rachel CarterSeptember 28, 2015

Miscellany

Joni Mitchell, Tom Hanks, and Gabrielle Union: This Week’s New Releases

"By the time we got to Woodstock, we were half a million strong..." Joni Mitchell inspired more than just other female recording artists - she is still to this day one of the best and most influential songwriters in the world. She contracted polio at the age of nine, which…

Rachel Fogle De SouzaOctober 17, 2017

Miscellany

Twenty years after Kurt Cobain: Five things you should know about the grunge legend

It's one of the most iconic album covers of the late 20th century: bright blue water, naked baby, floating money. Nevermind was Nirvana’s breakthrough album, the one that catapulted them—and particularly frontman Kurt Cobain—from a mostly unknown Pacific Northwest grunge band (and there were a lot of those) to a…

Jordan FosterApril 4, 2014

Nonfiction Nonfiction - Featured

The Magic of Musical Passion in “This Was Toscanini: The Maestro, My Father, and Me”

Samuel Antek — first violinist with the famed NBC Symphony Orchestra for 17 years — captures what it was like to perform under Maestro Arturo Toscanini, who many consider to be the greatest conductor of the mid-20th century. In This Was Toscanini, his musical memoir published in 1963, Antek shared…

K.L. RomoAugust 17, 2021

Nonfiction

Wonderland: Steven Johnson on How Play Shaped the Modern World

What you are reading now is made possible by either a computer or mobile device that connects to WiFi or a hotspot. With little thought, you may check your text messages, email and social media for updates. None of this was possible 25 years ago as these things did not…

Rachel Fogle De SouzaNovember 14, 2017

Nonfiction

‘A Private View’: Afshin Shahidi’s New Book Gives a Rare Glimpse into Prince’s Private Life

One of my favorite pictures of Prince is the cover photo of Afshin Shahidi’s book, Prince: A Private View, which was released today. One of the reasons I am so enamored of this picture is due to the striking contrast of black and white in Prince’s clothing against the simplistic…

Aisha K. StaggersOctober 24, 2017

Nonfiction

13 Books You Absolutely Must Read Before Seeing Kathryn Bigelow’s ‘Detroit’

The Summer of '67 was a unique time in America’s history that some fondly remember as a season full of love, music and flower power. Still, for others in major American cities, that summer was awash in civil unrest, where waves of injustice led to rebellion and social change. A…

Aisha K. StaggersAugust 4, 2017

Nonfiction

I’m Glad I Did: Songwriter Cynthia Weil recreates her early years in the business

Rules are meant to be broken. Or at least that’s what Grammy-winning songwriter Cynthia Weil proposes in her latest young adult novel, I’m Glad I Did, a book that rides on the back of the Peace Train, giving voice to issues of racism, sexism and war. It was 1961 when…

Steph ScottMarch 1, 2015

Nonfiction

Tom Maxwell remembers “Hell” with the Squirrel Nut Zippers in his new memoir

Tom Maxwell rose to fame writing and playing for the interestingly named band, Squirrel Nut Zippers. With his help, the band’s hit “Hell” rocketed them to new heights, bringing their retro-swing sound to big stages in venues such as Los Angeles and Europe. Fast forward almost 20 years, and Maxwell…

Stephen J. GrantOctober 2, 2014

Nonfiction

Come for the chicken wings, stay for the rockstars: Patti Smith & Robert Mapplethorpe are JUST KIDS

Just Kids, a memoir by artist and musician Patti Smith, is a touching glimpse into one of the most endearing relationships ever seen on the page. Throughout the book, the strong bond between Smith and photographer Robert Mapplethorpe is evident; the relationship guiding and dividing both of their lives in…

Amanda HarknessMarch 11, 2014

Fiction Thrillers Thrillers - Featured

Old Crime Noir Tropes Get New Life in Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s “Velvet Was the Night”

"A stylish, hard-boiled novel painted in shades of gray with a whole lot of heart." — Steph Cha, author of Your House Will Pay —∞— It’s 1970s Mexico City, and civil unrest creates a dangerous backdrop for our unsuspecting, fantasy-minded protagonist, Maite. Working days as a bored secretary and nights deeply…

Emma LongAugust 17, 2021

AMAs After-Party: 8 Music-Themed Books That Will Rock Your Bookshelf

“The Musician” Will Stop at Nothing to Have His Name Among the Stars

‘Windy City Blues’ Explores Racial Tension and Music in 1950s Chicago

Playlists for 2 Romance Novels We Adore

Joni Mitchell, Tom Hanks, and Gabrielle Union: This Week’s New Releases

Twenty years after Kurt Cobain: Five things you should know about the grunge legend

The Magic of Musical Passion in “This Was Toscanini: The Maestro, My Father, and Me”

Wonderland: Steven Johnson on How Play Shaped the Modern World

‘A Private View’: Afshin Shahidi’s New Book Gives a Rare Glimpse into Prince’s Private Life

13 Books You Absolutely Must Read Before Seeing Kathryn Bigelow’s ‘Detroit’

I’m Glad I Did: Songwriter Cynthia Weil recreates her early years in the business

Tom Maxwell remembers “Hell” with the Squirrel Nut Zippers in his new memoir

Come for the chicken wings, stay for the rockstars: Patti Smith & Robert Mapplethorpe are JUST KIDS

Old Crime Noir Tropes Get New Life in Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s “Velvet Was the Night”

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