Books about Music or Musicians

A list of possible reads for Books & Bites Bingo!

Updated March 17, 2023
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Don't tell anybody the secrets I told you : a memoir
Williams, Lucinda
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * The iconic singer-songwriter and three-time Grammy winner opens up about her traumatic childhood in the Deep South, her years of being overlooked in the music industry, and the stories that inspired her enduring songs in this "bracingly candid chronicle" (The...
Daisy Jones & the Six : a novel
Reid, Taylor Jenkins
Paper Book
#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER * OVER TWO MILLION COPIES SOLD! A gripping novel about the whirlwind rise of an iconic 1970s rock group and their beautiful lead singer, revealing the mystery behind their infamous breakup--from the author of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Malibu...
The storyteller : tales of life and music
Grohl, David
Paper Book
The #1 New York Times Bestseller * Named one of Variety's Best Music Books of 2021 * Included in Audible's Best of The Year list * A Business Insider Best Memoirs of 2021 * One of NME's Best Music Books of 2021 So, I've written a book. Having entertained the...
Nick & Norah's infinite playlist
Cohn, Rachel.
Paper Book
Two teenagers are thrust together in New York City in a night of chance, comedy and adventure. Nick is broken-hearted and losing himself in the city's indie rock scene and Norah is in the midst of questioning her assumptions about the world. Though they have nothing in common except their taste in...
God save the queens : the essential history of women in hip-hop
Iandoli, Kathy
Paper Book
An NPR Best Book of the Year "Without God Save the Queens, it is possible that the contributions of dozens of important female hip-hop artists who have sold tens of millions of albums, starred in monumental films, and influenced the direction of the culture would continue to go...
This is your brain on music : the science of a human obsession
Levitin, Daniel J.
Paper Book
In this groundbreaking union of art and science, rocker-turned-neuroscientist Daniel J. Levitin explores the connection between music--its performance, its composition, how we listen to it, why we enjoy it--and the human brain. Taking on prominent thinkers who argue that...
The final revival of Opal & Nev : a novel
Walton, Dawnie
Paper Book
An electrifying novel about the meteoric rise of an iconic interracial rock duo in the 1970s, their sensational breakup, and the dark secrets unearthed when they try to reunite decades later for one last tour. A GOOD MORNING AMERICA BUZZ PICK NAMED A BEST...
Just kids
Smith, Patti.
Paper Book
WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD It was the summer Coltrane died, the summer of love and riots, and the summer when a chance encounter in Brooklyn led two young people on a path of art, devotion, and initiation. Patti Smith would evolve as a poet and performer,...
Sweet, soft, plenty rhythm : a novel
Warrell, Laura
Paper Book
GMA BUZZ PICK * How do we find belonging when love is unrequited? A "gorgeously written debut" (Celeste Ng, best-selling author of Little Fires Everywhere) filled with jazz and soul, about the perennial temptations of dangerous love, told by the women who love Circus Palmer-...
Black mad wheel
Malerman, Josh
Paper Book
 From the author of the hit literary horror debut Bird Box ("Hitchcockian." --USA Today) comes a chilling novel about a group of musicians conscripted by the US government to track down the source of a strange and debilitating sound The Danes--the band known as the "Darlings of...
Musical chairs : a novel
Poeppel, Amy
Paper Book
"A fiercely funny tale of family, friendship, and later-in-life love." --People "Poeppel has created a story that is well thought out, well plotted, well written, and fully developed. A delightful novel that celebrates the messiness and joy to be found in real life."<...
Jay-Z : made in America
Dyson, Michael Eric
Ebook
NOW A NEW YORK TIMES, USA TODAY, AND PUBLISHER'S WEEKLY BESTSELLER "Dyson writes with the affection of a fan but the rigor of an academic. ... Using extensive passages from Jay-Z's lyrics, 'Made in America' examines the rapper's...
Heart-shaped box
Hill, Joe.
Paper Book
"Wild, mesmerizing, perversely witty....A Valentine from hell."  --Janet Maslin, New York Times The publication of Joe Hill's beautifully textured, deliciously scary debut novel Heart-Shaped Box was greeted with the sort of overwhelming critical acclaim that is rare for a...
They can't kill us until they kill us : essays
Willis-Abdurraqib, Hanif
Paper Book
* 2018 "12 best books to give this holiday season" --TODAY (Elizabeth Acevedo) * A "Best Book of 2017" --Rolling...
Me
John, Elton
Paper Book
INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER In his first and only official autobiography, music icon Elton John reveals the truth about his extraordinary life, from his rollercoaster lifestyle as shown in the film Rocketman, to becoming a living legend.
Changes : an oral history of Tupac Shakur
Pearce, Sheldon
Paper Book
A New Yorker writer's intimate, revealing account of Tupac Shakur's life and legacy, timed to the fiftieth anniversary of his birth and twenty-fifth anniversary of his death. In the summer of 2020, Tupac Shakur's single "Changes" became an anthem for the worldwide protests...
Petty : the biography
Zanes, Warren.
Paper Book
The New York Times Bestseller *One of Rolling Stone's 10 Best Music Books of 2015* An exhilarating and intimate account of the life of music legend Tom Petty, by an accomplished writer and musician who toured with Petty. No one...
The ballad of perilous graves
Jennings, Alex
Paper Book
"Funny, wild, witty, and profound."―Victor LaValle "A wild and wonderful debut, teeming with music, family and art."--New York Times "Magical, lyrical, gritty, otherworldly...hype like Bayou Classic in the 90s."<...
We sold our souls
Hendrix, Grady
Paper Book
Grady Hendrix, horror writer and author of Paperbacks from Hell and My Best Friend's Exorcism, is back with his most electrifying novel yet. In the 1990s, heavy metal band D rt W rk was poised for breakout success-but then lead singer Terry Hunt embarked on a solo career and rocketed...
Queen of bebop : the musical lives of Sarah Vaughan
Hayes, Elaine M.
Paper Book
Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2017 Washington Post Best Book of 2017 Amazon Editors' Top 100 Pick of the Year Amazon Best Humor and Entertainment Pick of the Year Booklist Top Ten Arts Book Queen of Bebop brilliantly chronicles the life of jazz singer Sarah...
Louis Armstrong, master of modernism
Brothers, Thomas David.
Paper Book
A biography of Louis Armstrong's prolific years in the 1920s and early 1930s, this book examines the cultural forces that shaped his life and, ultimately, jazz itself. Thomas Brothers picks up where he left off with the "compelling" (Literary Review), "scholarly without being scholastic"...
The unsinkable Greta James : a novel
Smith, Jennifer E.
Paper Book
An indie musician reeling from tragedy and a public breakdown reconnects with her father on a weeklong cruise in "a pitch-perfect story about the ways we recover love in the strangest places" (Rebecca Serle, bestselling author of In Five Years) "The characters are...
How music works
Byrne, David
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * David Byrne's incisive and enthusiastic look at the musical art form, from its very inceptions to the influences that shape it, whether acoustical, economic, social, or technological--now updated with a new chapter on digital curation. "How...
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A visit from the Goon Squad
Egan, Jennifer.
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE WINNER * With music pulsing on every page, this startling, exhilarating novel of self-destruction and redemption "features characters about whom you come to care deeply as you watch them doing things they shouldn't, acting gloriously,...
The ensemble
Gabel, Aja
Paper Book
Jana. Brit. Daniel. Henry. They would never have been friends if they hadn't needed each other. They would never have found each other except for the art which drew them together. They would never have become family without their love for the music, for each other. Brit is the second...
A lush and seething hell : two tales of cosmic horror
Jacobs, John Hornor
Paper Book
A World Fantasy Award Nominee! The award-winning and critically-acclaimed master of horror returns with a pair of chilling tales that examine the violence and depravity of the human condition. Bringing together his acclaimed novella The Sea Dreams It Is the Sky and an all-new short...

The 2nd story, My Heart Struck Sorrow, is about a librarian tracing the origins of a sinister musical recording from the Deep South.


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