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.
Ebook
The New York Times bestselling he-said/she-said rock n' roll romance that inspired the hit movie! "I know this is going to sound strange, but would you mind being my girlfriend for the next five minutes?"  Nick frequents New York's indie rock scene...
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.
Ebook
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...
Heart-shaped box
Hill, Joe.
Ebook
Judas Coyne is a collector of the macabre: a cookbook for cannibals . . . a used hangman's noose . . . a snuff film. An aging death-metal rock god, his taste for the unnatural is as widely known to his legions of fans as the notorious excesses of his youth. But nothing he possesses is as unlikely...
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.
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...
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"...
How music works
Byrne, David
Paper Book
How Music Works is David Byrne's remarkable and buoyant celebration of a subject he has spent a lifetime thinking about. In it he explores how profoundly music is shaped by its time and place, and he explains how the advent of recording technology in the twentieth century forever changed...
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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...

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