Tag Archives: music book mash-up

Books

Music Book Mash-Up: May


In this series, we are going to share a fun variety of books about music! Even if you don’t play an instrument you can still absolutely be a music lover. So check back each month for a different collection of books all relating in some way to music! We’ll share fiction and nonfiction titles and try to cover many different genres and time frames. Feel free to leave suggestions in the comments! Happy reading (and listening, and playing!)

May is Mental Health Awareness Month. We’re sharing some books that investigate the ways music can impact your brain and mental well-being.

This Is Your Brain On Music: The Science of a Human Obsession by David Levitin
“Whether you load your iPod with Bach or Bono, music has a significant role in your life—even if you never realized it. Why does music evoke such powerful moods? The answers are at last be- coming clear, thanks to revolutionary neuroscience and the emerging field of evolutionary psychology. Both a cutting-edge study and a tribute to the beauty of music itself, This Is Your Brain on Music unravels a host of mysteries that affect everything from pop culture to our understanding of human nature.”

Music Medicine: The Science and Spirit of Healing Yourself With Sound by Christine Stevens
“With Music Medicine, music therapist Christine Stevens presents an information-packed resource, filled with scientifically-based practices for accessing and attuning to the natural healing properties of music.”

Tune In: A Music Therapy Approach to Life: Use Music Intentionally to Curb Stress, Boost Morale, and Restore Health by Jennifer Buchanan
“Tune In is a mix of personal stories, real-life examples, interactive exercises, tips, and checklists all designed for the person who is looking for inspiration and a boost to feeling better. When we experience the right music, in the right way, transformation can happen – improved wellness, a boost in motivation, overall feelings of happiness, and stronger communities.”

The Tao of Music: Sound Psychology by John Ortiz
“Just about everyone likes to listen to music to put them “in the mood,” and these techniques get you “out” of a mood! The “Tao” part is about accepting what you’re feeling, and dealing with it, by using Dr. Ortiz’s methods. Includes musical menus that you can use to create your own program for dealing with issues, koans for meditation, and various other fun exercises to make music a part of your holistic health program.”

Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain by Oliver Sacks
“Oliver Sacks explores the place music occupies in the brain and how it affects the human condition. In Musicophilia, he shows us a variety of what he calls “musical misalignments.” Among them: a man struck by lightning who suddenly desires to become a pianist at the age of forty-two; an entire group of children with Williams syndrome, who are hypermusical from birth; people with “amusia,” to whom a symphony sounds like the clattering of pots and pans; and a man whose memory spans only seven seconds-for everything but music.”

Books

Music Book Mash-Up: April

In this series, we are going to share a fun variety of books about music! Even if you don’t play an instrument you can still absolutely be a music lover. So check back each month for a different collection of books all relating in some way to music! We’ll share fiction and nonfiction titles and try to cover many different genres and time frames. Feel free to leave suggestions in the comments! Happy reading (and listening, and playing!)


Since April is National Poetry Month, we’ll share some poetry books written by musicians (and all these titles did have positive ratings on Goodreads)

Useless Magic by Florence Welch
“The Florence + The Machine frontwoman’s first-ever book will consist of lyrics and poetry, as well as art derived from Florence’s own sketchbooks. Useless Magic will also give fans an insight into Florence’s creative process by featuring some of the subjects and areas which have inspired her writing.”

Now and Then… by Gil Scott-Heron
“One glance at Now and Then and it becomes evident that this is not merely a collection of a songwriter’s lyrics. The song-poems of this undisputed “bluesologist” triumphantly stand on their own, evoking the rhythm and urgency which have distinguished Gil Scott-Heron’s career. This collection carries the reader from the global topics of political hypocrisy and the dangers posed by capitalist culture to painfully personal themes and the realities of modern day life. His message is black, political, historically accurate, urgent, uncompromising, and mature, and as relevant now as it was in the early 1970s.”

The Flame by Leonard Cohen
“The Flame is the final work from Leonard Cohen, the revered poet and musician whose fans span generations and whose work is celebrated throughout the world. Featuring poems, excerpts from his private notebooks, lyrics, and hand-drawn self-portraits, The Flame offers an unprecedentedly intimate look inside the life and mind of a singular artist.”

Books

Music Book Mash-Up: March

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In this series, we are going to share a fun variety of books about music! Even if you don’t play an instrument you can still absolutely be a music lover. So check back each month for a different collection of books all relating in some way to music! We’ll share fiction and nonfiction titles and try to cover many different genres and time frames. Feel free to leave suggestions in the comments! Happy reading (and listening, and playing!)

Since March is Women’s History Month, we’re celebrating women in music with some fun reading suggestions!

Sounds and Sweet Airs: The Forgotten Women of Classical Music by Anna Beer
“Exploring not just the lives and works of eight exceptional artists, historian Anna Beer also asks tough questions about the silencing of their legacy, which continues to this day. Why do we still not hear masterpieces such as Hensel’s piano work “The Year,” Caccini’s arias and Boulanger’s setting of Psalm 130?
A long-overdue celebration of neglected virtuosos, Sounds and Sweet Airs presents a complex and inspirational picture of artistic endeavor and achievement that deserves to be part of our cultural heritage.”

Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl by Carrie Brownstein
“Before Carrie Brownstein codeveloped and starred in the wildly popular TV comedy Portlandia, she was already an icon to young women for her role as a musician in the feminist punk band Sleater-Kinney.
Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl is the deeply personal and revealing narrative of Brownstein’s life in music, from ardent fan to pioneering female guitarist to comedic performer and luminary in the independent rock world. “

Mahalia Jackson: Walking With Kings and Queens by Nina Nolan
“Accompanied by John Holyfield’s gorgeous illustrations, debut author Nina Nolan’s narrative wonderfully captures the amazing story of how Mahalia Jackson became the Queen of Gospel in this fascinating picture book biography.
Even as a young girl, Mahalia Jackson loved gospel music. Life was difficult for Mahalia growing up, but singing gospel always lifted her spirits and made her feel special. She soon realized that her powerful voice stirred everyone around her, and she wanted to share that with the world.”

Books

Music Book Mash-Up: February

In this series, we are going to share a fun variety of books about music! Even if you don’t play an instrument you can still absolutely be a music lover. So check back each month for a different collection of books all relating in some way to music! We’ll share fiction and nonfiction titles and try to cover many different genres and time frames. Feel free to leave suggestions in the comments! Happy reading (and listening, and playing!)

This picture book had great reviews on Goodreads and shows how deaf people are able to enjoy music, too!

Moses Goes to a Concert by Isaac Millman
Moses and his school friends are deaf, but like most children, they have a lot to say. They communicate in American Sign Language, using visual signs and facial expressions. This is called signing. And even though they can’t hear, they can enjoy many activities through their other senses. Today, Moses and his classmates are going to a concert. Their teacher, Mr. Samuels, has two surprises in store for them, to make this particular concert a special event.

Isaac Millman tells Moses’s story in pictures and written English, and in American Sign Language (ASL), introducing hearing children to the signs for some of the key words and ideas. At the end of the book are two full conversations in sign language and a page showing the hand alphabet.

This YA book definitely has a romance-y vibe which is fun but I really enjoyed reading about Liesl and her classical music composing, and her relationship with her talented brother who plays the violin. 

Wintersong by S. Jae-Jones
All her life, Liesl has heard tales of the beautiful, dangerous Goblin King. They’ve enraptured her mind and spirit and inspired her musical compositions. Now eighteen and helping to run her family’s inn, Liesel can’t help but feel that her musical dreams and childhood fantasies are slipping away.

But when her own sister is taken by the Goblin King, Liesl has no choice but to journey to the Underground to save her. Drawn to the strange, captivating world she finds–and the mysterious man who rules it–she soon faces an impossible decision. With time and the old laws working against her, Liesl must discover who she truly is before her fate is sealed.

And here’s a relatively new book about a musical legend!

Slowhand: The Life and Music of Eric Clapton by Philip Norman
For half a century Eric Clapton has been acknowledged to be one of music’s greatest virtuosos, the unrivaled master of an indispensable tool, the solid-body electric guitar. His career has spanned the history of rock, and often shaped it via the seminal bands with whom he’s played: the Yardbirds, John Mavall’s Bluesbreakers, Cream, Blind Faith, Derek and the Dominoes. Winner of 17 Grammys, the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame’s only three-time inductee, he is an enduring influence on every other star soloist who ever wielded a pick.

Now, with Clapton’s consent and access to family members and close friends, rock music’s foremost biographer returns to the heroic age of British rock and follows Clapton through his distinctive and scandalous childhood, early life of reckless rock ‘n’ roll excess, and twisting & turning struggle with addiction in the 60s and 70s. Readers will learn about his relationship with Pattie Boyd, wife of Clapton’s own best friend George Harrison, the tragic death of his son, which inspired one of his most famous songs, Tears in Heaven and even the backstories of his most famed, and named, guitars.

Books

Music Book Mash-Up: January

In this series, we are going to share a fun variety of books about music! Even if you don’t play an instrument (or don’t play an instrument well) you can still absolutely be a music lover. So check back each month for a different collection of books all relating in some way to music! We’ll share fiction and nonfiction titles and try to cover many different genres and time frames. Feel free to leave suggestions in the comments! Happy reading (and listening, and playing!)

We’ll start things off with a picture book that looks truly delightful:

Skit-Scat Raggedy Cat: Ella Fitzgerald by Roxane Orgill, Sean Qualls (Illustrator)

When Ella Fitzgerald danced the Lindy Hop on the streets of 1930s Yonkers, passersby said good-bye to their loose change. But for a girl who was orphaned and hungry, with raggedy clothes and often no place to spend the night, small change was not enough. One amateur night at Harlem’s Apollo Theater, Ella made a discovery: the dancing beat in her feet could travel up and out of her mouth in a powerful song —and the feeling of being listened to was like a salve to her heart. With lively prose, Roxane Orgill follows the gutsy Ella from school-girl days to a featured spot with Chick Webb’s band and all the way to her number-one radio hit “A-Tisket, A-Tasket.” Jazzy mixed-media art by illustrator Sean Qualls brings the singer’s indomitable spirit to life.

Next, a book that explores the many contributions of women to the world of country music:

Woman Walk the Line: How the Women in Country Music Changed Our Lives by Holly Gleason (Editor)

Full-tilt, hardcore, down-home, and groundbreaking, the women of country music speak volumes with every song. From Maybelle Carter to Dolly Parton, k.d. lang to Taylor Swift–these artists provided pivot points, truths, and doses of courage for women writers at every stage of their lives. Whether it’s Rosanne Cash eulogizing June Carter Cash or a seventeen-year-old Taylor Swift considering the golden glimmer of another precocious superstar, Brenda Lee, it’s the humanity beneath the music that resonates.

Here are deeply personal essays from award-winning writers on femme fatales, feminists, groundbreakers, and truth tellers.
Part history, part confessional, and part celebration of country, Americana, and bluegrass and the women who make them, Woman Walk the Line is a very personal collection of essays from some of America’s most intriguing women writers. It speaks to the ways in which artists mark our lives at different ages and in various states of grace and imperfection–and ultimately how music transforms not just the person making it, but also the listener.

And finally, a book recommendation that I also found was on many “best of” lists:

Sticky Fingers: The Life and Times of Jann Wenner and Rolling Stone Magazine by Joe Hagan

A delicious romp through the heyday of rock and roll and a revealing portrait of the man at the helm of the iconic magazine that made it all possible, with candid look backs at the era from Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Elton John, Bono, Bruce Springsteen, Paul McCartney, and others.

The story of Jann Wenner, Rolling Stone’s founder, editor, and publisher, and the pioneering era he helped curate is told here for the first time in glittering, glorious detail.

Supplemented by a cache of extraordinary documents and letters from Wenner’s personal archives, Sticky Fingers depicts an ambitious, mercurial, wide-eyed rock and roll fan of who exalts in youth and beauty and learns how to package it, marketing late sixties counterculture as a testament to the power of American youth. The result is a fascinating and complex portrait of man and era, and an irresistible biography of popular culture, celebrity, music, and politics in America.