Rockbuster Books
September is Classical Music Month, which got me thinking about all the books about musicians or rock stars or singers--including my recent fave "Colton Gentry's Third Act" by Jeff Zentner, a book about a mid-tier country singer whose career implodes and forces him to return to his hometown and rebuild his life. There's also the wildly popular "Daisy Jones and the Six" by Taylor Jenkins Reid, following the legendary career of a 1960s rock band. If you're looking for more rockin' great reads, check out some of these titles:
"Bellweather Rhapsody" by Kate Racculia tells the story of a young music prodigy who goes missing from "a hotel room that was the site of an infamous murder-suicide fifteen years earlier, renewing trauma for a bridesmaid who witnessed the first crime and rallying an eccentric cast of characters during a snowstorm that traps everyone on the grounds." This fun book is part comedy, part murder mystery, and reads "like a Wes Anderson film."
In Matthew Norman's "Charm City Rocks", a single dad meets the former rock star crush of his youth and everything they thought they knew about happiness and love is thrown into chaos in this hopeful, heartwarming romantic comedy. "Billy Perkins is happy. No, for real. It's kind of his thing, actually. And why wouldn't he be? He loves his job as an independent music teacher and his apartment in Baltimore above a record shop called Charm City Rocks. Most of all, he loves his brainy teenage son, Caleb. Although not the world's most traditional parent, Billy has plenty to teach his son about art and manhood before Caleb goes off to college. Margot Hammer, on the other hand, is far from happy. The former drummer of the once-famous rock band Burnt Flowers, she's now a rock and roll recluse living alone in New York City. When a new music documentary suddenly puts Margot back in the spotlight, she begins to realize how much she misses her old band and the music that gave her life meaning. Billy has always had a crush on Margot. But she's a legitimate rock star--or at least, she was--so he never thought he'd actually meet her. Until Caleb, worried that his easygoing dad might actually be lonely, cooks up a scheme to get Margot to perform at Charm City Rocks. It's the longest of long shots, but Margot's label has made it clear that any publicity is an opportunity she can't afford to miss. When their paths collide, Billy realizes that he maybe wasn't as happy as he thought-and Margot learns that sometimes the sweetest music is a duet."
Stephanie Clifford's "The Farewell Tour" is set in 1980 and features a singer looking back on her career. "It's 1980, and Lillian Waters is hitting the road for the very last time. Jaded from her years in the music business, perpetually hungover, and diagnosed with career-ending vocal problems, Lillian cobbles together a nationwide farewell tour featuring some old hands from her early days playing honky-tonk bars in Washington State and Nashville, plus a few new ones. She yearns to feel the rush of making live music one more time and bask in the glow of a packed house before she makes the last, and most important, stop on the tour: the farm she left behind at age ten and the sister she is finally ready to confront about an agonizing betrayal in their childhood."
You’ll find these titles and lots more in our “Rockbuster Books!” display. For additional title suggestions, see the lists below:
