Music and Memoir: 40 Books to Rock Around the Christmas Tree

[image error]Yes, the guitar is for sale, thanks to our friends at Fanny’s House of Music!

This is part of our 2019 gift guide series. Check out our previous entries: poetry, nonfiction and fiction. As a bookstore in Nashville, we’re quite familiar with the intersection of music and books, and 2019 brought us a lot of good ones. It was also a great year for memoir — scroll down for some of our favorites, including hometown favorites Margaret Renkl and Mary Laura Philpott. And on top of that, it was also a great year for music memoirs. So whatever combination you’re looking for, we’ve got recommendations for you!

MUSIC



Why You Like It: The Science and Culture of Musical Taste

By Nolan Gasser

Gasser created Pandora Radio’s Music Genome Project and has been the company’s chief musicologist since it was founded in 2000, so he knows of what he speaks. A great gift for the music obsessive on your list who wants to know how it all works.



Country Music: An Illustrated History

By Dayton Duncan & Ken Burns

The print companion to Ken Burns’ epic PBS documentary series is a hefty, informative tome, as comprehensive a history of the genre as you are likely to find, and a joy to peruse.



Songs of America: Patriotism, Protest, and the Music That Made a Nation

By Jon Meacham & Tim McGraw

Doris Kearns Goodwin calls Meacham & McGraw an “irresistible duo,” and while they may not be headed into the recording studio, this collaboration makes a great gift for the music-history buff.



The Birth of Loud: Leo Fender, Les Paul, and the Guitar-Pioneering Rivalry That Shaped Rock ‘n’ Roll

By Ian S. Port

One of our most engaging events of the year involved author Ian S. Port, Ellen from Fanny’s House of Music and a stage full of guitars. Now out in paperback, The Birth of Loud tells the story of the rivalry between Leo Fender and Les Paul at the dawn of the age of the electric guitar, with lot of fascinating details.



Guitar: The World’s Most Seductive Instrument

By David Schiller

Speaking of guitars, no need to limit yourself to Fenders and Gibsons. This book is a trove of beautiful specimens from all over the world. Beautiful.



High School

By Sara Quin & Tegan Quin

Something we learned when Tegan & Sara visited the store: they and their fans are incredibly sweet people. Learn more about the talented sisters in their dual memoir, complete with an extremely nifty (and shiny!) mirrored jacket.

(Signed copies available while they last!)



The Beautiful Ones

By Prince

Literally written by Prince — the first part of the book features handwritten notes for the memoir he was in the middle of writing when he passed away — this is simply a must-have for fans of the legend.



A Dream About Lightning Bugs: A Life of Music and Cheap Lessons

By Ben Folds

A journey into a life of art and music, this memoir is quirky, unconventional, funny and insightful — just like its author.

(Signed copies available while they last!)


More music books to check out:

Go Ahead in the Rain: Notes on A Tribe Called Quest by Hanif Abdurraqib
Blood: A Memoir by Allison Moorer
She Can Really Lay It Down: 50 Rebels, Rockers, and Musical Revolutionaries by Rachel Frankel
Jay-Z: Made in America by Michael Eric Dyson
Soulless: The Case Against R. Kelly by Jim DeRogatis
Horror Stories: A Memoir by Liz Phair
Me by Elton John
Year of the Monkey by Patti Smith
Janis: Her Life and Music by Holly George-Warren
Acid for the Children: A Memoir by Flea
Face It: A Memoir by Debbie Harry
Serving the Servant: Remembering Kurt Cobain by Danny Goldberg
A Song for You: My Life with Whitney Houston by Robyn Crawford
Wham!, George Michael and Me: A Memoir by Andrew Ridgeley
Sweat the Technique: Revelations on Creativity from the Lyrical Genius by Rakim
Morning Glory on the Vine: Early Songs and Drawings by Joni Mitchell
I Would Die 4 U: Why Prince Became an Icon by Touré







MEMOIR



Late Migrations: A Natural History of Love and Loss

By Margaret Renkl

We love this book so much we have almost run out of superlatives for it, but here’s another one: It’s perfect. The perfect gift, the perfect book to give and keep one for yourself, the perfect book to read as the year ends and another begins. It is a wonder.

(Signed copies available!)



I Miss You When I Blink: Essays

By Mary Laura Philpott

It’s no wonder that after landing on numerous most-anticipated lists, I Miss You When I Blink is now finding its way onto best-of-the-year lists as well. Musing founding editor Mary Laura Philpott’s memoir-in-essays will have you in stitches, and it just might change your life.

(Signed copies available!)



How We Fight for Our Lives: A Memoir

By Saeed Jones

Bookseller Kim says: “One of the best books I’ve ever read. Beautiful language, stunning vulnerability, and so much tenderness. Read this book.” Need we say more?


More of our favorite memoirs from 2019:

How to Catch a Mole: Wisdom From a Life Lived in Nature by Marc Hamer
The Yellow House (2019 National Book Award winner) by Sarah M. Broom
Once More We Saw Stars by Jayson Greene
Wild Game: My Mother, Her Lover, and Me by Adrienne Brodeur
Inheritance by Dani Shapiro
Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, HER Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed by Lori Gottlieb
Know My Name: A Memoir by Chanel Miller
In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado
The Man They Wanted Me to Be: Toxic Masculinity and a Crisis of Our Own Making by Jared Yates Sexton
All That You Leave Behind by Erin Lee Carr
The Farmer’s Son: Calving Season on a Family Farm by John Connell
Out East: Memoir of a Montauk Summer by John Glynn
Survival Math: Notes on an All-American Family by Mitchell Jackson

Holiday Hours:

December 21: 9:30am – 8pm

December 22: 11:30am – 6pm

December 24: 9am – 4pm

December 25: CLOSED

December 26: CLOSED

December 31: 10am – 4pm

January 1: CLOSED

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Make sure it gets there! Holiday ordering deadlines for shipped gifts:

Media mail rate: December 12
Priority rate: December 19

Want it gift wrapped? We’re happy to wrap any orders FREE — just let us know in the “notes” section at checkout. All wrapped gifts must be shipped via priority mail. (Media mail won’t allow anything but books in the package — not even wrapping paper.)