Music stands as a language that speaks to everyone in different yet meaningful ways.
Be it Beethoven, Bob Dylan, or Lady Gaga, musicians have long shared the inner workings of their minds through song.
What is it that resonates most with people when they listen to music? What power do melodies have in shaping ourselves?
These five authors explore those crucial questions and the role music plays in so many of our lives.
–– Love is a Mix Tape: Life and Loss, One Song at a Time by Rob Sheffield.
The veteran Rolling Stone contributor chronicles his relationship with Renee Crist, his wife and fellow music fanatic.
The two shared the language of music, and in this deeply moving memoir Sheffield reveals the extended sound track that accompanied the couple’s romantic highs and lows, as well as the profound loss that separated them forever.
–– Cassette from My Ex: Stories and Soundtracks of Lost Loves, edited by Jason Bitner.
Drawn from the popular blog of the same name, this is a compendium of stories and mix tapes from 60 noted writers who bravely share their youthful experiences with love and the music that most brings their memoirs of the joy and sorrow of crushes and breakups to life.
These rich musical snapshots of romantic triumph and heartbreak will leave readers longing to sift through the most significant playlists of their own emotional histories.
–– A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan.
Readers with a passion for experimental fiction and innovative prose will surely enjoy the time-hopping, nonlinear narrative of Egan’s novel.
This inventive work draws readers into the lives of kleptomaniac personal assistant Sasha in contemporary New York and her music producer supervisor, Bennie Salazar.
We follow Sasha as she attempts to balance love, life, and professionalism in the big city, and Bennie as he flashes back to his past life as a musician during the quintessential period of 1980s Bay Area punk rock.
–– High Fidelity by Nick Hornby.
London music enthusiast and independent record store owner Rob Fleming has just been abandoned by his long-term girlfriend. This event inspires Rob to reflect on past loves, heartbreaks, and, most important, the music that inspired him throughout his life.
Packed with self-deprecating humour and tremendous warmth, this novel offers the often-neglected male angle on love, and was adapted as a film in 2000 starring John Cusack.
–– Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan.
In an effort to make his ex-girlfriend, Tris, jealous, quirky bassist Nick persuades Norah to pretend to be his girlfriend for five minutes.
Recovering from her own recent tumult, Norah reluctantly agrees. For the dynamic pair, this spontaneous ploy unfolds into an epic evening of shared music, heartache, and romance. A great escape for young readers experiencing their first pangs of love and for adults nostalgic for days of youthful passion. This novel was also the basis for a film, released in 2008.
Parts of this column originally appeared in Library Journal. All books and the two feature films (as well as their soundtracks) are available through the Okanagan Regional Library.
–– Maureen Curry is the chief librarian at the Vernon branch of the Okanagan Regional Library. Her column appears every second Sunday in The Morning Star.
