Compiled by the staff of the Lakeland Public Library 100 Lake Morton Dr, Lakeland
HEARD IT IN A LOVE SONG By Tracey Garvis Graves Newly divorced and lonely, Layla cautiously gets to know a newlyseparated dad whose daughter attends the elementary school where she teaches music. Equally cautious and confused about dating, Layla and Josh decide to be friends with the potential for something more. Sounds sensible and way too simple—but when two people are on the rebound, is it heartbreak or happiness that’s a love song away?
THE UNSINKABLE GRETA JAMES By Jennifer E. Smith Right after the sudden death of her mother–her first and most devoted fan–and just before the launch of her high-stakes sophomore album, Greta James falls apart on stage. Struggling to recover, she agrees to join her father on a week-long Alaskan cruise, which becomes a journey of discovery for them both as they work to heal old wounds, giving her the confidence she needs to move forward.
Larry R. Jackson Branch 1700 N Florida Ave, Lakeland lakelandgov.net
THE FINAL REVIVAL OF OPAL & NEV By Dawnie Walton
Check Me Out ;) UTOPIA AVENUE By David Mitchell
When Opal Jewel meets British singer-songwriter Nev Charles at an open-mike night, they start to ascend the rungs to rock stardom. But when a concert tragically ends in racial violence, they disappear from the spotlight. Years later, music journalist S. Sunny Shelton decides to curate an oral history about them in time for a hopeful reunion. When Sunny’s interviews unveil the truth behind the group’s troubled past, it seems like this story of a band lost to time may end in disaster.
Utopia Avenue is the strangest British band you’ve never heard of. Emerging from London’s psychedelic scene in 1967, they embarked on a meteoric journey from the seedy clubs of Soho, a TV debut on Top of the Pops, the cusp of chart success, glory in Amsterdam, prison in Rome, and a fateful American sojourn in the Chelsea Hotel, Laurel Canyon, and San Francisco during the autumn of ‘68.
CALLING ME HOME: GRAM PARSONS AND THE ROOTS OF COUNTRY ROCK By Bob Kealing
MAJOR LABELS: A HISTORY OF POPULAR MUSIC IN SEVEN GENRES By Kelefa Sanneh
Traces the entire arc of Parsons’s career, emphasizing his southern roots. Drawing on dozens of new interviews as well as unpublished letters and photographs provided by Parsons’s family and rare images from legendary photojournalist Ted Polumbaum, Kealing examines the remarkable array of musicians and friends with whom Parsons collaborated and from whom he gained inspiration. Even the most stalwart Parsons fans will find something new and revealing.
Kelefa Sanneh, one of the essential voices of our time on music and culture, has made a deep study of how popular music unites and divides us, charting the way genres become communities. In “Major Labels,” Sanneh distills a career’s worth of knowledge about music and musicians into a brilliant and omnivorous reckoning with popular music—as an art form (actually, a bunch of art forms), as a cultural and economic force, and as a tool that we use to build our identities.
49
LET ME HEAR A RHYME By Tiffany D. Jackson In 1998, hip-hop reigned supreme on the music charts and in the streets of Brooklyn. Unfortunately, the violence plaguing the community claimed the life of Steph Davis, an up-andcoming rapper. After discovering a treasure trove of Steph’s recordings and notebooks full of his rhymes, his sister and two best friends set out to make Steph famous posthumously. They catch the attention of a highpowered music executive who is all business and plays no games.
THE FIRST RULE OF PUNK By Celia C. Pérez There are no shortcuts to surviving your first day at a new school—you can’t fix it with duct tape like you would your Chuck Taylors. On day one, Malú inadvertently upset the school’s queen bee, violates the school’s dress code, and disappoints her college-professor mom in the process. Her dad, who now lives a thousand miles away, says things will get better as long as she remembers the first rule of punk: be yourself.
DAISY JONES AND THE SIX By Taylor Jenkins Reid When singer Daisy Jones meets Billy Dunne of the band The Six, the two rising 70s rock-androll artists are catapulted into stardom when a producer puts them together. What happens next will become the stuff of legend. The making of that legend is chronicled in this riveting and unforgettable novel, written as an oral history of one of the biggest bands of the seventies.
GOLDI ROCKS AND THE THREE BEARS By Corey Rosen Schwartz & Beth Coulton Papa Bear, Mama Bear, and Baby Bear know how to rock! But they need a new singer, so they audition everyone—the Three Pigs, Little Red Riding Hood, and more. To their dismay, no one seems just right. Could the perfect lead singer be the mysterious girl sleeping on Baby Bear’s keyboard?
