Books to Read if Music and Theatre Were Your Favorite School Subjects
Fiction and nonfiction books for readers who will always be a theatre, band, or choir nerd at heart. Do you have the entire Hamilton soundtrack memorized? Are you always looking for deep dives into your favorite artists? Do you have an urge to go back to your rehearsal days to play zip, zap, zop? Check out any of these books!
Capturing the music, characters, escapades, and energy of his DJ days, a profound memoir from seven-time Grammy-winning record producer Mark Ronson.
Lady Gaga, Adele, Amy Winehouse, Dua Lipa, Bruno Mars, Miley Cyrus, the Barbie soundtrack—behind some of the biggest musical moments in the past two decades is one man: Mark Ronson. Night People conjures the undeniable magic of the city’s bygone nightlife—a time when clubs were diverse, glamorous, and a little lawless, and each night brought a heady mix of music, ambition, danger, delight, and possibility. It’s about the beauty of what you can create with just two Technics and a mixer, in a golden era before Giuliani, camera phones, and bottle service upended everything. It’s also about a teenager finding his way—stalking DJ Stretch Armstrong and biting his mixes, crate-digging in every corner of New York, grinding gig after gig through a decade of incredible music—and finding a community of people who, in their own strange, cracked ways, lived for the night.
Organized around the venues that defined his experience of the downtown scene, Ronson evokes the specific rush of that decade and those spaces—where fashion folks and rappers on the rise danced alongside club kids and 9-to-5’ers—and invites us into the tribe of creatives and partiers who came alive when the sun went down. A heartfelt coming-of-age tale, Night People is the definitive account of ’90s New York nightlife and the making of a musical mastermind.
USA TODAY BESTSELLER
The definitive biography of the Everly Brothers, one of the greatest and most influential acts in popular music history, based on dozens of exclusive and archival interviews, as well as long-lost global reporting
In between the Elvis years and the rise of the Beatles, there was no bigger act than The Everly Brothers. From 1957-1962, they were among the highest selling pop acts in the U.S. In that time, they developed their own brand of rock ‘n’ roll and gentle pop balladry that leaned heavily on older, close harmony styles of country music singing. “Wake Up, Little Susie,” “All I Have to Do Is Dream,” “Cathy’s Clown,” “Let it Be Me,” — their hits were legion and their sweet and sour Appalachian-style harmonies influenced everyone from The Beatles to Simon and Garfunkel to the Beach Boys to Crosby, Stills, and Nash. The Everly Brothers—Don and Phil—are inducted members of both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Country Music Hall of Fame, and progenitors of the hybrid Americana roots music format.
Blood Harmony: The Everly Brothers Story is the first biography that’s focused on the dramatic, complicated relationship of these two famous and strikingly talented brothers, and explores how the evolution of their relationship played out in the much- loved music they created—through some sixty years of performing. Their story is the story of American music, from their rural Kentucky origins to massive international fame, falling out of fashion in the wake of the rise of rock bands and singer-songwriters, and their many comebacks.
Blood Harmony is a fitting ode to the brothers who made a huge impact on the modern music scene, celebrating how their creative “blood harmony” evolved to become an entry point into country music for millions around the world.
The Cars formed in the late 1970s as an alliance of five journeymen musicians with roots in Maryland, Ohio, New York, and New England. They had each performed in a series of bands before finding one another—along with the right sound at the right time. That sound, soon fortified by their iconic imagery, turned them into Rock and Roll Hall of Famers.
Biographer, critic, and musician Bill Janovitz explores the musical, cultural, and commercial impact of the band with articulate and knowing insights. He draws on his own exclusive new reporting along with the enthusiastic participation of the surviving members of the band, as well as nearly everyone who surrounded them over the years. The band’s unusual providence is fully explored here for the first time, and each of their landmark albums is masterfully chronicled and dissected, as is their profound support of the Boston music scene that has reverberated around the world and throughout the decades.
Yet, with all of the success, there were also significant conflicts within the band, which led to an untimely end. Janovitz reveals the stories of each member, and of the group as a whole, with great care and understanding. To paraphrase The Car’s own lyrics: Hello again, you might think this is just what you needed. It’s magic. Let’s shake it up and let the good times roll.
Lin-Manuel Miranda’s groundbreaking musical Hamilton is as revolutionary as its subject, the poor kid from the Caribbean who fought the British, defended the Constitution, and helped to found the United States. Fusing hip-hop, pop, R&B, and the best traditions of theater, this once-in-a-generation show broadens the sound of Broadway, reveals the storytelling power of rap, and claims our country’s origins for a diverse new generation.
Hamilton: The Revolution gives readers an unprecedented view of both revolutions, from the only two writers able to provide it. Miranda, along with Jeremy McCarter, a cultural critic and theater artist who was involved in the project from its earliest stages — “since before this was even a show,” according to Miranda — traces its development from an improbable performance at the White House to its landmark opening night on Broadway six years later. In addition, Miranda has written more than 200 funny, revealing footnotes for his award-winning libretto, the full text of which is published here.
Their account features photos by the renowned Frank Ockenfels and veteran Broadway photographer, Joan Marcus; exclusive looks at notebooks and emails; interviews with Questlove, Stephen Sondheim, leading political commentators, and more than 50 people involved with the production; and multiple appearances by President Obama himself. The book does more than tell the surprising story of how a Broadway musical became a national phenomenon: It demonstrates that America has always been renewed by the brash upstarts and brilliant outsiders, the men and women who don’t throw away their shot.
Great films are born of great collaborations, and Sunset Boulevard represents one of the most extraordinary confluences of cinematic talent in film history—but its production was surprisingly fraught, filled with unexpected twists. Why was William Holden, who had never caught fire as a leading man, hired to play Joe Gillis after the fastest‑rising star in the business dropped out at the last minute? After Mae West and Mary Pickford turned down the now iconic role of Norma Desmond, how did Billy Wilder convince Gloria Swanson, who had long been absent from Hollywood at this point, to leave her low‑paying job as a TV talk show host to join the cast? From the writers’ room during Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett’s final collaboration to the moment when the film won three Academy Awards, scholar and former Rolling Stone staffer David M. Lubin takes readers on a fascinating journey through film history that proves, once and for all, why Sunset Boulevard is one of the most iconic films in cinematic history.
Just in time for the film’s 75th anniversary, Ready for My Closeup breathes life into a beloved masterpiece of American cinema.
“The best romance I’ve read all year.” —The New York Times
Every Thursday night, former country music heartthrob Luke Randall has to sing “Another Love Song.” God, he hates that song. But performing his lone hit at an interstate motel lounge is the only regular money he still has. Following another lackluster performance at the rock bottom of his career, Luke receives the opportunity of his dreams, opening for his childhood idol—90’s era Black country music star, JoJo Lane, who’s being inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. But the concert is in Arcadia, Arkansas, the small hometown he swore he’d never see again. Going back means facing a painful past of abuse and neglect. It also means facing JoJo’s daughter, August Lane—the woman who wrote the lyrics he’s always claimed as his own.
August also hates that song. But she hates Luke Randall even more. When he shows up ten years too late to apologize for his betrayal, she isn’t interested in making amends. Instead, she threatens to expose his lies unless he co-writes a new song with her and performs it at the concert, something she hopes will launch her out of her mother’s shadow and into a songwriting career of her own. Desperate to keep his secret, Luke agrees to put on the rogue performance, despite the risk of losing his shot at a new record deal.
When Luke’s guitar reunites with August’s soulful alto, neither can deny that the passionate bond they formed as teenagers is still there. As the concert nears, August will have to choose between an overdue public reckoning with the boy who betrayed her, or trusting the man he’s become to write a different love song.
An instant USA Today bestseller
An NPR 2025 Book We Love
A New York Times Notable Book of 2025
A Book Riot Best Book of 2025
A Publishers Weekly Best Romance Book of 2025
A Chicago Public Library 2025 Must-Read Romance
A USA TODAY BESTSELLER
This memoir is a celebration of Tim Curry’s life’s work, and a testament to his profound impact on the entertainment industry as we know it today.
There are few stars in Hollywood today that can boast the kind of resume Tony award-nominated actor Tim Curry has built over the past five decades. From his breakout role as Dr. Frank-N-Furter in The Rocky Horror Picture Show to his iconic depiction as the sadistic clown Pennywise in It to his critically acclaimed role as the original King Arthur in both the Broadway and West End versions of Spamalot, Curry redefined what it meant to be a “character actor,” portraying heroes and villains alike with complexity, nuance, and a genuine understanding of human darkness.
Now, in his memoir, Curry takes readers behind-the-scenes of his rise to fame from his early beginnings as a military brat to his formative years in boarding school and university, to the moment when he hit the stage for the first time. He goes in-depth about what it was like to work on some of the most emblematic works of the 20th century, constantly switching between a camera and a live audience. He also explores the voicework that defined his later career and provided him with a chance to pivot after surviving a catastrophic stroke in 2012 that nearly took his life.
With the upcoming 50th anniversary of The Rocky Horror Picture Show and the 40th anniversary of Clue, there’s never been a better time for Tim to share his story with the world.