Best summer books of 2023: Pop music
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
This Bird Has Flown by Susanna Hoffs (Piatkus/Little, Brown and Company)
The Bangles’ Susanna Hoffs summons her old band’s effervescence in her debut novel. This Bird Has Flown is a diverting romcom about washed-up US pop star Jane Start, who falls for a hunky Oxford literature prof — but to borrow the title of a Bangles song, “He’s Got a Secret”.
Nick Drake: The Life by Richard Morton Jack (John Murray Press)
It’s not quite blood from a stone — Nick Drake was no senseless thing — but Morton Jack’s feat in coaxing a full-scale biography from his enigmatic subject’s life is considerable. An introvert whose music radiates deep feeling, the 1970s singer-songwriter, dead at 26, is portrayed with insight.
Easily Slip into Another World: A Life in Music by Henry Threadgill and Brent Hayes Edwards (Knopf)
“Music is about listening,” celebrated jazzman Threadgill states in his memoir. Why then read about his life? The answer comes with vivid reminiscences of a 1950s Chicago childhood, Vietnam war experiences and New York’s avant-garde jazz scene in the 1970s. His book helps us to hear his music.
Tell us what you think
What are your favourites from this list — and what books have we missed? Tell us in the comments below
Into the Void: From Birth to Black Sabbath — and Beyond by Geezer Butler (HarperCollins)
Despite his band’s reputation for occultism, Black Sabbath’s Butler has dispensed with the services of a ghost for his autobiography. The result is a droll account of life at the frontline of heavy-metal havoc, from strict Catholic upbringing to debauchery and deafening decibels on tour.
Don’t Tell Anybody the Secrets I Told You by Lucinda Williams (Crown/Simon & Schuster)
Williams tells it how she sings it, in a toughened voice, with a slug of Southern gothic and another of confessional writing. The Louisiana-born singer-songwriter’s memoir joins the dots between an emotionally neglectful childhood and her loner’s path through messy relationships and the borderlands of rock and country music.
Summer Books 2023
All this week, FT writers and critics share their favourites. Some highlights are:
Monday: Environment by Pilita Clark
Tuesday: Economics by Martin Wolf
Wednesday: Fiction by Laura Battle
Thursday: Politics by Gideon Rachman
Friday: Critics’ picks
Saturday: History by Tony Barber
Ludovic Hunter-Tilney is the FT’s pop critic
Join our online book group on Facebook at FT Books Café
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