Tales of Rocking - Rock Music Fiction
Discover the best rock music fiction with Tales of Rocking—a curated list of novels from Nick Hornby's *High Fidelity* to *I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone*. Explore punk, indie, and rock 'n' roll stories, including *King Dork*, *Fat Kid Rules the World*, and *Perks of Being a Wallflower*. Dive into music-fueled coming-of-age tales and behind-the-scenes industry drama in this ultimate book collection for music lovers and fiction fans.
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How Soon is Never?
by Marc Spitz
From Spitz--"Spin" writer and author of "We Got the Neutron Bomb"--comes a poignant, hilarious novel of what happens when you're 30-something, strung-out, disillusioned . . . and utterly sure that getting a broken-up band back together will change your life.
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The Exes
by Pagan Kennedy
A novel on a Boston band made up of ex-boyfriends and girlfriends. It is a publicity stunt by two former lovers, songwriter Lilly and guitarist Hank, so as to give the band originality. As the group becomes famous, old romances are rekindled.
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I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone
by Stephanie Kuehnert
A raw, edgy, emotional novel about growing up punk and living to tell. The Clash. Social Distortion. Dead Kennedys. Patti Smith. The Ramones. Punk rock is in Emily Black's blood. Her mother, Louisa, hit the road to follow the incendiary music scene when Emily was four months old and never came back. Now Emily's all grown up with a punk band of her own, determined to find the tune that will bring her mother home. Because if Louisa really is following the music, shouldn't it lead her right back to Emily?
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A & R
by Bill Flanagan
When Jim Cantone accepts an offer to become head of A & R (artists and repertoire) at WorldWide Records, he quickly finds himself in "a viper's nest, and he must choose between picking up a dagger in a bloody palace coup against [the owner] DeGaul or standing by him and losing everything."--Jacket.
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Gary Benchley, Rock Star
by Paul Ford
Aspiring rock star Gary Benchley leaves his dead-end life to seek his fortune in that hotbed of hipsters--Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Earnestly optimistic, he chronicles his trials and tribulations of securing a roommate, girlfriend and band in a satirical yet glass-half-full way.
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The Wishbones
by Tom Perrotta
Everything is going pretty well for Dave Raymond. He's 31, but he still feels young. He's playing guitar with the Wishbones, a New Jersey wedding band, and while it isn't exactly the Big Time, it is music. He has a roof over his head...well, it's his parents' roof, but they don't hassle him much. Life isn't perfect. But it isn't bad. Not bad at all. But then he has to blow it all by proposing to his girlfriend.
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The Other Life of Brian
by Graham Parker
The former singer-songwriter who created such albums as Howlin' Wind and Heat Treatment and Deepcut to Nowhere pens his first novel, a funny, strange tale of washed up rocker Brian Parker. Original.
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Tales of a Punk Rock Nothing
by Abram Shalom Himelstein
The classic underground novel about a Jewish kid from Tennessee, who moves to D.C. and hangs out with militant vegetarians, manifesto-writing shoplifters, and strippers who write feminist theory. The story is told through journals, letters and zines. It's got everything you could want out of a novel: a chase scene, a sex scene, plus angst-ridden critiques of American society.
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How Evan Broke His Head and Other Secrets
by Garth Stein
Evan had a hit single. But that was 10 years ago. Now 31, he's drifting, playing in a local band and teaching middle-aged guys to coax music from electric guitars. Beset at a young age by a life-threatening form of epilepsy, he's kept his condition a secret, even from his bandmates, only his family know, but they don't know about the accident that caused it. Offbeat and disarming, How Evan Broke His Head portrays a contemporary American family with unfailing and unflinching honesty.
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High Fidelity
by Nick Hornby
From the bestselling author of About a Boy, A Long Way Down and Dickens and Prince, a wise and hilarious novel about love, heartbreak, and rock and roll. “I've always loved Nick Hornby, and the way he writes characters and the way he thinks. It's funny and heartbreaking all at the same time.”—Zoë Kravitz Rob is a pop music junkie who runs his own semi-failing record store. His girlfriend, Laura, has just left him for the guy upstairs, and Rob is both miserable and relieved. After all, could he have spent his life with someone who has a bad record collection? Rob seeks refuge in the company of the offbeat clerks at his store, who endlessly review their top five films; top five Elvis Costello songs; top five episodes of Cheers. Rob tries dating a singer, but maybe it’s just that he’s always wanted to sleep with someone who has a record contract. Then he sees Laura again. And Rob begins to think that life with kids, marriage, barbecues, and soft rock CDs might not be so bad.
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The Perks of Being a Wallflower
by Stephen Chbosky
Read the cult-favorite coming of age story that takes a sometimes heartbreaking, often hysterical, and always honest look at high school in all its glory. Now a major motion picture starring Logan Lerman and Emma Watson, The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a funny, touching, and haunting modern classic. The critically acclaimed debut novel from Stephen Chbosky, Perks follows observant “wallflower” Charlie as he charts a course through the strange world between adolescence and adulthood. First dates, family drama, and new friends. Sex, drugs, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Devastating loss, young love, and life on the fringes. Caught between trying to live his life and trying to run from it, Charlie must learn to navigate those wild and poignant roller-coaster days known as growing up. A years-long #1 New York Times bestseller, an American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults and Best Book for Reluctant Readers, and with millions of copies in print, this novel for teen readers (or “wallflowers” of more-advanced age) will make you laugh, cry, and perhaps feel nostalgic for those moments when you, too, tiptoed onto the dance floor of life.
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Too Much, Too Late
by Marc Spitz
Unlikely ex-rock star Sandy James grumbles, bemoans, and proselytizes about the long career but short success of his rock band, the Jane Ashers, in this edgy second novel from "Spin" senior writer Spitz.
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King Dork
by Frank Portman
High school loser Tom Henderson discovers that "The Catcher in the Rye" may hold the clues to the many mysteries in his life.
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Garden State
by Rick Moody
This first novel by the acclaimed author of Demonology and The Ice Storm traces a group of friends in Haledon, New Jersey, through one Spring in their rocky passage towards adulthood. The kids are out of school, trying to start a band, trying to find work; looking for something to do within the degraded terrain of their suburban hometown. Garden State starkly captures the lyricism of their lives in an intense and unforgettable story of friendship and betrayal.
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The Words of Every Song
by Liz Moore
From the acclaimed author of Long Bright River and Heft, a novel that allows us to take a peek behind the curtain of the music industry Liz Moore shows us the inner workings of an industry we’ve been fascinated with for decades. In these fourteen linked episodes, we meet a cast of characters from all the corners of the industry that we’ve come to glamourize. There’s the arrogantly hip, twenty-six-year-old A&R man; the rising young singer-songwriter; the established, arena-filling rock star on the verge of a midlife crisis; the type-A female executive with the heavy social calendar; and other recognizable figures. Set in the sleek offices, high-tech recording studios, and grungy downtown clubs of New York, The Words of Every Song offers an authenticity drawn from Liz Moore’s own experience and brings an insider’s touch to its depiction of the music industry and its denizens.
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The Smiths' Meat is Murder
by Joe Pernice
Joe Pernice is the singer-songwriter behind The Pernice Brothers. His previous band was The Scud Mountain Boys, and he has also recorded under the name Chappaquiddick Skyline. He runs his own record label and has also published a book of poetry.
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Never Mind the Goldbergs
by Matthue Roth
A seventeen-year-old Orthodox Jewish girl leaves her home in New York for the summer to film a television show in California.
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Pretty Little Dirty
by Amanda Boyden
A dazzling, racy, and exuberant debut--Amanda Boyden tells the story of two Midwestern girls of privilege in the late 70s and early 80s and their shared plunge from innocence. "Pretty Little Dirty takes a classic coming-of-age tale and turns it inside out, then gives it a few kicks in the head for good measure. Funny, sexy, inventively told, and scary as hell—a gutsy debut."–Dani Shapiro, author of Family History Lisa sees the life of her gorgeous best friend Celeste as just about perfect: she has a gigantic house, two older sisters to coach her through the hazards of high school, and loving, lively parents. As Lisa's own home has long been a place devoid of joyful noise—her mother has shut herself off in her bedroom for years—Lisa joins the Diamond household, slipping into their routine of sit-down suppers and soaking in the delicious normalcy of Diamond family life. But what begins as the story of two young women living a charmed adolescence, one of mastering dance moves and the protocols of male-female interaction, soon swirls into an intoxicating novel of art, music, and self-destructive impulses as Lisa and Celeste dare each other ever onward.
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Our Noise
by Jeff Gomez
Originally published as a serial 'zine of interelated stories, Our Noise quickly became popular as a cult favorite, garnering rave reviews from unde rground magazines around the country. Funny, poignant, and fearless, this wry and telling novel captures the lives, loves, and record collections of a group of disaffected youths in a small Virginia town.
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Fat Kid Rules the World
by K. L. Going
A Michael L. Printz Honor Book Troy Billings is seventeen, 296 pounds, friendless, utterly miserable, and about to step off a New York subway platform in front of an oncoming train. Until he meets Curt MacCrae, an emaciated, semi-homeless, high school dropout guitar genius, the stuff of which Lower East Side punk rock legends are made. Never mind that Troy’s dad thinks Curt’s a drug addict and Troy’s brother thinks Troy’s the biggest (literally) loser in Manhattan. Soon, Curt’s recruited Troy as his new drummer—even though Troy can’t play the drums. Together, Curt and Troy will change the world of punk, and Troy’s own life, forever. "Troy's voice is candid, irreverent, realistic and humorous. [A] wonderful, engrossing tale."—SLJ An ALA BBYA A BCCB Blue Ribbon Book A Booklist Editors' Choice An SLJ Best Book of the Year A Miami Herald Best Book of the Year
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Don't Sleep With Your Drummer
by Jen Sincero
At twenty-eight, Jenny Troanni has decided to become the rock goddess she was always meant to be. Items on her new to-do list include: 1) Quit going-somewhere copywriting job and get going-to-band-practice job. 2) Break up with Hootie and the Blowfish-lovin' boyfriend. 3) Hang out in skanky bars. Meet musicians. 4) Cash in pension and buy kickass guitar amp. 5) Team up with sex-crazed guitar genius/best friend Lucy Stover Hanover II. After auditioning every musician in the greater Los Angeles area---including the deluded, deranged, and underaged---Jenny finds the perfect lineup, and 60-Foot Queenie is born. But while reveling in free tequila shots, autograph hunters, and other perks of minor stardom, Jenny realizes with a shock that 60-Foot Queenie is poised to become even bigger than she imagined. Suddenly, she's learning the real lessons of Rock and Roll High School, including the danger of trusting a record company executive who ties a ponytail in his goatee, and the ten telltale signs your bass player is living in your practice space. Part diary, part crash course in rock stardom, Don't Sleep with Your Drummer is a hilarious, no-holds-barred guide through the pleasures and pitfalls of the music industry---from the beginning to the bitter end, and back again.