Music lovers, tune in to these stories that sing!
I KISSED HER FIRST by Betty Cayouette
9781250291196 | 8/25/26
This is Riley’s last summer as a chef. At least, this is what she’s promised her dads, who run a Cape Cod lobster shack and don’t want their daughter to follow in their stress-ridden footsteps. So Riley decides to go big and audition as a private chef for a singer’s European tour. When she finds out she got the gig, she’s thrilled. But when she learns that the singer she’ll be cooking for is Luna Leya, she and her sister’s favorite popstar? She almost can’t believe it.
Soon enough, Riley and Luna strike up an unexpected friendship, much to Luna’s manager’s disapproval. Luna should be focused on getting her Grammy, which means pulling off this tour without a hitch and continuing to date the notorious singer/heart throb/beloved bad boy Hudson, who’s rocketed her to a new level of fame with their hit single. Luna should definitely not be sneaking off to the Eiffel Tower and private Andalucian dinners to spend time with Riley. As the two get closer, Riley thinks she might be losing her mind. Is it possible the Luna Leya is flirting with her? And is there a world where Riley could keep her dream of being a chef alive? Soon, things will reach a tipping point and both Riley and Luna will be left wondering: could their story be a love song after all?
THE PARTY IN THE WOODS by Fiona McPhillips
9781250908278 | 11/10/26
Annie Fagan, one of Ireland’s first female electronic DJs and producers, spent her early twenties hosting and playing illegal raves across Ireland. Part of a legendary free party crew, she was surrounded by loud music, beautiful people, and the alluring chaos of the dance floor. But after one of their huge parties in the woods, Annie’s friend Seán disappeared without a trace, and Annie gave up that part of herself for good.
Years later, when Seán’s body is discovered in the Dublin mountains and new information about his disappearance comes to light, Annie reunites with her old group of friends—led by Fran Baker, the man she once believed she was destined to end up with—and feels inexplicably drawn back into the scene. Annie—and the police—starts to realize that, far from a tragic accident or random misadventure, Seán’s death must have been caused by someone who was at their party. Someone who had a motive.
One of her friends.
As Annie investigates, her new and old worlds clash, another old friend is silenced, and she realizes that some people may not want the mystery of Seán’s death to be solved. In fact, they might do anything to stop her from discovering what happened that night, when the party truly ended.
WEIRD ERA: How Pitchfork Changed Music Forever by Ryan Schreiber
9780374605506 | 12/1/26
In 1996, as legacy media slowly went digital, a nineteen-year-old Minneapolitan named Ryan Schreiber fired up his family’s desktop computer and brought his dream to life: a daily online music zine published for, and by, nerds like him. He wasn’t yet a writer, but he was passionate about discovering and sharing new music; he figured if he didn’t do it, someone else would. He named his site Pitchfork, an homage to the assassin tattoo Tony Montana sports in Scarface. Schreiber also decided to eschew a five-star rating system for a new one based on a decimal scale from 0 to 10. Little did he know that he had launched what would become one of the most consequential cultural forces of our time.
Thirty years after Pitchfork’s founding, Schreiber recounts the extraordinary story behind the site and the generation of listeners and musicians it fostered. He was in the room for it all: the consequences and thrills of Pitchfork’s make-or-break criticism; the boom and bust of digital media; and the albums, concerts, and meltdowns he witnessed from some of this century’s most beloved musicians. Along the way, he writes candidly about the site’s and his own growing pains as he sought to stay true to Pitchfork’s roots despite its morphing from a bedroom blog to a global behemoth, a journey that culminated in the site’s shocking sale to Condé Nast in 2015.
From one of the most influential names in the industry, WEIRD ERA is a compulsively readable and revealing memoir of fandom, music, media, and the power of trusting your gut.
IT’S GOT TO BE FUNKY: My Life in Music by Alan Leeds
9780374614812 | 11/17/26
Alan Leeds is one of the most important figures in Black music, which might sound surprising given he’s a Jewish kid from Queens. You may not know him, but he knows everyone. For half a century, in at least three discrete artistic eras, he has been central to the way that Black music (from soul to funk to neo-soul to hip-hop) has been made, marketed, and toured. His long career in the business has given him a unique perspective, and IT’S GOT TO BE FUNKY—both a tale of a life lived near fame and a chronicle of the evolution of popular music, told through stories and loaded with insights—illuminates all that he’s learned.
Leeds began his career working with James Brown in 1969. In 1983, after a brief spell working with KISS, he signed on with an unproven up-and-coming funk musician named Prince, with whom he worked throughout his rise and commercial and critical peak. From there, Leeds went on to work with the likes of Maxwell, Raphael Saadiq, and D’Angelo and the Soulquarians (where he crossed paths with, among many others, Questlove). As a music manager, his taste was peerless. As a writer, Leeds is a natural storyteller with a steady hand, a clear eye, and plenty of material. There are few people better positioned to chronicle one of the most important art forms in American history.
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