A Year In Reading

Description: Picture book biography told in rhyming verse. Charles Tindley was born free, though his childhood was far from easy. He had no chance to go to school, but the spirituals he heard as he worked in the fields made him long to know how to read the Gospel. Late at night, he taught himself to read from scraps of newspapers. From those small scraps, Charles raised himself to become a founding father of American gospel music whose hymn was the basis for the civil rights anthem "We Shall Overcome."

Description: "Ella is different from other ducklings. She always waddled out of the line. She was loud and silly. And she made up her own songs to sing. Her family didn't know what to think of her. Until one day, Ella met Dizzy. Could Ella and Dizzy make beautiful music together? And could they get the othe animals to listen?"--publisher

Description: A thoughtful, counterintuitive book about creativity from Jeff Tweed--songwriter, leader of the band Wilco, and author--inspiring others by taking the reader through the process of writing one song.-- From statement provided by publisher.

Description: "Lizzo started singing and rapping with musical groups in her hometowns of Houston and Minneapolis. With her fun lyrics, danceable beats, and positive message, she's become one of the biggest solo musicians in the world"-- Provided by publisher.

Description: "It's summer 1977 and closeted lesbian Tammy Larson can't be herself anywhere. Not at her strict Christian high school, not at her conservative Orange County church and certainly not at home, where her ultrareligious aunt relentlessly organizes antigay political campaigns. Tammy's only outlet is writing secret letters in her diary to gay civil rights activist Harvey Milk--until she's matched with a real-life pen pal who changes everything. Sharon Hakwins bonds with Tammy over punk music and carefully shared secrets, and soon their letters become the one place she can be honest. The rest of her life in San Francisco is full of lies. The kind she tells for others--like helping her gay brother hide the turth from their mom--and the kind she tells herself. But as antigay fervor in America reaches a frightening new pitch, Sharon and Tammy must rely on their long-distance friendship to discover their deeply personal truths, what they'll stand for--and who they'll rise against."--Jacket.

Description: "The definitive, no-holds-barred oral history of 1980s hard rock and hair metal. 1980s hard rock was a hedonistic and often intensely creative wellspring of escapism that perfectly encapsulated-and maybe even helped to define-a spectacularly over-the-topdecade. Indeed, fist-pumping hits like Twisted Sister's "We're Not Gonna Take It," Mötley Crüe's "Girls, Girls, Girls," and Guns N' Roses' "Welcome to the Jungle" are as inextricably linked to the era as Reaganomics, Pac-Man, and E.T. From the do-or-dieearly days of self-financed recordings and D.I.Y. concert productions that were as flashy as they were foolhardy, to the multi-Platinum, MTV-powered glory years of stadium-shaking anthems and chart-topping power ballads, to the ultimate crash when grungebands like Nirvana forever altered the entire climate of the business, Tom Beaujour and Richard Bienstock's Nothin' But a Good Time captures the energy and excess of the hair metal years in the words of the musicians, managers, producers, engineers, label executives, publicists, stylists, costume designers, photographers, journalists, magazine publishers, video directors, club bookers, roadies, groupies, and hangers-on who lived it. Featuring an impassioned foreword by Slipknot and Stone Sour vocalist and avowed glam metal fanatic Corey Taylor, and drawn from over 200 new interviews with members of Van Halen, Mötley Crüe, Poison, Guns N' Roses, Skid Row, Bon Jovi, Ratt, Twisted Sister, Winger, Warrant, Cinderella, Quiet Riot and others, as well as OzzyOsbourne, Lita Ford and many more, this is the ultimate, uncensored, and often unhinged chronicle of a time where excess and success walked hand in hand, told by the men and women who created a sound and style that came to define a musical era-one in which the bands and their fans went looking for nothin' but a good time...and found it"-- Provided by publisher.

Description: Seventeen-year-old Rachel Kim confronts the dark underbelly of the K-pop world as she strives to become a K-pop star.

Description: "Forced to retire from her position as music educator in a small Midwestern school, Lucy watches helplessly as the program her father started years ago is dismantled. Her passion seems lost. Lucy feels her faith's song has gone silent until a young boy and his soundless mother change the way she sees--and hears--everything"-- Provided by publisher.

Description: Sierra is tired of being known as "the sweetest girl in the ice cream shop," but she still wants everybody to like her! Can she spice up her personality (and learn to say no occasionally), and still keep all her friends? Sierra decides to pour her feelings into an original song--and through music, she's able to find her voice. --from Amazon.

Description: When new-girl Cirrus mistakes self-described nerd Sunny Dae as the lead in a rock band, Sunny rolls with it forming a fake band with his friends, but as the lies continue he risks losing both Cirrus and his friends.

Description: In Paris, Lenny has trouble starting to compose his symphony until he discovers that there is music all around him in everyday life.

Description: Twelve-year-old Amelia gets the opportunity to attend a boarding school and learn how to use music to create magic, hoping to become a Maestro like her deceased mother.

Description: In small-town Florida in 1968, four teens who bond over music and their objection to the Vietnam War decide to take a stand against the U.S. government and violent racism.

Description: "In the 1990s, heavy metal band Dürt Würk was poised for breakout success--but then lead singer Terry Hunt embarked on a solo career and rocketed to stardom as Koffin, leaving his fellow bandmates to rot in obscurity. Two decades later, former guitarist Kris Pulaski works as the night manager of a Best Western--she's tired, broke, and unhappy. Everything changes when a shocking act of violence turns her life upside down, and she begins to suspect that Terry sabotaged more than just the band. Kris hits the road, hoping to reunite with the rest of her bandmates and confront the man who ruined her life. It's a journey that will take her from the Pennsylvania rust belt to a celebrity rehab center to a music festival from hell. A furious power ballad about never giving up, even in the face of overwhelming odds, We Sold Our Souls is an epic journey into the heart of a conspiracy-crazed, pill-popping, paranoid country that seems to have lost its very soul.