Music

This collection brings together texts that explore the beauty and often redemptive power of music, from classical compositions in Peter Shaffer's Amadeus and Haruki Murakami's Kafka on the Shore, to gospel songs and spirituals in Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun.

Publication year 2008

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Friendship, Race, Sexual Identity, Childhood & Youth, Coming of Age, Community, Justice, Music

Tags Historical Fiction, Coming of Age, Music, African American Literature, Children`s Literature, Realistic Fiction, Modern Classic Fiction

After Tupac and D Foster, published in 2008, is Jacqueline Woodson’s fifth middle grade novel and her 24th book overall. It is a coming-of-age story of three African American girls who are best friends growing up in Queens, NY, in the 1990s. During this time, the cultural icon Tupac Shakur is shot, imprisoned, and ultimately killed in a second shooting. These events have a huge impact on the main characters as they grow up and... Read After Tupac and D Foster Summary

Publication year 2018

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Mental Health, Gender Identity, Music, Trust & Doubt, Family

Tags Realistic Fiction, Modern Classic Fiction, Mental Illness

A Heart in a Body in the World is a young adult novel by Deb Caletti, published in 2018. The novel is a work of contemporary realism and is a Michael L. Printz Honor Book.Other work by this author includes the novel, Honey, Baby, Sweetheart.Plot SummaryThe novel follows the story of Annabelle Agnelli, a high school senior living with her mother Gina and her brother Malcolm in Seattle, Washington. Annabelle is a talented cross-country runner... Read A Heart in a Body in the World Summary

Publication year 2014

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Siblings, Mental Health, Death, Art, Music

Tags Grief & Death, Canadian Literature

All My Puny Sorrows, originally published in Canada in 2014, is a work of fiction by Canadian author Miriam Toews. Since its publication, the novel has won the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize and been shortlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, the Folio Prize for Literature, and the Wellcome Book Prize. In 2021, Michael McGowan directed and produced the novel’s film adaptation. All My Puny Sorrows is in large part inspired by autobiographical events from... Read All My Puny Sorrows Summary

Publication year 2025

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Race, Childhood & Youth, Coming of Age, Death, Future, The Past, Animals, Climate, Environment, Food, Objects & Materials, Place, Family, Teamwork, Self Discovery, Social Class, Colonialism, Community, Economics, Art, Beauty, Equality, Justice, Literature, Music, Order & Chaos, Power & Greed, Safety & Danger, Science & Technology, Trust & Doubt

Tags Science Fiction

Publication year 1979

Genre Play, Fiction

Themes Music, Shame & Pride, Fathers

Tags Historical Drama, Classic Fiction, Music, Education, Education, World History, Dramatic Literature, Historical Fiction

Peter Shaffer’s play Amadeus, which premiered at the London Royal National Theatre in 1979, presents a fictionalized history of the renowned composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart through the eyes of Antonio Salieri, a composer whose lackluster artistic legacy has been all but buried by time. The play begins on the eve of what Salieri, now an old man, believes will be the last day of his life. Salieri narrates and reenacts the story of his tumultuous... Read Amadeus Summary

Publication year 2017

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Gender Identity, Music, Coming of Age, Family

Tags Realistic Fiction, Middle Eastern History, Bullying, Children`s Literature, Modern Classic Fiction, Arts & Culture, Religion & Spirituality

Eleven-year-old Pakistani-American Amina Khokar lives in Milwaukee with her mother, father, and brother, Mustafa. At school, a Korean girl named Soojin Kim is her best friend. Amina is distressed when Soojin befriends Emily, a girl who has historically joined in on racially-motivated taunts against Soojin and Amina. The situation is complicated when Amina, Emily, and Soojin—along with the class oddball, Bradley—are assigned to the same group for an Oregon Trail project in their social studies... Read Amina's Voice Summary

Publication year 2007

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Music

Tags Education, Education, Modern Classic Fiction, Asian Literature, Historical Fiction, Indian Literature

Published in 2007, Animal’s People by Indra Sinha was the 2008 winner of the Commonwealth Writer’s Prize and was shortlisted for the 2007 Man Booker Prize. Based in the fictional town of Khaufpur, which means “village of terror,” it centers around the 1984 Bhopal industrial disaster and its aftereffects on the survivors. Told from the point of view of a 19-year-old Khaufpuri boy who was disfigured “that night,” the novel focuses on the West’s dehumanization... Read Animal's People Summary

Publication year 2016

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Music, Grief, Memory, Friendship

Tags Race & Racism, Historical Fiction

Another Brooklyn is a 2016 novel by Jacqueline Woodson. After the narrator, August, returns home to care for her dying father, she runs into her former friend Sylvia. This encounter leads her to reflect on her childhood in Brooklyn in the 1970s and the way she coped with her mother’s death. The novel unfolds in fragments: each chapter moves between August’s girlhood memories and adult life as an ivy-league educated anthropologist who studies cultural rituals... Read Another Brooklyn Summary

Publication year 1959

Genre Play, Fiction

Themes Music, Fathers, Gender Identity

Tags American Literature, African American Literature, Black Arts Movement, Education, Education, Dramatic Literature, Historical Fiction, Classic Fiction

When Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun premiered in 1959, it was the first play by a Black woman to open on Broadway, as well as the first play with a Black director. The title comes from Langston Hughes’s poem “Harlem,” which asks, “What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?” Content Warning: The play and this guide discuss themes of racism and slavery.The play tells the... Read A Raisin in the Sun Summary

Publication year 1768

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Music

Tags Classic Fiction

A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy, a novel by Laurence Sterne first published in 1768, is the story of Reverend Mr. Yorick, who realizes one day that he has never been to France and wishes to compare it to Britain. After a heated argument with a friend, he packs lightly and sets sail the next day from Dover to Calais. En route, he eats and drinks in a tavern, where he meets a Franciscan... Read A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy Summary

Publication year 1947

Genre Play, Fiction

Themes Music

Tags Southern Gothic, American Literature, Education, Education, World History, Dramatic Literature, Classic Fiction

A Streetcar Named Desire is one of Tennessee Williams's most famous plays. Published in 1947, it won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and has garnered numerous Tony and Olivier awards since its first production. Blanche Dubois arrives at the French Quarter of New Orleans to stay with her sister, Stella Kowalski. The sisters grew up wealthy on Belle Reve, a plantation in Laurel, Mississippi, and Blanche is immediately critical of what she sees as Stella’s rough... Read A Streetcar Named Desire Summary

Publication year 2010

Genre Short Story Collection, Fiction

Themes Music

Tags Psychological Fiction, Music, American Literature, Modern Classic Fiction

A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan tracks the passage of time in the lives of individuals in the rock music industry. The chapters defy conventional temporal and narrative chronologies, and each one is a self-contained episode in an unfolding network of stories, spanning six decades from the 1970s to the 2020s. The novel employs various narrative formats, such as the short story, the magazine article, and the graphic slide presentation. The variety... Read A Visit from the Goon Squad Summary

Publication year 2025

Genre Autobiography / Memoir, Nonfiction

Themes Marriage, Conflict, Emotions/Behavior: Courage, Perseverance, Grief, Hate & Anger, Hope, Joy, Loneliness, Love, Memory, Femininity, Midlife, Future, The Past, Daughters & Sons, Family, Friendship, Self Discovery, Colonialism, Community, Equality, Justice, Literature, Loyalty & Betrayal, Music, Order & Chaos, Religion & Spirituality, Trust & Doubt, Truth & Lies

Tags Memoir & Autobiography, Relationships

Publication year 2021

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Music, Religion & Spirituality, Family, Coming of Age, Friendship

Tags Realistic Fiction, Children`s Literature, Modern Classic Fiction, Music, Religion & Spirituality