Fans pick 100 books like A Little Bit Wicked

The first thing that drew me in was the format. The entire book, which is 466 pages long, is a response to a letter written on page one by the main character, Vivian. What a neat way to write a book.

In her letter to Vivian, Angela asks, “Vivian, what were you to my father?” It wasn’t the same old “telling” of a story, but Vivian’s detailed response from a historical perspective involving her experiences over the years in love, lust, glamour, and promiscuity and how these affected her life.

Vivian is in her 90s as she responds, and the story is told from her perspective as an old woman looking back on her life. I found myself rooting for her as she described her many struggles in her attempt to answer Angela’s question.

I read that Matt Weiner wouldn’t have had the courage to write Mad Men if he’d read this before he worked on the series.

Revolutionary Road is set in the world of New York advertising during the martini lunch era, and it’s one of my favorite books of all time. It doesn’t exactly have that Singin’ in the Rain optimism, but it’s darkly hilarious. The opening scene is literary perfection, set at the dress rehearsal for the Laurel Players.

Yates masterfully captures that Waiting for Guffman sincerity (and inherent comedy) of community theater, and the novel sets the stage for the deeply human tale of longing. It is deeply American and deeply perfect.

I’d take this book with me if banished to a deserted island.

It’s a comprehensive account of the modern musical from London’s West End to the influence of Show Boat and beyond. Beautifully researched, it’s filled with fantastic timelines and gorgeous art, this is a get-lost-for-days sort of giant tome.

Of course, I didn’t choose it because they feature Legally Blonde and also include my quote: “I’ve also been a blonde… and I’ve also been underestimated.” No, not at all.

Full disclosure, Darcie was a producer on Legally Blonde and was president of MGM On Stage. Darcie was a real character, and she also dripped with worship for the theater.

This book is a meticulously researched love letter to the fusion of film and theater, filled with phenomenal photos and teeming with love. Chronicling West Side Story, Gypsy, Chicago, and beyond, it’s a great coffee table book you’ll actually want to read.

Marissa centers on three contemporary songwriters, Kacey Musgraves; Maren Morris; and Mickey Guyton, to illuminate the experiences of country women more broadly during the twenty-first century. Facing closed doors and narrowed constraints, this trio carved channels for music business success, using new-century tools to reach audiences and ears. The industry-old guard was left to catch up.

The backdrop for their stories is the well-documented nosedive for women on country radio airwaves since 2000, but terrestrial radio matters less for this younger generation. Dolly’s own path-clearing journey inspired these artists. At one notable intersection of their stories and hers, Dolly’s surprise appearance onstage during an all-women performance at the Newport Folk Festival drew a reaction from musicians and the crowd alike. One close observer remembered it was like they had seen “f-ing Snow White.” 

Nashville-based singer-songwriter Margo Price is the real deal.

Her beginnings were humble, and her struggles have been many. Her memoir takes you on the road with her through bad low-paying, low-attended early gigs, drinking, and drugs. Price's marriage/creative partnership is tender and beautiful, yet becomes fragile as it shoulders the unbearable loss of a newborn son.

Through it all, you can feel Price’s grit and determination to survive with her soul intact, making it in an industry that pressures artists to conform to its priorities and sets them up to fail when they resist- or simply try to be themselves.

Price’s music is the soundtrack to her courageous story in progress. In the best possible way, this book reads like the liner notes: honest, heartfelt, and profound.   

This enduring LGBTQ icon might have been famously enigmatic, but O’Brien presents the story of the cool queen of blue-eyed soul with depth, precision, and humanity, qualities present in all of O’Brien’s books. Dusty’s tale is multi-faceted, often troubled, and tremendously relatable, but her profound strength comes through in this meticulously researched book, which also features an array of interviews with contemporaries and colleagues such as Tom Jones, Lulu, and Jerry Wexler. 

I’m always fascinated by the transformative moment – how and when people decide to use their voices for change.

Nina Simone’s musical talent was recognized early, and she faced discrimination early, too. As the Civil Rights Movement grew, Simone at first focused on building her career. Her transformative moment was born of rage at the murder of civil rights leader Medgar Evers and the Birmingham, Alabama, 16th Street Baptist Church bombing that killed four young girls and severely injured another.

Protest songs poured out of her, and she became the fearless voice of the Civil Rights Movement. Powerful and inspirational!

The moment I realized I was getting older was the moment I put two little pieces of toilet paper in my ears in the middle of a Mogwai show in Asheville, NC.

It was the loudest show I’d ever attended. And it was phenomenal.

Mogwai has been making cinematic music for a long time, and I came into awareness of the band with 2008’s “The Hawk is Howling.” They are epic, funny, mysterious, meditative, and relentless.

It’s no surprise that  Stuart Braithwaite’s book is perfect for the Mogwai fanbase in that it gives some insight into the band’s philosophy while maintaining a sense of mystery. I also like that Braithwaite doesn’t seem to take himself too seriously.

A tender meditation on all the disparate threads, sounds, loves, conversations, and lessons that meld together to create an artist. Watching Bob trying to throw off the accolades and labels that want to pin him down like butterfly and explore whatever takes his fancy is my favorite part of this trip, weaving through all the stolen records and ghosts and signposts and colored lights beckoning.