Summer (and summer reading at the library) is in full swing! If you haven't yet spent a lazy afternoon on the beach, at the park, or in front of a pool with a good book, a cool drink, and some music playing, what exactly are you waiting for? August is almost here!

If you need some inspiration for new books and music to get into, here's a list of pairings from our staff, featuring recommended fiction or nonfiction with music that fits thematically or historically, or just suits the mood of the story. The full playlist is available on Spotify. Enjoy!

When Bit, the narrator of Lauren Groff's Arcadia, has to leave the utopian commune where he grew up, he's thrust into a world that's completely alienating and technologically terrifying. It reminds me of the Paul Simon song "Boy in the Bubble" from Graceland. Bit's profound displacement must be "the way we look to a distant constellation that's dying in a corner of the sky." —Gwen Glazer, Readers Services
 

I read The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas while listening to Kendrick Lamar's Damn. and let me just say—damn. Cheesy, but putting it on repeat was just such a great pairing. I cannot recommend this enough. —Chantalle Uzan, Francis Martin Library
 

Here's a YA book that adults can relate to, especially the Gen Xers. Set in the 1980s, Eleanor & Park is a love story about two very cool misfits. Pair it with The Smiths' "There is a Light That Never Goes Out" and "Love Will Tear Us Apart" by Joy Division. —Genoveve Stowell, 53rd Street Library
 

While reading Tara Westover's Educated: A Memoir, I thought of Tom Petty's "Learning to Fly" and "I Won't Back Down." Petty sings, "Hey, baby, there ain't no easy way out," and Westover proves that with her awe-inspiring tenacity to educate herself and move beyond the stifling world of her isolated, survivalist family. —Maura Muller, Volunteer Program
 

I recently read and loved Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda (the recent film version is called Love, Simon) and it would have to be paired with the music of Elliott Smith. The book is a heartwarming story about a high school teenage boy trying to figure out how to come out to his family and friends while falling in love with an anonymous emailer. —Leslie Bernstein, Mott Haven Library
 

Born on a farm at the end of the 19th century, John Williams's Stoner excitedly awakes to embrace the scholar's life—only to discover his existential truth after facing a lifetime of disappointment. As I read the last pages of this elegiac book, I achingly hear the first 60 seconds of Kenna's 'Daylight.' —Frank Collerius, Jefferson Market Library
 

Kate Racculia's Bellweather Rhapsody is a book that focuses largely on music. There's one passage in which one of the book's main characters, Rabbit, is returning from a particularly incredible orchestra rehearsal. Rather than go for the dark and depressing music he's been listening to on bad rehearsal days, Rabbit plays a song that perfectly matches his energetic and restorative mood: the Smashing Pumpkins' "Tonight, Tonight." —Katrina Ortega, Hamilton Grange Library
 

Paula McClain's novel The Paris Wife, about Ernest Hemingway's relationship with his first wife, pairs nicely with Mary Chapin Carpenter's song "Mrs Hemingway." Both the book and the song have a wistful quality to them. —Ronni Krasnow, Morningside Heights Library
 

The Mary Chapin Carpenter song "My Heaven" was inspired by Alice Sebold's famed novel, The Lovely Bones, which is narrated from heaven by Susie, a young girl who was kidnapped and murdered. In the song, Carpenter describes her own vision of what heaven is like. —Ronni Krasnow, Morningside Heights Library
 

The thrill, grit, and sea of possibilities that was New York City in the 1970s comes roaring back to life in Patti Smith's intensely felt book of memories, Just Kids. Life as Patti and her loving, brilliant comrade, Robert Mapplethorpe, knew it seems to beg for two songs that always spring to mind whenever I see or look through this brilliant remembrance of wild, beautiful, and painful things past: the first is "Land" from Smith's first album, Horses; the other is the fabulous "Venus" by the legendary New York City band, Television (from their album Marquee Moon). —Jeff Katz, Chatham Square Library
 

You can't go wrong pairing high fantasy like The Lord of the Rings, Brandon Sanderson's The Stormlight Archive, or Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time with Led Zeppelin songs "Misty Mountain Hop" or "The Battle of Evermore." Lead singer Robert Plant is a longtime Tolkien fan. —Joshua Soule, Spuyten Duyvil Library
 

Ta-Nehisi Coates's Between The World And Me​ feels like a cruise through the 1990s (Ta-Nehisi attended Howard University in the mid-'90s), so the perfect song pairings for this are iconic '90s rap albums: "It Was a Good Day," Illmatic, "Juicy," Lauryn Hill. —Elisa Garcia, Bronx Library Center
 

Spinster schoolteacher Glory Broughton returns to the house where she grew up in 1950s Iowa at the beginning of Marilynne Robinson's Home, escaping a relationship with a man she pretended she didn't know was married. With nothing to occupy her time, she is like the protagonist of Blondie's "Sunday Girl": lonely, defenseless against the tears that well up in her eyes at the slightest provocation, and waiting for something meaningful to enter her life. —David Nochimson, Pelham Parkway-Van Nest Library
 

London Fields is Martin Amis at his most sprawling and darkly humorous, a story of a very strange and possibly murderous love triangle between three Brits, as observed by an American writer. Published in 1989, it had just enough lead time to be a huge influence on Blur's 1994 Britpop classic, Parklife. The album features the track "London Loves," which songwriter and vocalist Damon Albarn has repeatedly stated was directly inspired by Amis's novel. —Brian Stokes, New Amsterdam Library
 

"Feeling Gravity's Pull," the lead track on R.E.M.'s third full-length album, Fables of the Reconstruction, signified a stark change in the band's sound while still possessing their classically obscure early-career lyrics, in this instance dealing with the act of falling asleep while reading a book. The song's menacing guitar riff and dreamlike qualities make it a perfect musical pairing for Jeff VanderMeer's Annihilation, the nightmarish first entry in the Southern Reach trilogy, which tells the story of four women exploring a mysterious place known as Area X. —Brian Stokes, New Amsterdam Library
 

In Liam Callanan's Paris by the Book, Leah's author husband has gone missing, leaving only two plane tickets to Paris as a clue. Leah soon uproots her two daughters and moves to Paris, where she buys a small bookstore. More clues found in an unfinished manuscript have her wandering the streets, following the literary paths of her favorite Parisian classics and wondering if each tall, brown-haired man could be her husband. No wandering the streets of Paris, filled with sadness, is complete without the soulful songs of Edith Piaf, especially "La vie en rose." —Anne Rouyer, Mulberry Street Library
 

Maurene Goo's fun and breezy I Believe in a Thing Called Love forms a perfect summer pairing with the light and cheery "Dust My Shoulders Off" by Jane Zhang. Desi Lee is star student but an abysmal failure when it comes to romance. Convinced that the formula for true love can be found in Korean dramas, Desi embarks on a series of hapless adventures to win over her crush. This novel also pairs well with K-pop musical staples like BTS, Big Bang, and American singer Jay Park.—Crystal Chen, Woodstock Library
 

A number of years ago, I decided it was time to start reading my way through the classics section, filling in holes of books I had missed. At the same time, I was going through a phase of listening to Townes van Zandt, Leonard Cohen, and Bonnie "Prince" Billy. This led to me picking up The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck and pairing it with "I See a Darkness," as well as other songs by Bonnie "Prince" Billy. I still have trouble separating my love of this classic from the way Will Oldham's music sings to my American heart. —Jenny Rosenoff, Children's Center at 42nd Street

Mark Lewisohn's massive The Beatles: All These Years, Vol.1: Tune In chronicles the early years of The Beatles. Everyone knows them, but what's amazing is how different the early band was from the phenomenon they eventually became. "My Bonnie," an early recording described in the book and found on Anthology 1, captures the unique sound of a band on the cusp of becoming really, really famous. —Benjamin Sapadin, Morris Park Library

 

Jeff Chang's We Gon' Be Alright: Notes on Race and Resegregation takes its title from a line in Kendrick Lamar's "Alright." Chang's collection of essays tackles a range of topics including cultural equity (#OscarsSoWhite), student protest, Ferguson, and Asian American identity. The book concludes with the essay "Making Lemonade," an investigation into Beyonce's Lemonade as a metaphor for transformational justice in our society. —Crystal Chen, Woodstock Library
 

While reading Death in Venice, Thomas Mann's classic tale of doomed love in decadent, exotic surroundings, let yourself be moved by the exquisite music Luchino Visconti used for his free, but emotionally faithful, film adaptation: the exquisite "Adagietto" from Gustav Mahler's Fifth Symphony. —Kathie Coblentz, Special Formats Processing

 

In Bret Easton Ellis's American Psycho, protagonist and serial killer Patrick Bateman espouses the virtues of Phil Collins (of Genesis) just prior to a bloodbath. Delving deeper into the meaning of '80s contemporary pop music is a common thread throughout the novel. The juxtaposition of Bateman's epic analyses of pop culture alongside the brutality of his actions underscores the novel's central themes of banality, urbane isolation and corporate greed. —Sherri Machlin, Mulberry Street Library
 

In the Julio Cortázar short story "The Pursuer," a music critic explores the wild and self-destructive nature of a jazz musician at the peak and fall of his artistic genius. The protagonist of the story is based on the life of Charlie Parker, and brings to mind the Parker tune "Yardbird Suite," an autobiographical song of beauty and sadness. —Kiowa Hammons, Copyright and Information Policy

More book + music pairings:

• "If you like this album... read this" lists Part 1 and Part 2 - Kiara Garrett, Charlotte Mecklenburg Library
• 10 Albums and Books That Make a Perfect Fit - Consequence of Sound
• The Best Books-and-Music Pairings - The Guardian
• 12 Spotify Playlists and Albums To Listen To While Reading Your Favorite Books - Bustle

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Have trouble reading standard print? Many of these titles are available in formats for patrons with print disabilities.

Staff picks are chosen by NYPL staff members and are not intended to be comprehensive lists. We'd love to hear your ideas too, so leave a comment and tell us what you'd recommend. And check out our Staff Picks browse tool for more recommendations!