As a child, Matt Hay didn’t know his hearing wasn’t the way everyone else processed sound—and like a lot of kids who do workarounds to fit in, even the school nurse didn’t catch his condition at the annual hearing and vision checks. But as a prospective college student who couldn’t pass the entrance requirements for West Point, Hay’s condition, generated by a tumor, was unavoidable: his hearing was going, and fast.

Soundtrack of Silence was his determined compensation for his condition: a typical Midwestern kid growing up in the 1980s, whose life events were pegged to pop music, Hay planned to commit his favorite songs to memory, a mental playbook not only of the bands he loved, but a way to tap his most resonant memories. And the track he needed to cement most clearly? The one he and his new girlfriend Nora—the love of his life—listened to in the car on their first date.

Made vivid with references to instantly recognizable songs—from The Eagles to Elton John, Bob Marley to Bing Crosby, U2 to Peter Frampton—Soundtrack of Silence asks readers to run the soundtrack of their own lives through their minds. And, like much of the music it invokes, it’s in the end a happy story: Hay does marry the girl of his dreams, complex and cutting-edge surgeries allow him via implant and linked external devices to partially hear, and he’s able to share lullaby time with his and Nora’s children.

The post Soundtrack of Silence: Love, Loss, and a Playlist for Life first appeared on Shelves Bookstore.

What’s that sound? The back door squeeeaks open, sounding like a noisy mouse nearby — eeek, eeeek, eeeek! Big trucks on the highway rrrrrrrumble, just as hunger makes a tummy grrrrumble. Ringing with exuberance and auditory delights, this second collaboration by world-renowned jazz musician and composer Wynton Marsalis and acclaimed illustrator Paul Rogers takes readers (and listeners) on a rollicking, clanging, clapping tour through the many sounds that fill a neighborhood.

The post Squeak, Rumble, Whomp! Whomp! Whomp! first appeared on Shelves Bookstore.

It’s the weekend, first in June;
speaker’s blasting out big tune!
Cousins, aunties, uncles, friends,
pack the house and fun begins.

Shane is shy, but loves to dance—
and all year long, he’s picked up cans
to earn some money toward his goal:
high-tops with a pump-up sole.

But then the speaker blows—it’s done!
Will this stop his family’s fun?
Can Shane come through to save the day
and bring back Big Tune Saturday?

Set a vibrant Caribbean-American neighborhood and told to a rhythmic beat, Big Tune is a story of Black-boy joy that touches on determination, the confidence to express who you are, selflessness, and community gratitude.

The post Big Tune: Rise of the Dancehall Prince first appeared on Shelves Bookstore.

As one of the music world’s most iconic artists and the cofounder of organizations ONE and (RED), Bono’s career has been written about extensively. But in Surrender, it’s Bono who picks up the pen, writing for the first time about his remarkable life and those he has shared it with. In his unique voice, Bono takes us from his early days growing up in Dublin, including the sudden loss of his mother when he was fourteen, to U2’s unlikely journey to become one of the world’s most influential rock bands, to his more than twenty years of activism dedicated to the fight against AIDS and extreme poverty. Writing with candor, self-reflection, and humor, Bono opens the aperture on his life—and the family, friends, and faith that have sustained, challenged, and shaped him. Surrender’s subtitle, 40 Songs, One Story, is a nod to the book’s forty chapters, which are each named after a U2 song. Bono has also created forty original drawings for Surrender, which will appear throughout the book.

The post Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story first appeared on Shelves Bookstore.

After their high school graduation, former best friends Cass and Syd are gearing up for their futures. Cass has planned to go to college to become an engineer, while Syd—despite the fact that her family thinks she’s messed up her whole life—has lined up a sound internship at a historic music venue.

But Cass is keeping secrets. Though his dad has forbidden it, Cass has been playing music, taking trips to San Francisco BART stations to play and make money. Somehow, it’s become a way for Cass to connect with his mother—who was also a musician—who died in a drunk driving accident on the way back from a gig when he was one.

But after Syd catches Cass playing at the BART station, and Cass finds out his mom’s old band the Darlas is going on a reunion tour, everything changes. On impulse, Cass invites Syd to the first Darlas show, and without telling anyone, they make a break for it. Turning one show into a cross-country journey, the two former friends throw away all their plans for the future and embark on a life-altering road trip following the tour, keeping it a secret from their friends and family.

Along the way, they’ll untangle the messy threads of how they became “ex”-best friends, experience the power of nature and music, and decide what they really want their lives to be. Maybe, through it all, Cass and Syd can find a way back to each other, too.

Story Locale: El Sobrante, CA (and cross-country USA)

The post This One’s for You first appeared on Shelves Bookstore.

Fat Joe is a hip-hop legend, but this is not a tale of celebrity; it is the story of Joseph Cartagena, a kid who came of age in the South Bronx during its darkest years of drugs, violence, and abandonment, and how he navigated that traumatizing landscape until he found—through art, friendship, luck, and will—a rocky path to a different life.

Joe was born into a sprawling Puerto Rican and Cuban family in the projects of the South Bronx. From infancy his life is threatened by violence, and by the time he starts middle school, he is forced to make a life-shaping choice: to be prey or predator. Soon, Joe and his crew rise up to dominate the streets—dodging bullets and betrayal all along the way—but he discovers his true strength in the street corner ciphers where the Bronx’s wild energy took musical form. His identity splits in two: a hustler roaming record stores, looking for beats; a budding rapper whose rep rings in the streets. As his day-to-day life becomes more and more fraught—he is shot and almost killed and watches as family and friends fall to prison, addiction, and even death—he gravitates toward the music that gives him both a voice to tell the stories of his young life and the tools he needs to create a new one. The challenges never stopped—but neither did Joe.

This memoir, written in Joe’s own intensely compelling voice, moves with the momentum of pulp fiction, but underneath the tragicomedy and riveting tales of the streets and the industry is a thought-provoking story about a generation of survivors raised in warlike conditions—the life-and-death choices they had to make, the friends they lost and mourned, the regrets that haunted them, and the enduring art and glittering lives they created from the ruins.

Story Locale: Bronx, New York

The post The Book of Jose first appeared on Shelves Bookstore.

Emmalene loves the sounds of her city—but Grandma Jean does not. She doesn’t consider it music. And she just doesn’t get it.

But when Emmalene encourages her to take a closer listen, Grandma Jean hears something beautiful.

Song in the City is a rhythmic and lightly humorous tale that bridges the gap between generations of music and family while centering love, understanding, and joy.

The post Song in the City first appeared on Shelves Bookstore.

A is for Apollo Theatre
L is for Liberation Bookstore
U is for Uptown

Discover the Harlem icons that have defined generations of American culture. Harlem is full of remarkable treasures, including museums, performance spaces, community centers, and more–all of which come to life in this lavish celebration of Harlem as an epicenter of African American history and a vibrant neighborhood that continues to shape our world. At once a love letter and a rich alphabetical archive, H Is for Harlem highlights communities and traditions that connect our past and present.

The post H Is for Harlem first appeared on Shelves Bookstore.

But Santi and Suwa share painful pasts, and when they open up to each other, a tentative friendship begins. And soon, that friendship turns into something more. . . .

Will their fresh start rip at the seams as Suwa seeks out a solo spotlight, and both boys come to terms with what it’ll take, and what they’ll have to let go, to realize their dreams?

The post Beating Heart Baby first appeared on Shelves Bookstore.

What began as a spiritual has developed into one of America’s best-known songs, and now for the first time it appears as a picture book, masterfully created by award-winning artist Kadir Nelson.Through sublime landscapes and warm images of a boy and his family, Kadir has created a dazzling, intimate interpretation, one that rejoices in the connectedness of people and nature.

Inspired by the song’s simple message, Kadir sought to capture the joy of living in and engaging with the world. Most importantly, he wished to portray the world as a child might see it–vast and beautiful.

The post He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands first appeared on Shelves Bookstore.