I really meant to do some actual, thinky discussions this year, but I’ve been exhausted lately, and those kinds of discussions take a lot of energy. So you’re getting more music match-ups!
It’s getting harder and harder to think of intros for these posts. How many times can I talk about how well books and songs go together?? I feel like I might’ve already reached that limit. So here, just have some books and songs!
Book: Tails of Stallion Ridge Collection by Maz Maddox
Song: “Stay the Night” by Zedd ft. Hayley Williams
*WARNING FOR FLASHING LIGHTS*
Why It’s Perfect:
I have been looking for an excuse to use this song because it’s a song I love, and it’s my all-time favorite music video. (Seriously, WATCH THE VIDEO. Please? Warning again for flashing lights.) I don’t know the artists’ intentions, but to me, this song is about two people who know they may not be together forever or may not have a typical relationship, but that doesn’t mean they can’t embrace the time they do have together. That’s how I’ve always interpreted the lyrics, “I know that we were made to break // So what? I don’t mind,” and, “Are you gonna stay the night? // Doesn’t mean we’re bound for life.” So this has been hard to find a book for because most books are about perfect HEA romances! I think this one works well enough though. I have a feeling these two will get their HEA, but this book, which is actually a collection of three short stories about side characters in the Stallion Ridge series, is about a complicated relationship between two men whose lives are on different paths, but they love each other, and they keep coming back to each other whenever their paths cross, even if only for a night.
Review | Goodreads | Author Website
Book: Mongrels by Stephen Graham Jones
Song: “Home” by Phillip Phillips
Why It’s Perfect:
Honestly, I still think of the 2012 Olympics when I hear this, maybe because, as a former gymnast, I always felt like it was the perfect song to go with the gymnastics, but anyway… I don’t think this song is about a literal house, at least not to me. It’s about that feeling of home. Comfort. People you can turn to. Always having somewhere you can go. Mongrels is about a boy, his aunt, and his uncle, and it’s really all about family. These three will do whatever it takes to be there for each other. So I feel like this song is fitting, because no matter where they went or what they did, these three were each others’ home.
Book: The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
Song: “No Air” by Jordin Sparks & Chris Brown
Why It’s Perfect:
“No Air” is a beautiful, dramatic kind of love song. “Losing you is like living in a world with no air.” “My world revolves around you.” “Tell me how I’m supposed to breathe with no air.” And The Time Traveler’s Wife is a book about that kind of dramatic love. Even the lyric, “My world revolves around you,” is fitting because their lives do revolve around each other. Clare knew Henry since she was a child, and basically everything in her life was shaped by him. And once Henry met Clare, he started traveling to her past all the time. Their lives were shaped by each other.
More Book & Song Match-Up Posts:
Bookish Musings: 3 Book & Song Match-Ups
Bookish Musings: 3 Book & Song Match-Ups (2)
Bookish Musings: 3 Book & Song Match-Ups (3)
Bookish Musings: 3 Book & Song Match-Ups (4) – The Simon Snow + FUN. Edition
Bookish Musings: 3 Book & Song Match-Ups (5)
Bookish Musings: 3 Book & Song Match-Ups (6) – In Which I Gush about The Darkness Outside Us
Bookish Musings: 3 Book & Song Match-Ups (7) – The Villain Edition
I like the message of the first book and your interpretation of the video. It is a great video and song. Love the message of the second one, too. Nice pick!
I discussed the song with a friend once, and it was interesting because she interpreted it differently, but that’s how I’ve always seen it. And ugh, just such a great video!
I hadn’t heard that Zedd and Hayley Williams but I really like it.
I haven’t heard anything by Phillip Phillips since he was on American Idol but I love his voice.
And Jordan Sparks is another that I really haven’t heard much since she was on American Idol but her voice is so pretty.
I haven’t read any of those books. But I did watch the Time Traveler’s Wife movie based on this book and it was great.
I love that song, I’m glad you liked it too!
I always forget they were even on American Idol since I didn’t watch the one with Phillip Phillips, and I can’t remember if I watched the Jordin Sparks season. But yeah she does have a nice voice!
Whereas I haven’t seen the movie lol. Glad to hear it was good though!
It’s funny how you think of the 2012 Olympics when listening to Home by Phillip Phillips, because I think of the 2022 Olympics when I listen to it, haha! I’m Canadian, and one of my favourite male figure skaters, Keegan Messing, skated to this song. It’s funny when certain songs take you to a specific moment lol!
Apparently it’s a very Olympics-y song lol. It is funny how songs can have such strong associations!
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I always love book and song pairings, I’ve not read all of these so can’t exactly say if I agree but I’m glad you got to include the song Stay the Night as I do love that song. Interesting choice for Time Traveller’s Wife. i hadn’t thought of it like that but I suppose Henry’s life does centre on Clare following their meeting.
Yay I’m glad someone else loves that song! Yeah, I feel like their lives do center on each other after they meet, and they just have such an intense relationship, so it feels like a fitting song to describe the relationship.
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I forgot that you used to be a gymnast. I’m sure that brings back some awesome memories. I love it when a song can evoke those. (And a book too!)
Yeah the lyrics are like, “I’m gonna make this place your home,” and my gym was very much a home to me, so it’s a fitting song!
Ohhhh good choices! I’m more familiar with these songs than these books, but I love the care and consideration you’ve put into your selections…and that this is a regular segment on your blog!
Thanks! They are some good songs 🙂
I never thought about matching songs to books. Cool idea!
Thanks!
I haven’t read any of these books but I do like “No Air” by Jordin Sparks and Chris Brown. It’s quite a nostalgic song for me since I don’t really hear it nowadays.
“Home” by Phillip Phillips isn’t usually my kind of song, but that song was everywhere at the time . Even in my part of Canada, where country music isn’t all that popular!
Yeah it’s been around a while, but it is a nice song.
Is it a country song? I didn’t even realize!