21 Books to Read If You Love Daisy Jones & the Six
- 1/22
21 Books to Read If You Love Daisy Jones & the Six
Taylor Jenkins Reid's novel Daisy Jones & the Six was a smash hit when it came out in 2019. Structured as an oral history, the book tells the story of the rise and fall of a fictional band—Daisy Jones & the Six, loosely based on Fleetwood Mac. It's now a TV show on Prime Video, starring Riley Keough as Daisy and Sam Claflin as Billy Dunne. "It's a rare adaptation that honors the book in a really lovely way and yet also adds to it," author Taylor Jenkins Reid tells Town & Country. The show, she adds, "makes interesting changes that make it compelling to engage with this story a second time."
With the whole internet seemingly obsessed with Daisy Jones, here are 21 books that can satiate a newfound 70s rock 'n' roll obsession:
Hearst Owned - 2/22
The Final Revival of Opal & Nev
37 INK
amazon.com
$14.99
Dawnie Walton's novel should absolutely be first on your list. Also structured as an oral history, The Final Revival of Opal & Nev tells the story of an interracial rock duo in the 1970s and what led to their sensational break-up.
amazon.com - 3/22
Making Rumours: The Inside Story of the Classic Fleetwood Mac Album
Wiley
amazon.com
$18.46
Daisy Jones is loosely based on the real life Fleetwood Mac. And if there's any evidence by the amount of "Silver Springs (Live)" videos that have been going viral on TikTok, the fictional Daisy is generating huge interest in the real Fleetwood Mac. So, read this history of Rumors. Trust us.
amazon.com - 4/22
The Unraveling of Cassidy Holmes: A Novel
William Morrow & Company
amazon.com
$9.89
Taylor Jenkins Reid herself recommends this one, so we'll let her take it from here: "The Unraveling of Cassidy Holmes is a page-turning peek inside the glamour and brutality of life as a pop star. Sloan takes us on a wild ride through the world of music video shoots, expensive hotels, and arena tours—showing us the darkness that threatens just below the surface."
amazon.com - 5/22
High Fidelity
amazon.com
$4.99
Another music book that was adapted as a movie, for the stage, then later for television, High Fidelity is about Rob, the owner of a Chicago record store who is going through a break-up. After you read, be sure to watch High Fidelity on Hulu.
amazon.com - 6/22
The Girls: A Novel
Random House Trade Paperbacks
amazon.com
$8.41
A darker historical fiction set in the end of the 1960s, The Girls is based on the Manson Family murders and the murder of Shanon Tate. But, like Daisy Jones, this book is its own story—following Evie Boyd, an adrift California teen, as she falls into a cult.
amazon.com - 7/22
Songs in Ursa Major: A novel
amazon.com
$17.00
This love story is set in the early 1970s music scene. After a young Jane performs at her local music festival, folk legend Jesse Reid discovers her. They fall into a passionate love affair, but Jane doesn't want to just be known as Jesse's girlfriend. Emma Brodie's novel asks: "Songs in Ursa Major pulses with romantic longing and asks the question so many female artists must face: What are we willing to sacrifice for our dreams?"
amazon.com - 8/22
Eve's Hollywood (New York Review Books Classics)
New York Review of Books
amazon.com
$15.59
If you want to read about Los Angeles and Chateau Marmont in the 1970s, there's no better author than Eve Babitz—journalist, it girl, artist, muse. The New York Review of Books writes, "Eve’s Hollywood is an album of vivid snapshots of Southern California’s haute bohemians, of outrageously beautiful high-school ingenues and enviably tattooed Chicanas, of rock stars sleeping it off at the Chateau Marmont."
amazon.com - 9/22
Slow Days, Fast Company: The World, The Flesh, and L.A. (New York Review Books Classics)
New York Review of Books
amazon.com
$15.29
One more Babitz book, because we couldn't choose. As one T&C contributor once wrote, "Reading an Eve Babitz book feels like a day spent sunbathing by the pool at the Chateau Marmont." Just like Daisy Jones.
amazon.com - 10/22
Malibu Rising: A Novel
amazon.com
$10.00
If you love Daisy Jones & the Six, you'll definitely want to read Reid's other novels, including Malibu Rising. The book follows Nina Riva, a surfer and supermodel, at her annual end-of-summer party.
amazon.com - 11/22
Love Saves the Day: A History of American Dance Music Culture, 1970-1979
Duke University Press Books
amazon.com
$29.95
If you read (or watched) Daisy Jones and thought, "I wish there was more Simone," do we have the book for you. Love Saves the Day is a definitive history of dance music in the '70s.
amazon.com - 12/22
White Album (FSG Classics)
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
amazon.com
$12.59
Another chronicler of L.A. in the '60s and '70s was the legendary Joan Didion. The White Album, one of her seminal works, is a collection of essays about California's politics on this time period.
amazon.com - 13/22
Velvet Was the Night
amazon.com
$13.99
Also set in the 1970s, Silvia Moreno-Garcia's mystery novel follows Maite, a secretary whose neighbor, Leonora, disappears under suspicious circumstances. Elvis, a reluctant thug who loves rock 'n' roll, is hired to find Leonora, but ends up tracking Maite instead. NPR calls it "a noir with a heart of gold."
amazon.com - 14/22
Mary Jane: A Novel
amazon.com
$15.29
Advertised as Almost Famous meets Daisy Jones & the Six, Mary Jane follows 14-year-old Mary Jane who nannies for a rock star and his wife.
amazon.com - 15/22
I'm with the Band: Confessions of a Groupie
Chicago Review Press
amazon.com
$14.95
After Pamela Des Barres graduated high school, she went directly to the Sunset Strip in L.A., becoming one of the most famous groupies of the 1960s and '70s. "I'm honored to have spent time with some of the finest and brightest that rock 'n' roll had to offer," she writes in a prelude. "I'd do it all again in a heartbeat."
amazon.com - 16/22
Groupies: A Novel
amazon.com
$22.49
If you want a more fictional groupie story, look no further than Sarah Priscus's Groupies, about, well, groupies. Following Faun, a college dropout, she gets sucked into the drug-fueled world of rock bands.
amazon.com - 17/22
Laurel Canyon: The Inside Story of Rock-and-Roll's Legendary Neighborhood
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
amazon.com
$17.99
Laurel Canyon, a neighborhood in L.A., was home to many musicians in the 60s and 70s—including the fictional Six band. Michael Walker's history tells the story of the musicians who lived and worked there, including Joni Mitchell, Carole King, the Mamas and the Papas, and Crosby, Stills, and Nash.
amazon.com - 18/22
Just Kids
Ecco Press
amazon.com
$11.20
Across the country from Los Angeles, singer-songwriter Patti Smith set up camp at Hotel Chelsea with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. Smith's memoir documents her relationship with Robert, something she promised to him that she'd write.
amazon.com - 19/22
Utopia Avenue: A Novel
amazon.com
$15.99
Fictional band Utopia Avenue emerges from London's psychedelic scene in the late 60s. David Mitchell's novel follows them from London to Laurel Canyon as their star rises in unpredictable ways.
amazon.com - 20/22
I'll Never Write My Memoirs
Gallery Books
amazon.com
$15.89
Another can't miss memoir of a '70s music icon is Grace Jones's book, a superstar who emerged out of the disco scene in New York City—where Simone gets her start in the Daisy Jones TV show.
amazon.com - 21/22
Live From New York: The Complete, Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live as Told by Its Stars, Writers, and Guests
Back Bay Books
amazon.com
$13.99
If the oral history format of Daisy Jones & The Six is what drew you in, definitely check out Live from New York, an oral history of Saturday Night Live told by its stars, writers, and hosts.
amazon.com - 22/22
The Farewell Tour: A Novel
amazon.com
$24.89
Musician Lillian Waters goes on tour for one last time in 1980, jaded from her years in the music business. The novel chronicles her career in country music over 40 years, and the story is deeply rooted in the history of the genre.
amazon.com
