I’ll admit that my summer reading runs more to marine biology, medical narratives, and Victorian fiction. Since I write about music books in this column and for Publishers Weekly, I like to take a little break in the summer and be transported to the depths of the oceans or the shallows of tidal pools, or to explore the questions related to macrophages and public health. Over the summer, I’ll be keeping up with the latest good music books here in the column, so I am also looking foward to a new book on Jeff Beck—Blow by Blow: The Jeff Beck Story (Da Capo), out in July—to the recent biography of Gary Stewart by Jimmy McDonough, Gary Stewart: I Am the Honky Tonks (Wolf + Salmon), and to the new biography of Mahalia Jackson, Mahalia Jackson: Moving on Up a Little Higher (Liveright), by Timothy B. Tyson and Mary D. Williams.
In the meantime, if you’re looking for a great music book—or more than one—to read this summer, here are from the first half of 2026 to pick up and read, or to re-visiting.
Jonathan Bernstein, What to Do When You’re Lonesome: The Authorized Biography of Justin Townes Earle (Da Capo)
Drawing on over 250 interviews with Earle’s friends, family, associates, musical contemporaries and others, as well as on Earle’s journals, unreleased recordings, unpublished song lyrics, letters, notes, and other materials, Bernstein brings readers into Justin Towne Earle’s world, and they feel as if they are reading about a friend they know and care about intimately. Bernstein’s biography serves as warm and detailed introduction to Justin Townes Earle.
