Jordan Harper’s debut, She Rides Shotgun, is a visceral noir that will at turns shock, delight and completely subvert readers’ expectations. Conflicted ex-con Nate McClusky is forced to go on the run for his past mistakes, but he’s determined to finally become the father that his 11-year-old daughter, Polly, longs for.

What is the color of grief? When 15-year-old Leigh thinks about the answer to this question after her mother’s suicide, she feels empty—translucent. She’s an artist, and every feeling she experiences has a corresponding color. There’s so much Leigh is struggling to understand—the depression that lead to her mother’s death, her frustrating romantic feelings for her best friend, her family’s long-buried secrets and her own Taiwanese-American identity.

Literature and music have always made a perfect pair. For those on your holiday shopping list who are equal parts bookworm and audiophile, look no further than our picks for the five biggest music books of the season.

When Liz Cooper was visiting her family home in Baltimore for Christmas last year, she made a New Year’s resolution: Be as creative as possible for the next year—whether it’s painting, drawing, making music, or any other medium. Whereas most of us would have fallen off the wagon well before Valentine’s Day, Cooper shows no signs of faltering.

Underestimate Kiya Lacey at your own peril. At just twenty-two, the boundary-pushing alternative R&B singer is already used to proving herself to her older peers in the music industry. “They don’t expect me to be this professional or know what I’m talking about,” Lacey tells me. “People have their own ideas about what’s going to help me be successful.

Daniella Mason aims to move your heart and your feet (in that order) with her new self-titled LP. “I’m not doing a bubblegum pop, sugary thing,” Daniella Mason tells me point-blank during our chat about her upcoming self-titled album. It’s a rainy evening in Marathon Village, but as soon as I walk inside the building, she instantly gives me a big hug and is ready to dive into conversation.

Nathan Williams and Katie Searle-Williams began exploring a philosophy of “slow living” with the publication of their first issue of Kinfolk magazine in 2011. The couple aimed to connect and share their ideas with other young professionals longing for a departure from the Martha Stewart school of thought, where more is more.

The nostalgia wave rippling through today’s culture may seem troublesome to some, but music has always been an art form that builds upon and pays homage to what has come before. Five new books chronicle some of the most earth-shaking, history-making artists who changed our cultural landscape. From the story behind the sweet and soulful sounds of Motown to Bruce Springsteen’s long-awaited memoir, each is worthy of a spot alongside any record collection.

Dana Spiotta explores the complexities of female friendship, the nature of seduction and the challenges of living as an artist in her dreamy and beautifully astute fourth novel, Innocents and Others. In the heady days of 1980s Los Angeles, childhood friends Meadow Mori and Carrie Wexler are both making strides as genre-defying filmmakers—of searing indie documentaries and mainstream women's comedies, respectively—while struggling to find the balance in their private lives.