Now I know I get excited about a LOT of historical dramas, but one makes its debut today on Amazon Prime that I’ve been counting down to for a very long time. It is the premiere of the Daisy Jones and the Six TV show, starring Riley Keough as the titular Daisy Jones, and Sam Claflin as Billy Dunne, front man of The Six.

In early 2020, before the pandemic, and just after I handed in my PhD thesis, I went on a book-buying spree as a “well done” to myself, and picked up a book called Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid.

I’d read briefly online that it was inspired by Jenkins Reid growing up listening to bands like Fleetwood Mac, and as Stevie Nicks was one of my biggest heroes as a pre-teen (and, to be fair, still is), and I enjoy anything to do with the 1970s and music (see my post celebrating my love of George Harrison here), I treated myself to it.

Genuinely it has brought me not only into a complete love affair with Taylor Jenkins Reid’s books, but also I was just obsessed with how it was written.

If you haven’t picked up the Daisy Jones and the Six book yet, it follows the eponymous band – who began separately as It Girl Daisy Jones and rising stars The Six – and chronicles their meteoric rise to fame in the 1970s, until their abrupt break up at the very pinnacle of their success. This followed the release of their Aurora album, which has been fully written to soundtrack the TV series and has been released in conjunction today.

Jenkins Reid has written the book as an oral history, and as an historian who has read her fair share of oral histories and occasionally worked with them (when I’m working on projects not relating to the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, for obvious reasons…), the book was so immersive that when I was 5% into it on my Kindle, I was on Google, searching if Daisy Jones or The Six were a real band. (Apparently I’d forgotten what historical fiction was…)

But all this is to say, I am dying to watch the Daisy Jones and the Six TV show, and I’m looking forward to sharing my thoughts on it when I’ve watched it in its entirety. But if you haven’t read the book, I fully recommend it – it will take you to the world of 1970s music, Los Angeles, and fame – and if you have, here are my book recommendations for what to read if you love Daisy Jones and the Six.

Greatest Hits, Laura Barnett

In Greatest Hits, singing superstar Cass Wheeler, at the twilight of her career and having not released anything in a decade, has a day to choose sixteen songs from her back catalogue to create the most personal of Greatest Hits albums.

Each song unlocks a period of Cass’s life, and tells the story of her rise to fame, the costs of her career, and the pursuit of happiness. I loved this book – if you love the introspective and reflective nature of Daisy Jones and the Six, you’ll love the way Laura Barnett writes her heroine and her experience of the musical world, covering a similar time period but reaching more to the present day.

Songs in Ursa Major, Emma Brodie

If you enjoy the dynamic between Billy Dunne and Daisy Jones, this is the book for you.

On the cusp of the 1970s, Jesse Reid is the name on everyone’s lips in the musical world. On his way to the Bayleen Island Folk Festival, he crashes his motorbike, and local girl Jane Quinn and her bandmates step in to cover what would have been Jesse’s slot. Jesse supports Jane on her rise to stardom, through the recording of an iconic album, but their demons come to show and threaten their success and relationship. With her ethereal presence, Jane Quinn is the fictional, almost folk singing Stevie Nicks I adored reading about.

The Villa, Rachel Hawkins

This one is a little darker, for fans of murder mystery and suspense, but is still fantastic. Emily Sheridan and Chess Chandler have been friends since they were young: and now, with Emily in the middle of a life meltdown (writer’s block, divorce, and recovering from a mystery illness), Chess wants to help, so invites her to Orvieto for the summer to write alongside her.

Except the villa they are staying in was once the site of a brutal murder in the 1970s: when up and coming musician Pierce Sheldon lost his life. Switching between the 1970s and present day, Hawkins pays homage to the heady world of 1970s music and also Mary Shelley.

I don’t typically go for suspense books, but this was just brilliant, and had me on the edge of my seat right to the last page.

Mary Jane, Jessica Anya Blau

This is more of a coming-of-age story than one of the music industry per se: but there is a famous fictional rock star present for much of the story, so that is fabulous.

Mary Jane is a sheltered fourteen-year-old in 1970s Baltimore who gets a summer job working as a nanny for a local doctor’s daughter. Her mother thinks it is a safe and respectable job, but, actually, said local doctor is playing host to a rock star for the summer who is trying to get sober, and his movie star wife. Quickly, Mary Jane is drawn into their world, and learns more about the world than she ever thought possible.

This is written so beautifully with so much nostalgia, and I thoroughly enjoyed the exploration of Mary Jane as a teenager in the 1970s.

The Double Life of Daisy Hemmings, Joanna Nadin

If you’re interested in the point of view of the writer of famous lives, like the fictional author of Daisy Jones and the Six, in Joanna Nadin’s novel, ghost writer James Tate is chosen to write the autobiography of actress of Daisy Hemmings.

Set in two periods, Nadin flits between 2018 and 1980s Cornwall: when Daisy burst into a small community (what is it about the name Daisy?) and set it alight, mostly in the imagination of local teenager Jason who wants so much more from life than working in the pub of his abusive father.

Secrets are held on both sides of the author-subject relationship, and there are some brilliant twists and turns in this book that had me completely hooked. Like Daisy Jones, Daisy Hemmings is just as intoxicating as a heroine.

Final Revival of Opal & Nev, Dawnie Walton

Dawnie Walton’s novel is another wonderful use of the oral history format that perfectly plays to the author’s journalistic background. I would say that this novel is the closest on the list to Daisy Jones in feel, though it explores wildly different themes – the novel follows Sunny Curtis, a journalist who never met her father because he died in a race-motivated riot at a record label showcase in New York in 1971.

Her father, Jimmy Curtis, was having an affair with Opal Jewel, one half of the duo Opal and Nev who only released two albums together before acrimoniously parting ways. Sunny is collecting an oral history of the two musicians in preparation for a rumoured reunion show. This book had me hooked right until the last page, racing to finish to find out what happened – and then reading back because I was reading too quickly!

Perfect Tunes, Emily Gould

Set mostly in the early years of the millennium, Emily Gould’s book follows songwriter Laura, who moves from small town Ohio to New York in the hope of making it big with her musical talent. Full of what ifs, this book follows Laura falling in love with a troubled musician, as well as her erratic relationship with her best friend who eventually becomes a famous musician herself, ultimately asking questions about choices we make at different points in our lives that completely reshape our dreams and ambitions.

The Unsinkable Greta James, Jennifer E. Smith

I loved the unconventional nature of this plot: Greta James is an indie singing sensation, who ends up on a cruise in Alaska with her father for a week. It was a cruise that her mother Helen was supposed to be on: Helen was Greta’s biggest supporter, but she passed away before she could see Alaska with Greta’s father. Greta is recovering from a breakdown she had on stage that went viral, and is prepping to make her comeback when she ends up taking her mother’s place, and reconnecting with her father, who never seemed to understand her ambition to be a singer at all.

There is also a lovely romance in there – I read this book in one go on a wintery Sunday afternoon with many cups of tea, and it was just so enjoyable.

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Taylor Jenkins Reid

Part of the loosely-themed famous women quartet, the same quartet Daisy Jones and the Six is part of, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo follows unknown writer Monique Grant who has been requested to write the life story of Evelyn Hugo.

Evelyn, a darling of early Hollywood, is like a mash up of Elizabeth Taylor and Rita Hayworth, and she recounts the story of her seven husbands, and the real loves of her life, to Monique, unveiling the true stories behind the newspaper headlines. I read this after Daisy Jones, and I perhaps loved it even more.

If you want to check out the other two famous women in the quartet, Malibu Rising is mainly set in the 1980s with model Nina Riva throwing her infamous yearly house party, and Carrie Soto is Back follows the best female tennis player of all time, Carrie Soto, who stages a comeback in the year 1995 to try and win another Grand Slam to keep her record of most Grand Slam wins just a little bit longer.

I have loved all of these books, and recommend them to anyone who enjoyed Daisy Jones and the Six.

Six Ways to Write A Love Letter, Jackson Pearce

A little more modern, but Pearce’s novel follows session drummer Remy Young, who at the last minute is asked to fill in for an injured drummer on the world tour of pop superstar Vivi Swan. What results is an instant connection between the two, that leads to a songwriting journey which takes them across the world.

Vivi Swan is very like Taylor Swift – occasionally a little too close – but this novel is an enjoyable read that explores the price of fame, the blessing of privacy and the release that music provides.

Funny You Should Ask, Elissa Sussman

Exploring the relationship between writer and famous person, Sussman’s novel follows two timelines.

The first, then, recounts struggling twentysomething writer Chani Horowitz’s weekend following actor Gabe Parker to write a profile on him that goes completely viral and establishes Horowitz’s writing career.

The second, now, has Horowitz and Parker meet again ten years later for her to interview him again. Both of their lives have changed in dramatic ways in the interim, and Horowitz is desperate to find out if the sparks that flew between them that first weekend are still present in the second.

The Misinterpretation of Tara Jupp, Eva Rice

I love Eva Rice: I’ve written before about my love of her book The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets. Although The Misinterpretation of Tara Jupp is set in Swinging Sixties London rather than 1970s Los Angeles, it has the same themes that are found in Daisy Jones and the Six with the rise of a starlet that becomes almost more symbol than real person.

Jenkins Reid and Rice have the same talent of making a period completely immersive, and I adored this book from start to finish.