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Writer's pictureFreya Lochlin

Book recs based on Taylor Swift songs!

Updated: Jun 15, 2023



A photograph of a book and a hot drink on a bed.


To celebrate the start of Taylor Swifts second all stadium tour entitles the 'Eras tour', I wanted to come on here and recommend some books based on a song from each 'Era' of Swifts musical journey.

Taylor Swift is known for her immersive storytelling and ability to transport listeners into her songs. She has made it perfectly clear over her 'fifteen' years of super-stardom that she refuses to be defined by one genre or stereotype or media constructed ideology.

SO, whether your 'seventeen and crazy, running wild, wild' or 'thirty two and still growing up now' I hope to be able to recommend you a book that you love so much, you'll have no choice but to 'begin again.'



 












DEBUT ERA

SONG: Tied together with a smile

BOOK: 'The perks of being a wallflower'

Author: Stephen Chbosky


Blurb: Charlie's not the biggest geek in high school, but he's by no means popular.

Shy, introspective, intelligent, yet socially awkward, Charlie is a wallflower, standing on the threshold of his life whilst watching everyone else live theirs. As Charlie tries to navigate his way through uncharted territory- the world of first dates and mixtapes, family dramas and new friends- he realises that he can't stay on the sidelines forever. There comes a time when you have to see what life looks like from the dance floor.


 




FEARLESS ERA

SONG: Today Was A Fairytale

BOOK: The fault in our stars

Author: John Green


Blurb (By Goodreads): Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel's story is about to be completely rewritten.


Insightful, bold, irreverent, and raw, The Fault in Our Stars is award-winning author John Green's most ambitious and heartbreaking work yet, brilliantly exploring the funny, thrilling, and tragic business of being alive and in love.


 



SPEAK NOW ERA

SONG: Long Live

BOOK: Daisy Jones And The Six

Author: Taylor Jenkins Reid


Blurb (By Goodreads): For a while, Daisy Jones & The Six were everywhere. Their albums were on every turntable, they sold out arenas from coast to coast, their sound defined an era. And then, on 12 July 1979, they split.

Nobody ever knew why. Until now.

They were lovers and friends and brothers and rivals. They couldn't believe their luck, until it ran out. This is their story of the early days and the wild nights, but everyone remembers the truth differently.

The only thing they all know for sure is that from the moment Daisy Jones walked barefoot onstage at the Whisky, their lives were irrevocably changed.

Making music is never just about the music. And sometimes it can be hard to tell where the sound stops and the feelings begin.


 



RED ERA

SONG: Message in a bottle

BOOK: The Summer I Turned Pretty

Author: Jenny Han


Blurb (By Goodreads): Belly measures her life in summers. Everything good, everything magical happens between the months of June and August. Winters are simply a time to count the weeks until the next summer, a place away from the beach house, away from Susannah, and most importantly, away from Jeremiah and Conrad. They are the boys that Belly has known since her very first summer—they have been her brother figures, her crushes, and everything in between. But one summer, one terrible and wonderful summer, the more everything changes, the more it all ends up just the way it should have been all along.


 



1989 ERA

SONG: Style

BOOK: The Great Gatsby

Author: F.Scott Fitzgerald


Blurb (By Goodreads): The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald's third book, stands as the supreme achievement of his career. This exemplary novel of the Jazz Age has been acclaimed by generations of readers. The story of the fabulously wealthy Jay Gatsby and his love for the beautiful Daisy Buchanan, of lavish parties on Long Island at a time when The New York Times noted "gin was the national drink and sex the national obsession," it is an exquisitely crafted tale of America in the 1920s.


 



REPUTATION ERA

SONG: This is why we cant have nice things

BOOK: The secret history

Author: Donna Tartt


Blurb (By Goodreads): Under the influence of their charismatic classics professor, a group of clever, eccentric misfits at an elite New England college discover a way of thinking and living that is a world away from the humdrum existence of their contemporaries. But when they go beyond the boundaries of normal morality they slip gradually from obsession to corruption and betrayal, and at last—inexorably—into evil.


 




LOVER ERA

SONG: The Man

BOOK: Moxie

Author: Jennifer Mathieu


Blurb (By Goodreads): Vivian Carter is fed up. Fed up with her high school teachers who think the football team can do no wrong. Fed up with sexist dress codes, hallway harassment and gross comments from guys during class. But most of all, Viv Carter is fed up with always following the rules.

Viv's mum was a tough-as-nails, punk rock Riot Grrrl in the '90s, and now Viv takes a page from her mother's past and creates Moxie, a feminist zine that she distributes anonymously to her classmates. She's just blowing off steam, but other girls respond and spread the Moxie message. As Viv forges friendships with other young women across the divides of cliques and popularity rankings, she realises that what she has started is nothing short of a girl revolution.

TIME TO FIGHT LIKE A GIRL

A page-turning read with a feminist message, for anyone who has ever had to deal with everyday sexism.


 





FOLKLORE ERA

SONG: Seven

BOOK: Heidi

Author: Johanna Spyri


Blurb (By Goodreads): Orphaned Heidi lives with her gruff but caring grandfather on the side of Swiss mountain, where she befriends young Peter the goat-herd. She leads an idyllic life, until she is forced to leave the mountain she has always known to go and live with a sickly girl in the city. Will Heidi ever see her grandfather again? A classic tale of a young girl's coming-of-age, of friendship, and familial love.

 



EVERMORE ERA

SONG: Tolerate it

BOOK: Rebecca

Author: Daphne du Maurier


Blurb (By Goodreads): Ancient, beautiful Manderley, between the rose garden and the sea, is the county's showpiece. Rebecca made it so - even a year after her death, Rebecca's influence still rules there. How can Maxim de Winter's shy new bride ever fill her place or escape her vital shadow?


A shadow that grows longer and darker as the brief summer fades, until, in a moment of climatic revelations, it threatens to eclipse Manderley and its inhabitants completely...



 







MIDNIGHTS ERA

SONG: The Great War

BOOK: The Hunger Games

Author: Suzanne Collins


Blurb (By Goodreads): Could you survive on your own in the wild, with every one out to make sure you don't live to see the morning?

In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV.


Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives alone with her mother and younger sister, regards it as a death sentence when she steps forward to take her sister's place in the Games. But Katniss has been close to dead before—and survival, for her, is second nature. Without really meaning to, she becomes a contender. But if she is to win, she will have to start making choices that weight survival against humanity and life against love.

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