In his animated memoir Patriot (Knopf, Oct. 22), the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny writes about his early love of music—and how he enjoyed sharing it with those around him. It all began when he was about 6. The Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev had died, Alexei’s mother was crying—everyone around him was in mourning—and the cheery lad thought it a fitting occasion to install a speaker by an open window and blast out the jaunty sounds of Italian pop star Adriano Celentano’s “Boots and a Black Fur Hat.” His mother was not pleased. Navalny nevertheless continued deejaying out of windows until he was 20. “What was the point of listening to music if no one else could hear it?” he reasoned.

With winter fast approaching, it might be too cold to open a window and share your favorite music with the world. But the winter holidays are around the corner, and what’s a celebration without music? A bounty of new books just might turn you on to new sounds—or have you listening more closely to ones you’ve long loved.

For starters, it’s a good time to read about Joni Mitchell, the singer-songwriter whose career had a resurgence after she recovered from an aneurysm in 2015. Ann Powers got out of the gate first with Traveling: On the Path of Joni Mitchell (Dey Street, June 11)—“a top-notch music critic set loose on a worthy subject,” our reviewer wrote. Henry Alford follows with I Dream of Joni: A Portrait of Joni Mitchell in 53 Snapshots (Gallery Books, Jan. 21, 2025). Our reviewer called it a “heartfelt reconsideration of an iconic artist.” Further down the road is Paul Lisicky’s Song So Wild and Blue: A Life With the Music of Joni Mitchell (HarperOne, Feb. 25, 2025).

It’s also a season of divas. There is Rob Sheffield’s Heartbreak Is the National Anthem: How Taylor Swift Reinvented Pop Music (Dey Street, Nov. 12). Our critic praised it as “an affectionate homage from an ardent fan.” And there’s Rachel Feder and Tiffany Tatreau’s Taylor Swift by the Book: The Literature Behind the Lyrics, From Fairy Tales to Tortured Poets (Quirk Books, Nov. 26), described by our reviewer as “an accessible and incisive analysis of a star’s appeal.”

Let’s not forget the “Goddess of Pop”: Cher: The Memoir came out this fall (Dey Street, Nov. 19). Sorry, fans, you’ll have to wait until 2025 for the book’s second part.  

Maya Angela Smith, meantime, looks back at a late diva, Nina Simone, in Ne Me Quitte Pas (Duke Univ., Feb. 25, 2025). The book focuses on the famous song of the book’s title, examining, in our reviewer’s words, “how race and gender have factored into the performance and reception of the piece.”

More interested in classical divas? Dana Gioia sings the praises of opera in the “smart, lively” Weep, Shudder, Die: On Opera and Poetry (Paul Dry Books, Dec. 3).

Finally, for straight-up classical Christmas fare, it’s hard to top Handel’s Messiah. Charles King’s ode to the oratory piece is Every Valley: The Desperate Lives and Troubled Times That Made Handel’s Messiah (Doubleday, Oct. 29). Our critic hailed it as “a swiftly moving, constantly engaging portrait of a beloved masterpiece”—one you can blast out your window.

John McMurtrie is the nonfiction editor.