A Mind Full of Music - by Chris Forhan (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Similar to how songs become familiar and welcoming earworms, these essays will imprint themselves on readers' minds.

A Mind Full of Music contemplates and celebrates the mysterious, powerful, dynamic relationship between ourselves and the songs we love: the way in which songs work upon our minds and in which our minds, because of the inevitable creative force of our imaginations and memories, work upon them. The book does not propose or develop a unified argument, nor does it tell, chronologically, the story of the author's life of listening. Instead, in recognition of the varied, fluid, and ultimately mysterious ways in which our minds respond to songs, it is structured associatively, with one topic inspiring thoughts of another; the book begins with a song drifting into the author's mind, and it ends with that mind still in the midst of listening, waiting for a beat that will never come.

Review Quotes

"A spectacular deep dive into the intimate workings of this mystery we call music." --Liz Prato, author of Kids in America: A Gen-X Reckoning and Volcanoes, Palm Trees and Privilege: Essays on Hawaii

"Chris Forhan can get right inside your head, because as you follow his responses to music, you'll very likely recognize yourself." --Griel Marcus, author of The History of Rock 'n' Roll in Ten Songs, contributor, Rolling Stone

"Generosity, insight, and shrewd love underlie the whole text. This is a wonderful book." --Gregory Orr, author of The Last Love Poem I Will Ever Write and The Blessing

"If a book can be a love song, Chris Forhan's A Mind Full of Music is it, and its muse is the art form itself." --Matty Gervais and Charity Rose Thielen, members of The Head and the Heart

"This book is a four-dimensional mix tape, one full of deeply personal reflection... A Mind Full of Music is full of light, itself, full of charm, full of life." --Gayle Brandeis, author of The Art of Misdiagnosis

About the Author

Chris Forhan is the author of the memoir My Father Before Me (Scribner, 2016) and three books of poetry: Black Leapt In, winner of the Barrow Street Press Poetry Prize; The Actual Moon, The Actual Stars, winner of the Morse Poetry Prize and a Washington State Book Award; and Forgive Us Our Happiness, winner of the Bakeless Prize. Forhan is a recipient of the Pushcart Prize.