Finding flora and fauna books beginning with ‘U’ was difficult until someone suggested ursa for bear – which led me to suggest this one, which has been languishing on my shelves, and it came out of the hat.
This debut novel was published in 2022, and unashamedly goes for a similar look to the huge 2019 bestseller that was Daisy Jones & the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid (my review here). The taglines go ‘if you enjoyed Daisy…’
Jane Quinn is an aspiring singer-songwriter, fronting folk-psych-rock band The Breakers – very much a local band to Bayleen, an island off Massachusetts (masquerading as Martha’s Vineyard where Brodie lives), and playing for the first time in the annual music festival – which this year – it’s 1969 – has managed to book folk-rock superstar Jesse Reid to headline. The crowd are screaming for Jesse, but Jane is up to the challenge – taking one of his songs and making it her own, with the band improvising behind her. Jesse, watching from the wings, is smitten!
This is how the will-they?- won’t-they? romance between Jane and Jesse begins, the on-off relationship that’ll run through the entire novel, as The Breakers get a record contract, go on tour as support for Jesse, break-up, Jane goes solo, and all the band dynamics that you’d care to think of happen. There is sex and drugs and rock’n’roll aplenty, and of course there is that added ‘A Star is Born‘ type trajectory as Jane’s career takes of and Jesse’s is in danger of stalling.
There is also Jane’s battle to be taken seriously as a young woman in the record industry at this period in time. A misogynistic producer at her label just refuses to recognise her artistic integrity, and when she stands up to him, she puts her own and the band’s career in jeopardy. When they do their album their way and it’s a success without the producer, they make a powerful enemy. There is also the mystery of Jane’s mother’s song – which she always claimed was stolen from her by an unscrupulous record producer.
Whereas Daisy Jones rewrote the band dynamics in The Eagles and Fleetwood Mac, Brodie’s novel was inspired by the short relationship between Joni Mitchell and James Taylor. There are some definite references – Taylor played on several songs on Mitchell’s album ‘Blue’ after they broke up in 1970, as Jesse does for Jane. Whereas Mitchell and Taylor remained close friends, it’s more difficult for Jesse and Jane…
I must admit, that I quite enjoyed reading Songs in Ursa Major. Being a straight-forward story told from Jane’s PoV, stylistically it’s not a patch on Daisy Jones, which has an innovative structure to it, (told in documentary interviews with everyone but Daisy herself). The parts involving Jane v the record industry were well done, and the natural high that you get from going on stage was engaging too, but all the stuff on the island which took ages at the beginning was a bit cheesy, making it more commercial than upmarket. I don’t mean that to sound snobby, but it sits very well with that audience, which is where most of the group put it too.
Source: Own copy. Harper Collins paperback, 400 pages. BUY at Blackwell’s via my affiliate link (free UK+ P&P)
Book Group Review of the Year
We’ve had a mixed year of reading in our book group. Apart from our Christmas read, we have been steadily plowing through our Flora & Fauna alphabet – just a few left and we can move onto something else – or even have a break from themes for a bit! At our Christmas curry earlier in the week, as always, we voted for our favourite book of the year, here is a reminder of what we’ve read/discussed in 2025. (See the full list of my 21 years (!) with the group here).
2025
J: Christmas read: The Colossus of Maroussi by Henry Miller – Comments
F: Flora & Fauna – ‘K’ – Murder at Kingfisher Hill (Poirot) by Sophie Hannah Review
M: Flora & Fauna – ‘L’ – The Leopard by Lampedusa – didn’t have time to read.
A: Flora & Fauna – ‘M’ – Bad Monkey by Carl Hiaasen – Review
M: Flora & Fauna – ‘N’ – Mythos by Stephen Fry (for Narcissus) – Review ***
J: Flora & Fauna – ‘O’ – Oleander Jacaranda by Penelope Lively – Review ***
J: Flora & Fauna – ‘P’ – The Peacock and the Sparrow by I S Berry – Review
A: Flora & Fauna – ‘Q’ – some awful YA-SF Quagga book – didn’t read
S: Flora & Fauna – ‘R’ – Rabbits by Hugo Rifkind – Review ***
O: Flora & Fauna – ‘S’ – Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann Review
N: Flora & Fauna – ‘T’ – The Tiger in the Smoke by Margery Allingham – Review
D: Flora & Fauna – ‘U’ – Songs in Ursa Major by Emma Brodie
The winner was Mythos by Stephen Fry, followed by Rabbits by Hugo Rifkind, both of which generated great conversations. The losers – the Henry Miller and the Q book – nuff said
Here’s to another year of interesting reading with our book group!
That cover’s such a dead ringer I can’t help wondering how many readers in a rush bought this one thinking they were getting a book by Taylor Jenkins Reid.
Or at least a ‘Jenkins Reid alike’ – I wasn’t fooled, but took the chance it’d be a fun read, which is mostly was. Songs… is much more conventional and commercial than Daisy Jones.
Are you absolutely kidding me with that cover. How cheeky are those publishers!! It does sound like this was marketed and sold entirely on its appeal to Jenkins Reid fans, although it’s good to hear that it was enjoyable to read. I wonder whether Brodie felt disrespected (I think I would, a little) or just figured it might help her novel succeed in a crowded marketplace (also an entirely legit response).
Publishers can be shameless, can’t they! This book was unashamedly commercial, and the romance part was cheesy, but I love books set in those heady decades of the music business, so wasn’t surprised I enjoyed it for the most part, and I daresay the marketing will have pulled in more readers?
I’m sure it worked – just wonder if the author was on board. I do hope so.
The US covers of both books were different – and the US Daisy was sepia rather than rainbow. This appears to be a UK marketing ploy!