Maybe one of the best – and one of the first – works of fiction to deal with a jazz musician – a really wonderful piece of work from writer Dorothy Baker, served up in a way that's part pulp, part noir, part JD fiction – but served up at a level that also echoes the more important fiction of the thirties generation from which it emerged! The story's loosely based on the music of Bix Beiderbecke – but more in terms of vague inspiration, as Baker's scope here is wider, and the story covers more than you might expect – a great piece of prose that's far better than the movie that followed. Softcover edition is 185 pages. Book

Think you dig The Clash? Well, you've got nothing on Koji Takahashi – a Japanese collector who seems to have dedicated his life to the band! This unusual book documents Takahashi's huge collection of Clash records, and Clash-related material – not just vinyl, but posters, shirts, magazines, buttons, flyers, and plenty more – all served up here in a book that documents what must have been a lifetime of collecting! The book is from Japan, and main text is in Japanese – which you can either read with a translator app on your phone, or just skip overall – because there's hundreds of images in the book, of rare objects sure to please any fan of The Clash. Softcover edition is 191 pages, with images in color and black and white – filled with surprises throughout! Book

A great look at a really unique moment in fashion – a time when the mainstream trappings of ivy league styles were taken up by African-American cultural figures – a moment of cooption that led was key to a rising sense of pride and power in the postwar years! You'll instantly recognize the look from the image of Miles Davis on the cover – and Davis is one of the figures who gets focus in the book – alongside other jazz musicians like Billy Taylor and Sonny Rollins, writers like Amiri Baraka and James Baldwin, and civil rights icons like Martin Luther King and Malcolm X – all of whom wore button down shirts, well-crafted blazers, and hip skinny ties as they helped forge a whole new identity for black America in the 50s and 60s. The book is beautifully done – and ties together so many images we know from the press and record covers, mixed with others we're seeing here for the first time – all give thoughtful text along the way by British writer Jason Jules. The heavy, hardcover book is 224 pages in all – with color and black and white images throughout. Book

A really strange side of an equally strange author – the legendary Haruku Murakami, the Japanese writer whose work has helped redefine the world of fiction in the past few decades! Murakami's known for being an enthusiast whose love for certain things shows up in his work – most notably jazz and other styles of music – but here, he gives the world a look at his love of specific t-shirts in his closet – presented with full color images, and some great Murakami prose alongside the photographs. Given the extensive writing in the book, the volume is maybe a bit like some of Haruki's other non-fiction books and essays – although this one is maybe a bit more personal and down to earth, as it also touches on his every day life and choices. The book is hardcover, 178 pages, with full color images throughout. Book