Excited by Jenny Hval's new novel, we sought out other books by notable female musicians. Filtering out all the ghost-written memoirs, we've put together this small collection that requires no special interest in music, they're all great reading.

There was some discussion about how to describe this section. All the books are by women, should we say that in the heading? If it was all men would we say so? But we wouldn't do a list of books just by men musicians. And some people might be specifically looking for books by women musicians so it might be helpful to flag that up. What do you think?

If you want to support musicians in the way that you're supporting bookshops through this site, avoid streaming services and get your music from Bandcamp, or visit a local record shop such as Monorail here in Glasgow

Here's a link to the fantastic She Shreds, a resource dedicated to women guitarists and bassists.