Track by Track: 5 Books to Read while Listening to Selena’s Dreaming of You Album

Sabrina Sánchez
June 11 2020
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In Get Literary’s blog series Track by Track, we deep dive into buzzworthy music albums and pair them with our favorite books with the same vibe. For an enhanced reading experience, we recommend playing the whole album while reading each of these five books.

I’m pretty sure every little Latina girl like me grew up learning about the Tejano music legend that was Selena Quintanilla. With her raspy voice and bilingual blend of Tejano and pop music, Selena reached a fever pitch in her career—including winning a Grammy—shortly before her tragic death in 1995. Her last studio album, Dreaming of You, was the perfect illustration of Selena’s versatility, and when I listen to her, I feel empowered and beautiful.

Since her passing, dozens of commemorations to the Mexican American star have been made, including the famous biographical film that gave Jennifer Lopez her acting debut. Now, a new series in Selena’s honor is set to release on Netflix in late 2020.

As we approach the 25th anniversary of her last studio album’s release on July 18, here are some reads, as matchups, that you might enjoy while listening to each track.

This post was originally published on GetLiterary.com.

The Unhoneymooners
by Christina Lauren

Track 1: “I Could Fall in Love”

Track 3: “I’m Getting Used to You”

Dreaming of You opens with one of Selena’s greatest English-language hits, “I Could Fall in Love,” about falling for someone even as you try not to, and the fear of how admitting your love might change the relationship. The mellow R&B rhythms and Selena’s sweet voice will hit straight at the heart of what it means to have secret crushes. The perfect follow up appears in Track no. 3, with “I’m Getting Used to You,” an upbeat twist of 90s pop and cumbia drums that describes what it feels like to have someone be part of your life, and how difficult it then becomes to imagine life without them.

In The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren, Olive Torres similarly finds herself in an uncertain romantic situation when she attends her sister’s wedding. She has had a streak of bad luck for as long as she can remember. Things don’t seem to change when Olive finds herself forced to spend her sister’s wedding day with her nemesis and best man, Ethan Thomas. In an unforeseen change of events, however, Olive and Ethan suddenly have to pretend to be loving newlyweds when the entire wedding party gets food poisoning—and a free honeymoon in Maui becomes available. While in Hawaii, Olive wonders if maybe Ethan isn’t so bad, and maybe she doesn’t mind being “newlyweds” either. In this romantic comedy, Olive comes to realize that she might be lucky after all.

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The Unhoneymooners
Christina Lauren

THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER!

Starred reviews from Kirkus Reviews * Publishers Weekly * Library Journal

Named a “Must-Read” by TODAY, Us Weekly, Bustle, BuzzFeed, Goodreads, Entertainment Weekly, Publishers Weekly, Southern Living, Book Riot, Woman’s Day, The Toronto Star, and more!

For two sworn enemies, anything can happen during the Hawaiian trip of a lifetime—maybe even love—in this romantic comedy from the New York Times bestselling authors of Roomies.

Olive Torres is used to being the unlucky twin: from inexplicable mishaps to a recent layoff, her life seems to be almost comically jinxed. By contrast, her sister Ami is an eternal champion . . . she even managed to finance her entire wedding by winning a slew of contests. Unfortunately for Olive, the only thing worse than constant bad luck is having to spend the wedding day with the best man (and her nemesis), Ethan Thomas.

Olive braces herself for wedding hell, determined to put on a brave face, but when the entire wedding party gets food poisoning, the only people who aren’t affected are Olive and Ethan. Suddenly there’s a free honeymoon up for grabs, and Olive will be damned if Ethan gets to enjoy paradise solo.

Agreeing to a temporary truce, the pair head for Maui. After all, ten days of bliss is worth having to assume the role of loving newlyweds, right? But the weird thing is . . . Olive doesn’t mind playing pretend. In fact, the more she pretends to be the luckiest woman alive, the more it feels like she might be.

With Christina Lauren’s “uniquely hilarious and touching voice” (Entertainment Weekly), The Unhoneymooners is a romance for anyone who has ever felt unlucky in love.

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The Great Gatsby
by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Track 5: “Dreaming of You”

The song for which Selena’s album is named is a beautiful ballad that makes your heart ache while dreaming of someone you love and hoping they dream of you too. Safe to say that most of us at one point or another have likely hoped that our crush thinks of us the way we think of them.

Jay Gatsby dreams about and longs for Daisy Buchanan in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. In this classic story, now released for the first time as a graphic novel, Gatsby is as an optimist—a man of mysterious wealth, status, and beautiful parties who only hopes for one thing: to win the heart and hand of Daisy Buchanan. There’s only one problem: since the last encounter between Jay and Daisy, Daisy has married Tom Buchanan, the figurehead of the Jazz Age’s old money. Whether love or money will prevail, Gatsby has unwavering hope.

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The Great Gatsby
F. Scott Fitzgerald

A gorgeously illustrated, first-ever graphic novel adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s beloved American classic.

First published in 1925, The Great Gatsby has been acclaimed by generations of readers and is now reimagined in stunning graphic novel form. Jay Gatsby, Nick Carraway, Daisy Buchanan, and the rest of the cast are captured in vivid and evocative illustrations by artist Aya Morton. The iconic text has been artfully distilled by Fred Fordham, who also adapted the graphic novel edition of To Kill a Mockingbird. Blake Hazard, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s great-granddaughter, contributes a personal introduction.

This quintessential Jazz Age tale stands as the supreme achievement of Fitzgerald’s career and is a true classic of 20th-century literature. The story of the mysteriously wealthy Gatsby and his love for the beautiful Daisy is exquisitely captured in this enchanting and unique edition.

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Dominicana
by Angie Cruz

Track 7: “Amor Prohibido”

Have you ever loved someone everyone told you that you shouldn’t? Selena passionately sings about just such forbidden love in this synthesized cumbia song, which touches upon the theme that money and status don’t have a place in matters of the heart.

Ana Canción faces similar turmoil in Angie Cruz’s Dominicana, a story about a 15-year-old Dominican girl who must marry a man twice her age when he promises to help her immigrate to New York for a better opportunity. There is no love between Ana and Juan Ruiz, but she agrees to the marriage at her parents’ insistence—and moves with him to a run-down six-floor walk-up in Washington Heights with the hope of one day helping her family immigrate as well. However, when Ana realizes she is miserable, and devises a plan to escape, she is caught by César, Juan’s younger brother, who convinces her to stay.

As political turmoil begins to rise in the Dominican Republic of the 1960s, Juan returns to protect his family's assets, leaving César to take care of Ana. With César, Ana is now free to explore the possibilities of New York, to have fun, and seize opportunities for personal growth. She begins to fall for him and imagine the possibility of a different life for herself in America. But when Juan returns, Ana must decide once again between her heart and her duty to her family.

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Dominicana
Angie Cruz

I love this coming-of-age novel so much! Fifteen-year-old Ana Canción never wanted to move to America, let alone marry a man she does not love. But when Juan Ruiz proposes to her, she has no choice but to say yes for the sake of her family—she may one day be able to help her family in the Dominican Republic safely immigrate to the States. It doesn’t matter that she has no positive feelings for her would-be husband, or that he is twice her age; their marriage is too much of an opportunity for Ana to decline. Forced to leave behind her life in the Dominican Republic, Ana struggles to feel at home in 1960s America and in her new Washington Heights apartment in New York City, but when Juan’s younger brother shows her all the opportunities available to her, her world and heart expand—along with more problems.

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MENTIONED IN:

Track by Track: 5 Books to Read while Listening to Selena’s Dreaming of You Album

By Sabrina Sánchez | June 11, 2020

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By Estefania Acquaviva | February 25, 2020

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Dear Emmie Blue
by Lia Louis

Track 11: “Como La Flor”

When I was a little girl in the 90s, I used to sing this song at the top of my lungs until my heart ached. I still do. That’s because Selena really tugged at the world’s heartstrings with “Como La Flor,” a song about how all the love someone once gave you withered and died like a flower, and how much that hurt. At the time, I knew not the first thing about heartbreak, but I understood the feeling all the same. And when you see that the person you love is growing distant and pushing you away, it’ll make you sing your heart out too.

In Dear Emmie Blue by Lia Louis, Emmie Blue decides to conduct an experiment. At 16 years old, she releases a red balloon into the sky with her name, email address, and secret inside it. Several weeks later, Lucas Moreau, a boy standing on a beach in France, catches it and responds, sparking a friendship between the two. Fourteen years later Emmie is secretly in love with Lucas, and she’s desperate for the moment he admits he feels the same about her.

Banking on Lucas’s love, Emmie has neglected her other relationships and personal life goals. When Lucas tells Emmie he has a big question to ask her, she believes he’ll reveal his feelings for her. But when things don’t go as planned, Emmie questions what she thinks she knows about love and life. Much like in Selena’s song, Emmie must pick up the pieces of her heart.

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Dear Emmie Blue
Lia Louis

“A delightful story about how the things we imagine to be best for us usually aren’t. The reason you will love Dear Emmie Blue is because you’ve probably *lived* Dear Emmie Blue, in some small part of your own journey to adulthood.” Jodi Picoult, #1 New York Times bestselling author

In this charming and poignant novel, teenager Emmie Blue releases a balloon with her email address and a big secret into the sky, only to fall head-over-heels for the boy who finds it; now, fourteen years later, the one thing Emmie has been counting on is gone for good, and everything she planned is up in the air.

At sixteen, Emmie Blue stood in the fields of her school and released a red balloon into the sky. Attached was her name, her email address…and a secret she desperately wanted to be free of. Weeks later, on a beach in France, Lucas Moreau discovered the balloon and immediately emailed the attached addressed, sparking an intense friendship between the two teens.

Now, fourteen years later, Emmie is hiding the fact that she’s desperately in love with Lucas. She has pinned all her hopes on him and waits patiently for him to finally admit that she’s the one for him. So dedicated to her love for Lucas, Emmie has all but neglected her life outside of this relationship—she’s given up the search for her absentee father, no longer tries to build bridges with her distant mother, and lives as a lodger to an old lady she barely knows after being laid off from her job. And when Lucas tells Emmie he has a big question to ask her, she’s convinced this is the moment he’ll reveal his feelings for her. But nothing in life ever quite goes as planned, does it?

Emmie Blue is about to learn everything she thinks she knows about life (and love) is just that: what she thinks she knows. Is there such thing as meant to be? Or is it true when they say that life is what happens when you are busy making other plans? A story filled with heart and humor, Dear Emmie Blue is perfect for fans of Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine and Evvie Drake Starts Over.

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Don’t You Forget About Me
by Mhairi McFarlane

Track 13: “Bidi Bidi Bom Bom”

Do you know that feeling of walking by your crush or your first love? Your stomach flutters and you feel like you’re walking on air. Selena’s hit song “Bidi Bidi Bom Bom,” an echo of the sound your heart makes when that person walks by, is a combination of Tejano music and reggae. It’s a perfect reflection of how I felt when I had my first crush, and the few times they talked to me I thought my heart would come out of my chest.

In Don’t You Forget About Me by Mhari McFarlane, Georgina re-encounters a love from a distant past after being fired from her job and coming home early to find her boyfriend in bed with someone else. When Georgina takes the next job that comes her way—as a bartender in a newly opened pub, she runs into the guy she fell in love with years ago in high school. But he doesn’t remember her. At all.

Lucas McCarthy is now a handsome man with a thriving business and a dog. When Georgina re-encounters him, it brings a secret from her past to the surface. Can she have another chance with the one who got away?

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Don’t You Forget About Me
Mhairi McFarlane

Track 13: “Bidi Bidi Bom Bom” Do you know that feeling of walking by your crush or your first love? Your stomach flutters and you feel like you’re walking on air. Selena’s hit song “Bidi Bidi Bom Bom,” an echo of the sound your heart makes when that person walks by, is a combination of Tejano music and reggae. It’s a perfect reflection of how I felt when I had my first crush, and the few times they talked to me I thought my heart would come out of my chest. In Don’t You Forget About Me by Mhari McFarlane, Georgina re-encounters a love from a distant past after being fired from her job and coming home early to find her boyfriend in bed with someone else. When Georgina takes the next job that comes her way—as a bartender in a newly opened pub, she runs into the guy she fell in love with years ago in high school. But he doesn’t remember her. At all. Lucas McCarthy is now a handsome man with a thriving business and a dog. When Georgina re-encounters him, it brings a secret from her past to the surface. Can she have another chance with the one who got away?

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