In the Book Notes series, authors create and discuss a music playlist that relates in some way to their recently published book.
Maddie Ballard’s Patchwork pieces together thoughtful meditations on life and sewing into one of the year’s most engaging memoirs.
Publishers Weekly wrote of the book:
“Charming….. This gently captivating memoir [finds] poignant resonance in the ups and downs of a single person’s life during a tumultuous historical moment. It’s a delight.”
In her own words, here is Maddie Ballard’s Book Notes music playlist for her memoir Patchwork:
Patchwork: A Sewist’s Diary is a book about change. The metamorphosis of fabric to garment, yes, but also the slower, less tangible work of changing your life: what you value and where you’re going. I wrote this book about a period of upheaval – a major breakup, two big moves, a time-honoured mid-twenties existential scramble – and through it all, I buoyed and understood myself through music. The songs below are ones I had on repeat during the living and writing of this book.
Jump Rope Gazers – The Beths
I listened to this song hundreds of times the year I wrote Patchwork, while living in Wellington. It was a beautiful year in every way: I had ample time to write, I made several close friends, I was dizzy with love for the place I lived, I swam in the sea four times a week. The song captures some of the full-heartedness of that experience. I’ll never get over “I think I love you and I / think that I loved you the whole time” sung in an unabashed Kiwi accent.
Your Best American Girl – Mitski
In a sense this song is underneath everything I have ever written. The first time I heard the chorus I felt violated with recognition.
Pressure to Party – Julia Jacklin
Of all the many break-up songs I inhaled in 2022, this was the one I kept coming back to. The line “I would run shoes off straight back to you / I know where you live, I used to live there too” got me every time. Something about the rawness of “shoes off”; I knew the feeling exactly. But it’s also a great example of the “heartbreak songs that are also upbeat” category, so you can dance around your room to it. A statement of the problem and a temporary solution, in one.
Show Me Love – Hundred Waters
Incantatory, suspended. I am always trying – this book is no exception – to write something this open-hearted.
Superfruit – Maude Latour and Girl God Gun – Gen and the Degenerates
These two songs epitomise Crystal and Kate respectively, my two beloved flatmates in the chapter “Ease”. “Superfruit” is a love song, maybe? But its popping candy instrumentation and infectious hook make it feel somehow like a song about being young and living with your friends in the city. “Girl God Gun” is about knowing your power as a young woman. A song to listen to when you feel afraid. Every single lyric is a kicker.
DNA – Kendrick Lamar
I’m always thinking about this song, about being who you are and not apologising for it. I hope some of its spirit has made its way into Patchwork.
Maddie Ballard is the author of the debut memoir Patchwork: A Sewist’s Diary (Tin House).