Lost in the Summer of ’69 by Eliza Knight

Well, that was a nostalgic blast from the past! This chronicles a grandmother, her daughter, and granddaughter reconnecting through a cross-the-U.S. road trip to music festivals (including Woodstock) set in 1969, and even though there were times when the travel details seemed quite unrealistic, it is still the feel-good story of the summer. The author incorporated much of the music culture of the time, which brought back tons of memories, including when I was introduced to the music of Led Zeppelin, Creedence Clearwater Revival, and others who burst onto the scene during that time.

Readers of Daisy Jones and the Six will enjoy this along with other books set in the late 1960s, including Elin Hilderbrand’s Summer of ’69 and Jane Green’s Sister Stardust.

My Own Summer of ’69 Experience

I was 16 years old and had what I still think of as the best summer of my youth (the other fab summer happened a year later, when I had a brief romance with a drummer in Minnesota, but that’s a story for another time). Before I had to toil in the beanfields in order to make money for school clothes, I had time to spend at the local lake with my friends and maybe read a few books. Then I met a cute red-headed boy who was travelling with friends in a yellow VW bus from California and introduced me to the wonders of Led Zeppelin music (among—ahem—other things), and I had the time of my life. Even though it’s been 57 years, hearing the guitar introduction of Babe I’m Gonna Leave You takes me right back to those days on the lake shore with the VW bus’s door opening, blasting the Led Zeppelin 8-track tape.