The Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin, who died last week at 76, was larger than life. In his appraisal, Times critic Wesley Morris wrote: “We’re never going to have an artist with a career as long, absurdly bountiful, nourishing and constantly surprising as hers.” Here are three books about the musical giant and the genre she made her own.

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RESPECT

The Life of Aretha Franklin

By David Ritz

520 pp. Little, Brown & Company. (2014)

Ritz worked with Franklin on her 1999 autobiography, “Aretha: From These Roots” but was disappointed with its “enormous gaps and oversights,” he said, so he took a stab at a more nuanced view of the singer. Ritz relies on interviews with her cousin, niece and sister-in-law, as well as knowledge he’s gained from years of ghostwriting books about other major musicians; there are quotes from Ray Charles, Billy Preston and Luther Vandross. “The Aretha Franklin who emerges from ‘Respect’ is not someone you want to spend time with,” wrote our reviewer. The singer was competitive and hostile to other singers, including her sisters, who sang background for her. In one instance, she insisted that Mavis Staples’s voice on a gospel duet be turned down so low that it was barely audible next to hers. But “does it matter?” asks our reviewer. “Stellar human qualities and even mental health are not requirements for producing great art, and Aretha Franklin was a great artist.”

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KILL ’EM AND LEAVE

Searching for James Brown and the American Soul

By James McBride

232 pp. Spiegel & Grau. (2016)