While I am continuing to enjoy reading memoirs written by women in rock ‘n roll, I’ve also found myself expanding my subject matter to other areas of interest in the memoir field. As we hit the Top 10, I’ve chosen a pair of memoirs, one in the women in rock vein, the other focusing on a subject whose got several connections to my interest: comics, birds, and the fact that he’s gay.
#11 – Better Living Through Birding: Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World by Christian Cooper (2023)
With my recent renewed interest in birding, combined with my somewhat less recent interest in memoirs, Christian Cooper’s autobiography as a gay, black man who is both an avid birder, but also spent a stint working at Marvel Comics, seemed a perfect fit for me. And I did enjoy it. Cooper does a good job weaving the story of his upbringing by activist parents, the challenges of being a gay man as well as a black man, a behind-the-scenes look at the Marvel bullpen, and the not-so flattering look at racial strife in America (something he is also extremely well-known for personally) into an entertaining and compelling read. Oh yeah, he travels the world a bit too – so his experiences birding and searching for himself in Brazil, the Himalayas, and the Galapagos are chronicled as well.
However, as I continue to read more and more memoirs, unless they are exceptional, most come across as fairly self-involved and somewhat annoying at times. I suppose that seems like a silly thing to say, as they are autobiographies, and they are inherently people talking about themselves, but the best memoirs don’t come across that way, and while I enjoy this book, I did find it occasionally a bit too self-involved to make it great.
#10 – Book of Life by Deborah Conway (2023)
I’m a big fan of Deborah Conway’s music, for which I thank my Australian pen pal and the Internet, otherwise I would have heard very little of it, being largely unreleased in the U.S. Deborah got started in the 80’s in an Australian band called Do Re Mi, that achieved success after the release of their first single Man Overboard. I believe I first became aware of them at 1985’s Oz for Africa concert that was broadcast across the world. Deborah’s voice certainly stood our, and as her memoir reveals, she knows how to use her voice and her words in more ways than singing.
An outspoken person who followed up her career with Do Re Mi as a solo artist. Her solo career started strong, but hit some stumbles after her first couple of albums, and she and her husband, guitarist/song-writer Willy Zygier eventually went independent, releasing their albums on their own. Deborah also dabbled in acting, appearing on stage as Patsy Cline, and in Peter Greenaway’s film, PROSPERO’S BOOKS.
Because of how much I enjoy Deborah’s music, I was hoping to enjoy her memoir just as much. Sadly, this was not the case. While it kept my attention, and Deborah is certainly an interesting subject, it didn’t reach the heights of challenging moments that her music did. Still, It was entertaining, and I did learn about her very full life. And I realized that I didn’t own her most recent two albums, which i promptly remedied by purchasing them.
Still riding high on my women in rock memoirs, the talented Tracy Thorn came in at #3 with Naked at the Albert Hall. Ms. Thorn also topped my list of books read in 2023 with her outstanding work, My Rock ‘N Roll Friend. This is certainly quite a feat for any author, especially one who is mainly known for being the lead singer and songwriter of the band Everything But The Girl, who, incidentally, released their first album in 23 years last spring.
Ann-Helén Laestadius is a lauded author from Sweden, of Sámi and Tornedalian descent: two of Sweden’s national minorities, and in tackling this multi-faceted novel, she barely misses a step while addressing the bigotry, cruelty, and casual indifference that plagues a community. Sadly, the novel is based on hundreds of police reports the author reviewed. The story revolves around Elsa and her family, of Sámi descent, and reindeer herders by profession. When Elsa is just a young girl, skiing to their reindeer corrall on her own for the first time, she stumbles across on of her own reindeer calves, slaughtered by a man from a neighboring village. Caught in the act, the man threatens Elsa for her silence. Despite reporting the murder of their property, Swedish law only considers this kind of slaughter as theft and do very little to investigate. This dark scene kicks off a decade long struggle that Elsa, her family, and her fellow Sámi villagers face time and time again as their livelihood is destroyed, and their reindeer are tortured and butchered unlawfully. 
I don’t think there’s a better memoir writer than Everything but the Girl’s Tracey Thorn. Ironically, the second of her three books (and the third that I read) focuses on the skill that she is better known for, and that’s singing. In Naked at the Albert Hall: The Inside Story of Singing, Thorn focuses on the the physical requirement of singing, the relationship between the singer and the listener, and the tools that a professional singer might use to enhance or alter their singing ability. Along the way she includes stories about her life as both lead vocalist for Everything but the Girl, and the struggle she has had since 2000 when she sang her last public concert. Included in the book are brief interviews with other singers, such as Linda Thompson, Kristen Hersh (author of my #4 book, Rat Girl) and the marvelous Alison Moyet, asking the to provide their points of view of how singing impacts their lives. She talks about many of the singers she admires and her relationship with them as a listener.