Memoir Armoire

I love the Queen. No, not that Queen. Queen Latifah. She’s so talented and self-confident, and she flies the self-esteem flag for all women in Hollywood (and elsewhere) who aren’t the stereotypical deal (which must be harder to do in Hollywood than elsewhere, let’s face it). So she seems like the perfect choice to write Put on your Crown, a guide to self-esteem for young women using examples from her own life. I’d still prefer to worship at her feet while she dispenses her wisdom, but I guess this is the next best thing.

When Kristin Hersh was 18 years old, her indie rock band Throwing Muses recorded its first album, she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, and she became a mother for the first time. In Hersh’s new memoir, Rat Girl, based on her diary, she chronicles an extraordinary year.

OK. Marisa Meltzer’s review for Slate had sold me by the end of the second sentence. Consider yourself on my wishlist, Ms Hersh. There’s nothing wrong with a more standard music memoir, of course, but this one sounds like something really different — and really special.

I could hate Jancee Dunn for being lucky enough to shoot the breeze with Dolly Parton (not to mention many other legends of music) but I can’t, because I loved her diary of a music journalist so damn much (and because she seems like such a nice person) Just gossipy enough and really entertaining, her memoir provides an insight into what it’s like writing for Rolling Stone, as well as a personal look at Jancee’s life. Curtis Sittenfeld has called it “smart, poignant and incredibly funny”, and I think that about covers it. Read it or be sad.

Pick up a copy of your own here (and lament that awful new cover…).

“My life was supposed to be simple and non-negotiable: birth, church, work, marriage, kids, death. But along the way something happened. Coal into Diamonds is my story — growing up feeling like you are on the margins of society and struggling to find your place. My memoir talks directly to disenfranchised, misunderstood kids everywhere.”

Via.

OK, Beth Ditto. I’m interested. (Out in the UK on September 2nd.)

“By turns, surprising, joyful, poignant and usually laugh-out-loud funny, Rockers and Rollers is the story of man with an insatiable appetite for life and insider’s account of life on the road with AC/DC, the biggest selling band in history.”

Via Penguin Books’ press release.

I post this mostly for my mum, as I recently discovered she’s a secret metalhead. (Yup. I quote: “AC/DC’s my favourite.”)

Steve Almond may have descended from rabbis, but his church is rock ‘n’ roll. His new book, the memoir “Rock and Roll Will Save Your Life” is a tour through “drooling” fanaticism, the kind of music appreciation that borders on the insane.

Via.

The Go-Gos lead singer who went on to a solo career recounts a remarkable early Cinderella story that morphs into a frank, though at times self-indulgent, story of drug abuse and failure.

Or so says Publisher’s Weekly via Amazon.com.

Self-indulgent or not, sounds interesting.