Just Giblets

Moving into the Top 10, I’ve got another memoir, but this one moves into the world of film, thanks to The Brattle Theater’s Podcast. An episode from lat year featured filmmaker Susan Seidelman talking about her memoir detailing her life as a woman creating films in the 80’s to today. Thanks for the tip, Brattle pals! Another genre that I’ve alway enjoyed throughout my life is science fiction. Yuma Kitasei is a Japanese-American author whose second novel has made a respectable showing on this year’s list.

#9 – Desperately Seeking Something: A Memoir About Movies, Mothers, and Material Girls by Susan Seidelman (2024)

Susan Seidelman, best known for directing DESPERATELY SEEKING SUSAN, has written a lively, entertaining, memoir that incorporates growing up in a suburban bubble during the 60’s, then spending most of her adult life in New York City, seeing the evolution of Manhattan from a gritty, urban proving ground, to the gentrified wonderland it is today. Her story focuses on the struggles of being a woman in a man’s world — the world of making movies — and the challenges she face creating both independent films and Hollywood studio pieces. She comes across as smart, fun, and independent. The weaving of various themes into her personal story is masterful.

#8 – The Deep Sky by Yuman Kitasei (2023)

Yume Katiasei’s debut science fiction novel is a space faring journey where a crew of specialized young people who are capable of giving birth are sent as a last hope from Earth to Planet X to create a new civilization. The book bounces back and forth quite nicely between the academy where these young people are trained and tested, where representatives from each country (number based on population or political clout) compete for a spot on the flight, and the ship after ten years of deep sleep, where those selected to go must deal with an unexpected emergency.

Asuke, half Japanese/half American, wants desperately to honor her younger brother who always wanted to go to space, but was killed in a fire. Asuke’s mother doesn’t want her to go. Asuke lives in a perpetual state of underestimating her skills and doubts herself every step of the way. Even after she makes the cut (not a spoiler, you know that immediately) her doubts continue to plague her as does the turbulent relationship with her mother who she left behind on Earth.

The rest of the crew are filled with varied personalities that make the story interesting and fun. The tension is high, as this crew must deal with an emergency, potential sabotage, and maybe even a traitor in their midst. Kitasei keeps the drama and the suspense ever-present, and Deep Sky provides an action packed, emotional roller-coaster of a ride for a fun space suspense story.

2024 was not a good year for me with regard to reading books. While my reading consumption has plummeted over the decades (I used to be a voracious reader) I could always count on getting at least 30, and up to 50 in a good year, books read. This year I only read 21 books. Less than two books per month. I can do better. It’s my one real resolution. Read more books. I’m off to a good start. I began a book on December 23, expecting it to be the first book I completed in 2025, but I finished reading it on December 30, so I was able to count it in 2024, and it even made my list of top books.

As far as trends, with so few books read, all I can really say is that my pursuit of memoirs by female rock & rollers is still going strong with four books read this year representative of that genre. I expanded a bit into film as well with two additional memoirs, and also a novel written by a female rock & roller, and a brief treatise on a rock & roll album. Music has indeed come back into my life fairly strongly since the pandemic. But this is about books, and here are my #’s 12 & 13 from my Top 13 books read in 2024.

#13 – Honeybees & Distant Thunder by Riku Onda (2016)
Riku Onda has constructed a novel around an international piano competition in a town outside of Tokyo. The top young pianists from around the world come together in a week-long competition. Each competitor the novel follows has their own unique story; a consummate performer, handsome, talented and beloved Masaru; Aya, child genius whose career evaporated after the death of her mother, making a comeback; Akashi, the oldest competitor at thirty-years old who hopes to finally achieve his first moment of glory; and the mysterious youth, Jin, secretly mentored and taught by a Japanese master who recently died, whose playing confounds as much as it exhilarates.

Onda’s take on all the performances exalts and pays homage the power of music as a life-altering mystery, but the detailed descriptions of each piece does begin to get repetitive as the competition proceeds. She excels at some of the gorgeous descriptions, as she delves deep into the personalities of each spotlit performer, and how their experiences evolve throughout the week. Sadly, by the time she reaches the final days of the competition, she has little new to say, and the conclusion is a bit of a let down. Still, there were passages describing the music, the way people interact with music, and the individuals making the music that were so uplifting and powerful I was moved to tears. A mixed bag, but one that ends up anchoring my Top 13.

#12 – Face It by Debbie Harry (2019)
Debbie Harry’s Face It: A Memoir delivers on what a good memoir should be. Someone who has led an interesting life, looking back from a vantage point with experience and wisdom in a way that’s engaging and revelatory. It’s not a tell-all, but a curated story that paints a picture of a fascinating person during a pretty amazing time and place. After reading this memoir, Harry comes across as someone who I would enjoy spending time with; someone who has seen and done a lot, and who’s ups and downs through life balance the potentially mind-warping fame she experienced as the front-person and persona for the hugely successful band, Blondie.

While the book is a fairly chronological account of Debbie’s life, I enjoyed how she would sprinkle stories throughout where relevant, regardless of timeframe. Starting with childhood, her young, punk life in 79’s New York City, the meteoric success of Blondie, the struggles after the band broke up, the successful return to the spotlight, and her life today, Face It covers a lot of territory. Because of this, we get a broad overview of Debbie’s entire ife, rather than a deep dive into specific parts. It works, precisely because Debbie’s entire life provided an interesting read. Through it all, the love for her friend, business and creative partner, and former lover, Chris Stein, is the strongest throughline.

That and the sharing of dozens of portraits painted/drawn by her fans and given to Debbie, underscoring the challenge of owning an iconic look that many people simply equate with the person herself make for a fascinating rumination.

An interesting note about these two books. Face It was the first book I completed in 2024, and Honeybees & Distant Thunder the last.

Well this is embarrassing. As I started to pull together the top books I read in 2024, I noticed that I hadn’t ever posted about my #1 book of 2023! In fact, I hadn’t posted anything on this blog since March! For the few of you who read this, my apologies. I can’t promise I’ll do better in 2025, I will at least try to get my favorite books of 2024 out there. And in the meantime, here is my top book of 2023!

#1 – My Rock ‘N Roll Friend by Tracey Thorn (2021)

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.

Accomplished singer/songwriter and frontwoman for the band, Everything but the Girl, impressed me greatly with her first memoir, Bedsit Disco Queen: How I Grew Up and Tried to Be a Pop Star. With her latest work, My Rock ‘n Roll Friend, Thorn not only writes a compelling and fascinating memoir about her friend, Lindy Morrison, drummer of the Australian 80’s band, The Go-Between, but she also chronicles their nearly 40 year friendship, and most startling of all, she writes an insightful, intellectually scathing feminist showcase about how women are systematically erased from history. Tracey is a writer to be cherished. Her prose is casual, self-reflective, yet immediate and powerful. Her voice is singular, and unique… unexpected even for those who only know her through her work as a pop star. Her ability to bring her subject to larger-than-life reality, whether you know a little, a lot or nothing about her is remarkable, and certainly makes you want to know more. I also hope Tracey continues to document her observations about life, feminism, friendship, relationships, and life.

And for those keeping track, here is the complete list of my favorite books read in 2023:

1. My Rock ‘N Roll Friend – Tracey Thorn (2021)
2. Stolen – Ann-Helén Laestadius, Rachel Willson-Broyles (Translator) (2021, 2023 in the U.S.)
3. Naked at the Albert Hall: The Inside Story of Singing – Tracey Thorn (2015)
4. Rat Girl – Kristin Hersh (2010)
5. The Unfolding – A.M. Homes (2022)
6. The Museum of Failures – Thrity Umrigar (2023)
7. Girl in a Band – Kim Gordon (2015)
8. Stories I Might Regret Telling You: A Memoir – Martha Wainwright (2022)
9. Swim Home to the Vanished – Brendan Shay Basham (2023)
10. The Emperor’s Children – Claire Messud (2006)
11. TNight Sky Mine – Melissa Scott (1996)
12. The Memory of Animals – Claire Fuller (2023)
13. You Only Call When You’re in Trouble – Stephen McCauley (2024)
14. Chapter and Verse: New Order, Joy Division and Me – Bernard Sumner (2015)
15. Boys in the Trees: A Memoir – Carly Simon (2015)