Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve been a music fan–especially pop and rock and roll–since I was a toddler, thanks to my dysfunctional family upbringing that led me to spend the bulk of my time attached to my transistor radio! Not only did I listen to rock radio stations, but I also learned about musicians, including the Beatles, thanks to magazine articles and books once I started to read at an early age–I went to my local library daily and continued to do so all the way through my school years!


I wrote

Book cover of Confessions of a Rock N Roll Name Dropper: My Life Leading Up to John Lennon’s Last Interview

What is my book about?

This is my memoir–my rock radio-related early life and career wrapped around John Lennon’s final interview, which I co-conducted for…

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of In Your Mind: The Infinite Universe of Yoko Ono

Laurie Kaye Why did I love this book?

Very well written and informative about super talented, cool Yoko Ono, who many Beatles fans have blamed for years for their favorite band’s break up, but this book shows why that’s completely untrue!

Madeline Bocaro has been very interested in and has had personal encounters with Yoko for several years. She describes her heroine so very well that everyone will begin to appreciate her existence and what she contributed to John Lennon’s life, love, and career!

By Madeline Bocaro,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked In Your Mind as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In Your Mind - The Infinite Universe of Yoko Ono
by Madeline Bocaro
 
The true story of the woman whom John Lennon loved.
 
This is the first extensive exploration of the artist's amazing life, struggles, art, activism, films and music in astounding detail. Yoko's life story goes way beyond what most people know. This is not only a biography - it is the ultimate reference guide to Ono's life and work.
 
It includes the love story of John and Yoko, and her relationship to the Beatles.
 
The book illuminates Ono's spiritual nature and her wisdom, her lonely childhood in Japan…


Book cover of I'm with the Band: Confessions of a Groupie

Laurie Kaye Why did I love this book?

Pamela Des Barre's incredible history as rock and roll’s number one famous groupie helped her create her incredible memoir! Her extremely well-written book features many super cool personal stories about her involvement with several famous musicians/rockstars that nearly all of us women who are rock fans would have loved to have been in close, loving contact with ourselves! 

Pamela was definitely my biggest inspiration when it came to memoir writing. She digs my book as well, writing a complimentary comment that appears on its back cover!

By Pamela Des Barres,

Why should I read it?

4 authors picked I'm with the Band as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Pamela Des Barres was a regular on the Sunset Strip, where she knocked on rock stars' backstage doors and immersed herself in the drugs, danger, and ecstasy of the freewheeling 1960s. Over the next 10 years she had affairs with Mick Jagger, Jimmy Page, Keith Moon and Jim Morrison, among others. As a member of the GTO's, a girl group masterminded by Frank Zappa, she was in the thick of the most revolutionary renaissance in the history of modern popular music. Warm, witty, and sexy, this kiss-and-tell-all stands out as the perfect chronicle of one of rock 'n' roll's most…


Book cover of John Lennon 1980: The Last Days in the Life

Laurie Kaye Why did I love this book?

Not only is Kenneth Womack an incredible writer, but also an extremely knowledgeable Beatles expert! Plus, he knew enough to approach me for an interview to include in this book of his since, of course, I co-conducted John Lennon’s last interview at the Dakota for RKO Radio on December 8, 1980, mere hours before he was shot and killed, so naturally it added important details when it came to Kenneth writing about the final day of John Lennon’s life! 

Kenneth Womack also inspired me to finally begin writing my book. When he read it before I got it published, he was so excited that he contributed an incredibly complimentary Foreward that appears in my paperback book and recorded it for my audiobook version!

By Kenneth Womack,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked John Lennon 1980 as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

John Lennon, 1980: The Final Days in the Life of Beatle John tells the story of the legendary musician's incredible last year. For Lennon, 1980 had begun as a ceaseless shopping spree in which he and wife Yoko Ono fell into the doldrums of purchasing blue-chip real estate and indulging their every whim. But for John, that pivotal year would climax in several moments of creative triumph as he rediscovered his artistic self in dramatic fashion, only to be cut down by an assassin's bullets on Monday, December 8th, 1980, in the prime of a new life that was only…


Book cover of Grapefruit: A Book of Instructions and Drawings

Laurie Kaye Why did I love this book?

Just as I became a huge Yoko Ono fan when she began singing and recording with John Lennon, I discovered the new edition of her book, which features everything from poetry to artwork to incredibly creative instructions for art and life itself! 

Plus, the fact that Lennon wrote the introduction to this second edition was tremendously exciting, especially when I went to New York to interview them and brought my copy with me, which got them both so very thrilled they couldn’t wait to talk to me about it and autograph it for me! Their Grapefruit autographs appear in my book, too!

By Yoko Ono,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Grapefruit as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Back in print for the first time in nearly thirty years, here is Yoko Ono's whimsical, delightful, subversive, startling book of instructions for art and for life.

"Burn this book after you've read it." -- Yoko

"A dream you dream alone may be a dream, but a dream two people dream together is a reality."
"This is the greatest book I've ever burned." -- John


Book cover of Don't Tell Anybody the Secrets I Told You: A Memoir

Laurie Kaye Why did I love this book?

I’ve been a tremendous fan of Lucinda Williams since seeing her perform on nearly a weekly basis back at the Barndance at the Palomino in the late 80’s and early 90’s–she’s an incredibly talented singer and musician, and it turned out she’s a great memoir writer too, able to describe how she came up from traumatic childhood in the Deep South, to her years of being overlooked in the music industry, to her eventual successful country and pop music career which includes being a three-time Grammy winner!

By Lucinda Williams,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Don't Tell Anybody the Secrets I Told You as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

'Williams's memoir is as flinty, earthy and plain-spoken as her songs' New York Times
'The often hilarious, occasionally harrowing Don't Tell Anybody the Secrets I Told You is a bracingly candid chronicle of a sui generis character plotting a ramshackle but ultimately triumphant trajectory' Wall Street Journal
'An engaging read and beautifully written' MOJO

The beloved and iconic singer-songwriter and three-time Grammy winner opens up about her traumatic childhood in the Deep South, her years of being overlooked in the music industry, and the stories that inspired her enduring songs.

Lucinda Williams's rise to fame was anything but easy. Raised…


Explore my book 😀

Book cover of Confessions of a Rock N Roll Name Dropper: My Life Leading Up to John Lennon’s Last Interview

What is my book about?

This is my memoir–my rock radio-related early life and career wrapped around John Lennon’s final interview, which I co-conducted for RKO Radio at the Dakota in New York back on December 8, 1980, mere hours before he was shot and killed. I also wrote the incredibly well-received RKO special that aired a mere 6 days after John’s assassination: John Lennon–The Man, The Memory, as well as RKO Presents The Beatles/The Beatles From Liverpool to Legend.

I tell readers about being a teenage runaway thanks to my dysfunctional family upbringing, plus how sex and drugs and rock and roll sent me to Lennon’s last day on the planet and tons of other interviews I conducted–McCartney, Harrison, George Martin, The Ramones, etc.!

Book cover of In Your Mind: The Infinite Universe of Yoko Ono
Book cover of I'm with the Band: Confessions of a Groupie
Book cover of John Lennon 1980: The Last Days in the Life

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No Average Day: The 24 Hours of October 24, 1944

By Rona Simmons,

Book cover of No Average Day: The 24 Hours of October 24, 1944

Rona Simmons Author Of No Average Day: The 24 Hours of October 24, 1944

New book alert!

Why am I passionate about this?

I come by my interest in history and the years before, during, and after the Second World War honestly. For one thing, both my father and my father-in-law served as pilots in the war, my father a P-38 pilot in North Africa and my father-in-law a B-17 bomber pilot in England. Their histories connect me with a period I think we can still almost reach with our fingertips and one that has had a momentous impact on our lives today. I have taken that interest and passion to discover and write true life stories of the war—focusing on the untold and unheard stories often of the “Average Joe.”

Rona's book list on World War II featuring the average Joe

What is my book about?

October 24, 1944, is not a day of national remembrance. Yet, more Americans serving in World War II perished on that day than on any other single day of the war.

The narrative of No Average Day proceeds hour by hour and incident by incident while focusing its attention on ordinary individuals—clerks, radio operators, cooks, sailors, machinist mates, riflemen, and pilots and their air crews. All were men who chose to serve their country and soon found themselves in a terrifying and otherworldly place.

No Average Day reveals the vastness of the war as it reaches past the beaches in…

No Average Day: The 24 Hours of October 24, 1944

By Rona Simmons,

What is this book about?

October 24, 1944, is not a day of national remembrance. Yet, more Americans serving in World War II perished on that day than on December 7, 1941, when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, or on June 6, 1944, when the Allies stormed the beaches of Normandy, or on any other single day of the war. In its telling of the events of October 24, No Average Day proceeds hour by hour and incident by incident. The book begins with Army Private First-Class Paul Miller's pre-dawn demise in the Sendai #6B Japanese prisoner of war camp. It concludes with the death…


5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in rock and roll, rock music, and John Lennon?

Rock And Roll 79 books
Rock Music 245 books
John Lennon 17 books