82 books like All I Ever Wanted

By Kathy Valentine,

Here are 82 books that All I Ever Wanted fans have personally recommended if you like All I Ever Wanted. Shepherd is a community of 11,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of Just Kids

Joan Gelfand Author Of Outside Voices: A Memoir of the Berkeley Revolution

From my list on 1970’s art & politics.

Why am I passionate about this?

As someone who lived through the very interesting and tumultuous 1960s and 70s, I am fascinated by details of other’s experiences of the same time frame. I inhabited the early 70s fully, going to so many once-in-a-lifetime cultural events: poetry readings, music performances, avant-garde theater, and ‘be-ins’ or ‘happenings.’ With a Masters degree in Creative Writing, I have been an observer of culture and art for several decades. I am the author of three collections of poetry, a book of short fiction, a novel, and a book for writers. 

Joan's book list on 1970’s art & politics

Joan Gelfand Why did Joan love this book?

I loved this book because Patti Smith paints a true portrait of a young woman burning with passion to become a poet and artist. The book shows the struggles of committing to a life with no assurances in a city teeming with aspiring artists and writers.

What I love the most is showing the years it took, the alliances she made, the risks she took, the hunger she felt, and the desperate circumstances she faced and overcame. When her lucky break came, I was rooting for her! She had paid her dues, and she rose to the occasion when a band put her poetry to music, and she broke out to become a sensation.

By Patti Smith,

Why should I read it?

15 authors picked Just Kids as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD

“Reading rocker Smith’s account of her relationship with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, it’s hard not to believe in fate. How else to explain the chance encounter that threw them together, allowing both to blossom? Quirky and spellbinding.” -- People

It was the summer Coltrane died, the summer of love and riots, and the summer when a chance encounter in Brooklyn led two young people on a path of art, devotion, and initiation.

Patti Smith would evolve as a poet and performer, and Robert Mapplethorpe would direct his highly provocative style toward photography. Bound in innocence…


Book cover of Rat Girl: A Memoir

Mike Hipple Author Of Lived Through That: '90s Musicians Today

From my list on music memoirs that aren't necessarily about music.

Why am I passionate about this?

Sadly, I was born without an ounce of musical talent. After realizing I was never going to effortlessly play the guitar or sing in tune, I focused a lot of my energies on listening to music. I came of age in the 80s and the rise of MTV brought loads of fantastic music to explore: punk, new-wave, post-punk, pop. My love for music grew and expanded as I grew up in the 90s. It was those I reached back to musical memories in creating my books, 80s Redux and Lived Through That. I also host a popular podcast called Lived Through That that combines my love of music and storytelling.  

Mike's book list on music memoirs that aren't necessarily about music

Mike Hipple Why did Mike love this book?

Kristin Hersh’s book documents a pivotal year in the Throwing Muses’ singer and songwriter’s life. The book is at times funny and warm, sometimes confounding – she befriended Betty Hutton, an American film star in the 30s. What?! As I was reading the book, memories of seeing her band in the early 90s kept flashing through my mind – the intensity of her performances and songs make a lot more sense after reading her story.

By Kristin Hersh,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

"One of the 25 Greatest Rock Memoirs of All Time” --Rolling Stone Magazine (#8)

“Sensitive and emotionally raw… it’s also wildly funny”--The New York Times Book Review

A powerfully original memoir of pregnancy and mental illness by the legendary founder of the seminal rock band Throwing Muses, 'a magnificently charged union of Sylvia Plath and Patti Smith'  - The Guardian

Kristin Hersh was a preternaturally bright teenager, starting college at fifteen and with her band, Throwing Muses, playing rock clubs she was too young to frequent. By the age of seventeen she was living in her car, unable to sleep…


Book cover of Strange Cures

Mike Hipple Author Of Lived Through That: '90s Musicians Today

From my list on music memoirs that aren't necessarily about music.

Why am I passionate about this?

Sadly, I was born without an ounce of musical talent. After realizing I was never going to effortlessly play the guitar or sing in tune, I focused a lot of my energies on listening to music. I came of age in the 80s and the rise of MTV brought loads of fantastic music to explore: punk, new-wave, post-punk, pop. My love for music grew and expanded as I grew up in the 90s. It was those I reached back to musical memories in creating my books, 80s Redux and Lived Through That. I also host a popular podcast called Lived Through That that combines my love of music and storytelling.  

Mike's book list on music memoirs that aren't necessarily about music

Mike Hipple Why did Mike love this book?

Before taking a darker turn in the second half, this book almost reads like a Steven Spielberg movie: wise grandmother advises her young grandson to stick his hands in cow patties out in the field to rid himself of warts. After this hilarious beginning, the book goes into detail on Zabrecky’s rise through the Los Angeles music scene of the early 90s, finding some success with his band Possum Dixon, the inevitable lure of drugs, and a surprising third act. This book reads almost like fiction and you’ll likely read it in a sitting or two, it’s well-paced and well-written.

By Rob Zabrecky,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

Strange Cures is a turbulent, against-all odds memoir of self-discovery, success, failure, and reinvention, told by one of LA's most interesting natives. With an unflinching gaze, musician/magician/actor Zabrecky recounts his bizarre coming-of-age tale and his quest to find a place in the arts--and the world.

The author reveals a young life filled with both physical miracles and subversive role models, including an uncle who impersonated an FBI agent and, in a drunken delusion, shot and nearly killed him. He takes readers on a roller coaster ride through the nascent days of Silver Lake's music and art community, as seen through…


Book cover of Fingers Crossed: How Music Saved Me from Success

Mike Hipple Author Of Lived Through That: '90s Musicians Today

From my list on music memoirs that aren't necessarily about music.

Why am I passionate about this?

Sadly, I was born without an ounce of musical talent. After realizing I was never going to effortlessly play the guitar or sing in tune, I focused a lot of my energies on listening to music. I came of age in the 80s and the rise of MTV brought loads of fantastic music to explore: punk, new-wave, post-punk, pop. My love for music grew and expanded as I grew up in the 90s. It was those I reached back to musical memories in creating my books, 80s Redux and Lived Through That. I also host a popular podcast called Lived Through That that combines my love of music and storytelling.  

Mike's book list on music memoirs that aren't necessarily about music

Mike Hipple Why did Mike love this book?

Author and musician Miki Berenyi, from the 90s band Lush, pens a memoir that is one of the most open and honest I’ve read. In addition, the book reads almost like a casual conversation with a friend over coffee – albeit a friend who has lived quite an interesting life. Trigger warning – there are some sensitive topics discussed here, including suicide, self-harm, and sexual abuse. As of this writing, the book is only available in the UK but it’s well worth your time to seek it out if you can.

By Miki Berenyi,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

Rough Trade Book of the Year
Resident Book of the Year
A Rolling Stone Book of the Year
A Mojo Book of the Year
A Sunday Times Book of the Year

Formed in 1988, Lush were part of the London gig scene during one of the most vibrant and creative periods in UK music. Now, Miki Berenyi tells all.

From the bohemian ways of her father's social circle to the privileged glamour of her mother's acting career, Miki's young life was a blur of travel, celebrities and peripatetic schooling. But frequent relocation, parental neglect and the dark presence of her…


Book cover of Dirty Deeds: My Life Inside/Outside of AC/DC

Jeff Apter Author Of Carl Perkins

From my list on rock and roll.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m an Australian author, staring down the barrel of middle age. I’ve been writing about music for the past 30 years. I’ve written 25 books; my subjects have included Keith Urban, the Bee Gees, Angus and Malcolm Young, Daniel Johns of Silverchair, among others. During my career, I’ve also had interesting encounters with such legends as Aretha Franklin, Patti Smith, Bob Dylan and Helen Reddy. I live (currently in lockdown, yet again) with my very tolerant wife, my two children, and a house full of animals. (Real animals, that is, not the kids.)

Jeff's book list on rock and roll

Jeff Apter Why did Jeff love this book?

Mark Evans was the bassist for AC/DC and played on such classics as ‘Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap’ and ‘Long Way to the Top’. He was a resident of the ‘Prahran Hilton’ — a public housing estate in Melbourne — when he joined the band, and within a year he was in London mixing it up with Ozzy Osbourne (‘the plumber of darkness’), Marc Bolan, the Sex Pistols and the rest of them. This is a real boy’s own, working-class, rock and roll adventure.

By Mark Evans,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

Mark Evans joined AC/DC in 1975, at only nineteen years old, when they were one of the hardest working and loudest rock bands in Australia. In the next few years AC/DC recorded four bestselling albums, and Mark found himself headlining world tours and living the life of a bonafide rock star. His memoir, Dirty Deeds: My Life Inside and Outside of AC/DC, is the first book written by an AC/DC insider, giving fans insight into the life of not only Evans, but also singer Bon Scott, who died tragically in 1980. Rock and roll icons like George Harrison, Gene Simmons,…


Book cover of Up Above the City, Down Beneath the Stars

Cathi Unsworth Author Of Season of the Witch: The Book of Goth

From my list on the magical and horrible history of Goth.

Why am I passionate about this?

It was not hard to grow up Goth in an old farmhouse in Norfolk, one of the most haunted counties in England. Age 11, when the Eighties began, I genuinely believed that ghosts, witches, and a demon dog called Old Shuck stalked this land. John Peel's radio show kept the night terrors at bay and replaced them with the music that became my passion. By 19, I was writing for Sounds and would meet and work with many of the bands and artists who saw me through that dread decade. Forty years on, this is my love letter to a most maligned and misunderstood genre – and why it still matters.

Cathi's book list on the magical and horrible history of Goth

Cathi Unsworth Why did Cathi love this book?

The Manchester evoked by Joy Division and Barry Adamson's first band, Magazine, also entered the Eighties a ravaged post-industrial city, strafed first by the Luftwaffe and then its own planners, who erected Brutalist estates over its Victorian past.

The son of a white Mancunian mother and black Jamaican father, Adamson grew up in some of the worst of the city's social housing in the Hulme of the Sixties. Another Selby aficionado, Barry recounts the story his challenging childhood with a picaresque, magical realist flair.

Music offers both salvation and damnation – as he progresses through Magazine and into Nick Cave's Bad Seeds, so too do all his most self-sabotaging addictions, until death brings a reckoning and a salvation in the first fruit of his solo career, the LP Moss Side Story. 

By Barry Adamson,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Up Above the City, Down Beneath the Stars as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In Up Above the City, Down Beneath the Stars, the enigmatic Barry Adamson shines a probing light into his own heart of darkness.

Born in the black and white world of post-industrial Manchester, Adamson saw music as a chance to turn his world technicolour. Propelled into punk via Magazine, he was the founding bass player in Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, before stumbling too far down a dark, drug-induced path.

Unflinchingly candid, Adamson steers the reader through a mix of harrowing, tragic, funny and often life-affirming straights. Throughout it all, music - be it bass lines, melodies or film…


Book cover of Acid for the Children: A Memoir

Nathan Hesselink Author Of Finding the Beat: Entrainment, Rhythmic Play, and Social Meaning in Rock Music

From my list on biographies to get you inside of a musician’s head.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve been playing and singing music since I was six, and my childhood dream was to become an orchestral cello player. Over the years, I learned a number of other instruments and studied music around the globe, yet I was always intrigued, even intimidated, by those who were able to compose. This list of books helps readers like me really get inside the heads of some of the greatest composers (and performers) of popular music in the 20th and 21st centuries. While many of my questions were answered, there remains a sense of mystery and wonder that even the artists themselves can’t always explain.

Nathan's book list on biographies to get you inside of a musician’s head

Nathan Hesselink Why did Nathan love this book?

I’ve never read an autobiography by anyone as humble, funny, reflective, poetic, and oftentimes downright scary as the bass player Flea from Red Hot Chili Peppers.

I’ve always been in love with his sound and sense of timing, a groove master who has few equals. With this book, I discovered the love, boredom, synchronicities, intelligence, and madness that made up his life, and because of it, I admire Flea and the band like almost no other.

By Flea,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Acid for the Children as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

With "virtuosic vulnerability" (The Atlantic), the iconic bassist and Red Hot Chili peppers co-founder pens a New York Times bestselling love letter to his wild Los Angeles youth in his raw and riveting coming-of-age memoir, now in paperback.

In Acid for the Children, Flea takes readers on a deeply personal and revealing tour of his formative years, spanning from Australia to the New York City suburbs to, finally, Los Angeles. Through hilarious anecdotes, poetical meditations, and occasional flights of fantasy, Flea deftly chronicles the experiences that forged him as an artist, a musician, and a young man. His dreamy, jazz-inflected…


Book cover of Never a Dull Moment: 1971 the Year That Rock Exploded

Richard J. Alley Author Of Five Night Stand

From my list on culture of mid-20th century music and musicians.

Why am I passionate about this?

I was born in 1970. From my earliest memory there was music. But it’s never been just about the music, I have a natural curiosity for the people who make that music. The artist on the album cover, but also the side musicians, the producers, engineers, and promoters. I’m also fascinated by the roadmap from blues to rock to Laurel Canyon to disco to punk and on and on. Real music infuses and informs the fiction I write — by reading real-life accounts and listening to the songs, I’m put in the world from which it was all born.

Richard's book list on culture of mid-20th century music and musicians

Richard J. Alley Why did Richard love this book?

I love the idea of taking a very specific time period, in this case one year, and parsing out what happened within an art form. The evolution of pop music in 1971 was changing both the industry and the world. Throughout 12 months, we see the same characters weaving in and out — Carol King, Van Morrison, Marc Bolan, David Bowie, Joni Mitchell, Mick Jagger — and the way they came together and pushed apart is its own year-long miniseries. To get at how art and industry cohabitate, and how we got to the pop culture machine we know today, there is no better crash course than 1971.

By David Hepworth,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Never a Dull Moment as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The basis for the new hit documentary 1971: The Year That Music Changed Everything, now streaming on Apple TV+.

A rollicking look at 1971, rock’s golden year, the year that saw the release of the indelible recordings of Led Zeppelin, David Bowie, the Who, Rod Stewart, Carole King, the Rolling Stones, and others and produced more classics than any other year in rock history

The Sixties ended a year late. On New Year’s Eve 1970 Paul McCartney instructed his lawyers to issue the writ at the High Court in London that effectively ended the Beatles. You might say this was…


Book cover of The Restless Generation

Joel Selvin Author Of Here Comes the Night: The Dark Soul of Bert Berns and the Dirty Business of Rhythm and Blues

From my list on music books that should be made into movies.

Why am I passionate about this?

As pop music critic for the San Francisco Chronicle for nearly forty years and author of more than twenty books on pop music, books on these subjects have always held a special fascination for me. To me, musicians are heroes like athletes or warriors and their paths make for extraordinary drama—usually set to some fabulous soundtrack. There is a big, wonderful world beyond Ray and Bohemian Rhapsody and I can’t wait to see what Hollywood comes up with. 

Joel's book list on music books that should be made into movies

Joel Selvin Why did Joel love this book?

We need a documentary made from this exquisite history of how rock and roll came to Great Britain by the redoubtable Pete Frame, best known for his intricately calligraphed and intensely researched Rock Family Trees. He walks readers through the rise of Tommy Steele and the 2I’s club in Soho, where Cliff Richards, England’s Elvis, and other nascent stars of the new sound were discovered. He skillfully entwines the strains of skiffle, trad jazz, and early British r&b into his narrative and brings to life early British rock and rollers such as Marty Wilde, Billy Fury, Vince Taylor, and others who never made their way across the Atlantic, setting the stage for the emergence of the Beatles and nothing less than an explosion of British culture on a global scale after the many long, dark years following World War II. This brilliant book is stuffed full of original research and…

By Pete Frame,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

It was our version of a Hollywood epic, shot in black and white over a ten year period, with no script and a cast of thousands who had to make it up as they went along. Tommy Steele, Cliff Richard, Lonnie Donegan, Terry Dene, Marty Wilde, Mickie Most, Lionel Bart, Tony Sheridan, Billy Fury, Joe Brown, Wee Willie Harris, Adam Faith, John Barry, Larry Page, Vince Eager, Johnny Gentle, Jim Dale, Duffy Power, Dickie Pride, Georgie Fame and Johnny Kidd were just a few of those hoping to see their name in lights. From the widescreen perspective of one who…


Book cover of War for the Oaks

Stephen Dedman Author Of Shadowrun: For A Few Nuyen More

From my list on lovers of urban fantasy.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve had a passion for weirdness in mundane settings since my childhood days watching The Addams Family in a boring suburb. I grew up with the Apollo program, but as I realized I’d never be an astronaut, I increasingly turned to writing science fiction and fantasy set on Earth. I discovered role-playing games shortly after D&D came out, but when I became bored with characters who were only after money and mayhem, I found other RPGs and began writing for them. FGU’s Bushido introduced me to Japanese mythology, which inspired my first urban fantasy novel, The Art of Arrow Cutting, which led me to being invited to write Shadowrun novels.

Stephen's book list on lovers of urban fantasy

Stephen Dedman Why did Stephen love this book?

War for the Oaks is a fantasy set in a very real Minneapolis (I’ve read parts of it on location) and concerns a war between the Seelie and Unseelie Courts for the city’s soul. As the fey are immortal, each side needs to recruit mortals to infect them with mortality or no victory will be possible. Eddi McCandry, a rock and roll singer, is chosen to fight alongside the Seelie Court.

Eddi starts playing an active role in their strategy and grows into the hero they need. It’s difficult not to love Eddi and her new band – some mortal, some fey – and the fact that the city she’s fighting for is real makes the story even more gripping than the battle for Gondor.

By Emma Bull,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked War for the Oaks as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Acclaimed by critics and readers on its first publication in 1987, winner of the Locus Award for Best First Novel, Emma Bull's War for the Oaks is one of the novels that has defined modern urban fantasy.

Eddi McCandry sings rock and roll. But her boyfriend just dumped her, her band just broke up, and life could hardly be worse. Then, walking home through downtown Minneapolis on a dark night, she finds herself drafted into an invisible war between the faerie folk. Now, more than her own survival is at risk—and her own preferences, musical and personal, are very much…


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