by Cyndi Lauper
First published 2012
Cyndi Lauper traces her journey from leaving home in Queens at seventeen to becoming a global music star. She describes her early struggles walking horses at racetracks and serving pancakes at IHOP while performing at small venues and pursuing her musical ambitions. Lauper details her 1983 breakthrough with She's So Unusual, which earned her a Grammy for Best New Artist and made history when she became the first woman to land four top-five hits from a debut record. She explores creating iconic tracks including "Time After Time," "Girls Just Want to Have Fun," and "True Colors" while adjusting to the surprising realities of worldwide fame. The memoir covers her expansion into acting and motherhood alongside her activism for women's rights, gay rights, and HIV/AIDS awareness. Lauper writes with humor and warmth about her thirty-year career, showing readers the persistence that drove her success while she stayed true to herself and built everything according to her own vision.
Genres: biography, autobiography, biography-memoir, music, musicians
Vibes: emotional-atmospheric, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: coming-of-age, persistence, self-discovery
Setting: Queens
Period: 1983
352 pages · Hardcover · Atria Books