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Cyndi Lauper

Cyndi Lauper: A Memoir Paperback – 1 August 2013

by Cyndi Lauper (Author)

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Legendary and iconic singer-songwriter Cyndi Lauper offers a poignant account of the journey that led her to become an international superstar - from her years growing up in Queens, New York, to the making of enduring hits like "Time After Time," "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" and "True Colors," to becoming an actress, a mother, an outspoken activist, and maintaining a music career that has lasted more than thirty years.

After leaving her childhood home at seventeen, Cyndi took on a series of jobs: racetrack hot walker, IHOP waitress, and as she puts it, “gal Friday the thirteenth,” as she pursued her passion for music. She worked her way playing small gigs, and broke out in 1983 with “She’s So Unusual” which earned her a Grammy for Best New Artist and made her the first female artist in history to have four top five singles on a debut album. And while global fame wasn’t always what she expected, she has remained focused on what matters most. Cyndi is a gutsy real-life heroine who has never been afraid to speak her mind and stick up for a cause--whether it's women's rights, gay rights, or fighting against HIV/AIDS.

With her trademark warmth and humor, Cyndi fearlessly writes of a life she’s lived only on her own terms.

Print length

352 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Simon & Schuster UK
Publication date

1 August 2013
Dimensions

12.8 x 2.4 x 19.6 cm
ISBN-10

9781471114267
ISBN-13

978-1471114267
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Product description

About the Author

Cyndi Lauper has won a Grammy, two American Music Awards, an Emmy, three MTV Video Music Awards, and has been nominated for many more. She has sold more than thirty million albums globally and continues to tour around the world. An unwavering advocate for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) equality, Cyndi created the True Colors Tour in 2007 and founded the True Colors Fund in 2008. Visit CyndiLauper.com.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ 1471114260
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Simon & Schuster UK (1 August 2013)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 352 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9781471114267
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1471114267
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 12.8 x 2.4 x 19.6 cm

Best Sellers Rank: 669,946 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 2,347 in Popular Music (Books)
- 3,443 in Biographies of Rock Musicians
- 3,969 in Rock Music (Books)

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4.5 504 ratings

About the authors

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Jancee Dunn
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Jancee Dunn is the columnist for Well at the New York Times. She is also a New York Times bestselling author of eight books, including How Not To Hate Your Husband After Kids, which was published in twelve languages, and the essay collection Why Is My Mother Getting a Tattoo?, a finalist for the Thurber Prize for American Humor. She has written about health for two decades in publications such as Vogue, O, The Oprah Magazine, and Health. She lives in New Jersey with her husband, the writer Tom Vanderbilt, and their daughter.
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Cyndi Lauper
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Chook2503

Great read

Reviewed in Australia on 1 January 2020

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Fantastic read for any Cyndi's Fans

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Kim

Loved it

Reviewed in Australia on 30 December 2019

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I loved the whole book start to finish ❣️Wow what an interesting life Cyndi’s had! I love love loved it..X

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Gregory

Cyndi Lauper - Definitely in her own words - A good read

Reviewed in the United States on 1 January 2015

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First let me say I am a huge fan of Cyndi Lauper. With that said my review is slightly one sided in favor of Cyndi for writing this memoir. I also volunteer at a local non profit music theatre, and work every weekend with struggling artists doing video editing, and computer graphics. One of those is my friend, and adopted brother Pat. Pat's philosophy on the music industry is simple,"you need to be in the right place at the right time, meet the right person, and sing the right song". Cyndi pretty much says that over and over in her book in her own words. My brother Pat prides himself on being an independent artist who writes his own lyrics, and music. The same could be said for Cyndi as well. All of that influenced my review.

I must say beforehand I read some of the nasty One, Two, and Three Star Amazon reviews. They criticized Cyndi for getting too personal, giving too much information, and taking too long to get to the getting famous part. Also they said they did not like her colorful metaphors. Many women in their reviews said they viewed her as a strong female figure until they read this memoir. Lastly many criticized her for devoting too much of the book on gay people. I read the memoir as Cyndi's way of telling us of her humble beginnings, and her long journey to becoming famous. She introduces us to many people who changed her life. These people influenced her life, music, art, and fashion choices. I enjoyed all the little tidbits, and stories about the people who made her what she is today. As Buddy Holly said "I have this sound in my head", so did Cyndi. She fought the recording studio to get that sound on to her "She So Unusual" album, and not the lame sound they wanted. My feedback about the colorful metaphors. She is a New Yorker, that is over a million people all crammed in to one tiny space, and trying to live with each other everyday. I am sure words fly daily when tensions starts to mount. As far as the comments about talking too much about gay right and gay people. Geez her sister who she is very close to is gay, so case closed there. The comments of not being a strong female figure. One page in the memoir says it all. "Its my name that goes on the front of that album, and your name will be in fine print on the back". With that said she made it clear it was her music on that first album. You go girl !

The memoir starts out with her running away from home, or that is running away from a home with a step father who was a predator. She never ran away from her mother, or her brother or sister. Cyndi describes in great detail the many epic failures in her early life. Schools, jobs, relationships, and music. Reading this you start to really feel for her wondering when her life was going to jump on the tracks. This reminded me of the PBS American Experience on Henry Ford. He also had many failures with automobiles before he became the man we know today. Cyndi introduces us to a huge cast of colorful characters. These are people who brought her joy everyday in her life, and those who influenced her musical style. Cyndi slowly builds her memoir to her choice as music for her passion in life. After many failures, music is the one thing that made her feel good, and for once she is getting rave reviews from people who love to hear her sing and perform. The book revealed many dark moments in Cyndi's life. Also numerous events that she describes in great detail that made me bust up laughing, but not in vain. Her job as an IHOP waitress, Girl Friday, imitating Lucy, and the back from retirement ladies she worked with in the department store. As much as Cyndi is in to film, there should be a movie made about this book.

For the techies, that would include me. I purchased the Kindle version which was only $16, substantially less than the $25 hard cover + shipping. Mostly because of my poor vision. I struggle with books anymore. Text can be enlarged on a Mac, or an iPad. My Mac app allowed me to copy and paste selected paragraphs. This also auto inserted the page numbers in the pasted text. I emailed these paragraphs from the copied text to my friends. They immediately knew I was on to something good, and they also purchased Cyndi's Memoir. I was also able to get my Mac to convert the text to audio. Although sadly there is no voice on the Mac that sounded like Cyndi's.

Hat's off to you Cyndi. Thanks for sharing. I myself am also coming out of a dark moment in my life. I was laid off from my job, and out of work for almost six months. Reading this memoir put a smile on my face that has not been there in a long time.

3 people found this helpful

Micol Rindone

Cyndi Lauper 'A Memoir'- a book which inspires and encourages page after page

Reviewed in the United States on 2 December 2012

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Cyndi Lauper's 'A Memoir' (338 pages with color and b/w photos) is an intense true lively involving and well written book by the great Cyndi Lauper together with american journalist Jancee Dunn, a book that I strongly encourage you to read.
Cyndi totally blows the reader away and takes him/her right into her life. They story starts with Cyndi leaving home at seventeen due to an unbearable family situation with her stepfather.
One can literally see her getting ready to leave with her backpack only filled with the most needed items: her toothbrush, underwear, an apple and Yoko Ono book, which will become her window to see life through art.
Cyndi who decides to leave because the situation with her stepfather is impossible and who makes sure to leave dinner ready in the oven for her younger brother Butch before leaving, being him the main reason she had not left until that time.
In Cyndi's Memoir images roll on as if they were spots on a painting, as Cyndi has always been saying that she can see quite many different episodes of her life through images.
The story is so fluid and lively that the reader gets the impression that he can actually hear her voice, as if Cyndi was telling it to him/her personally.
A book that Cyndi has dedicated to her husband David Thornton who has been always strongly encouraged, inspired and supported her throughout her career.
`A Memoir' is true, vivid and sometimes so sad. So sad and tough is the description of the "down" moments and so hard to read when she describes some very painful moments of her life due to some health problems, her desire to have a baby and the loss of some dear friends. This same loss which will inspire her later to build and dedicate the first permanent Residence in NYC for homeless LGBT kids who are rejected by their family, as it was the case with her dear friend Gregory who died of AIDS.
Very hard in the description of her family situation. With her mother who was separated and who struggled to survive and grow up her three children. She had to work 6 days a week and 14 hours/day. Hard to read about all the violences that Cyndi had to bear, all the obstacles that she encountered all through her career and all the people who opposed her and wanted her to believe that she could not do what she strongly wanted to do and was the greatest of all in doing.
But `A Memoir' is to me an anthem to the great power of one's will, to professionalism, talent and will to do.
Positivity shines from the book and Cyndi talks about her huge success and how this finally came to her despite the numerous difficulties.
And the narration is so fluid that at times you can forget that "A Memoir" is an autobiography, as it seems that you are reading a novel, instead.
A book which inspires and encourages so much, and first of all which teaches us that we never have to give up being what we really want to be:
"Remember this: It's not what others think about you that will allow you to succeed. It's what you think about you that allows you to succeed. Because if you can picture yourself doing something, don't listen to anybody who tells you that you can't. You have to just try. Otherwise, you're gonna be saying should've, could've, would've, and you don't want to be saying that in your life".
"Feel free to be yourself, everybody else is taken" (quoted from O. Wilde in the book).

A book which is really not to be missed.
Micol Rindone, Milan Italy

7 people found this helpful

Backstage Blogs

4 Stars for Cyndi Lauper's Memoir

Reviewed in the United States on 19 January 2017

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Yeah, yeah, I am your consummate 80's rocker chick, but Cyndi has always been a force of her own and when the S&S email came in with it for $0.99, I couldn't resist (though it sat on my Kindle for at least a year before I got around to it.) Before I started reading and reviewing rockstar romances, I rarely read romances, but had read almost every musician bio and auto bio I could get my hands on. I haven't had a lot of time for them the last couple of years, and while I do plan to get my hands on Sebastian Bach 's one of these days, Dee Snider's Shut Up and Give Me the Mic, and Keef's Life were rather the pinnacle of this genre for me. Funny enough, though Dee isn't mentioned here, both men have connections to Cyndi (She did a duet with Dee on his Broadway album, and it is one of the highlights of that project, after Mac the Knife.)

The biggest reminder of why I don't like to read these is something that has been greatly highlighted in the past year - I really don't want to hear about politics from the celebrities I admire, and I felt almost personally assaulted by them in this one. The funny thing is that I actually agree with a lot of issues she supports but the idea that an entire group of people should be completely vilified for their political party ties goes against every word of equality spoken of. But that is neither here nor there, she has the right to her opinions as I have mine - it will keep me out of the celeb realm again for quite a while. I have read better and I have read worse.

It is hard to assign stars to a bio, as every person has the right to their views, and it is their memories, thoughts and feelings. My main reason for the 4 stars instead off 5 are a few editing issues - which mostly come down to some typos here and there throughout the book. The ramblings that meander seem purely Cyndi, and truly, I would guess that of her. I probably would have given fewer stars if it hadn't had them as it would have seemed less real.

Overall, not a life changer, but will probably result in my tracking down some of her lesser known albums. Honestly I think I bought She's So Unusual for the first time in this millennium when my daughter was in her 80's pop phase. While sharing some of the story with my husband as I read, I think he is more interested in her early stuff pre-SSU, I think we will both be intrigued by her blues album.

Probably a bio more for the musically inclined or those very into women's and LGBT issues than the casual fan, it does feel like the public and private personas are very closely tied together, which I definitely respect. As with most bios, I would probably prefer the hard/paperback copy than the e-version simply for photo quality....an eReader does them no justice (but few of my review readers are aware that I have a photography background, which does make me much touching about such things than the general public.) Not enough to make me track down a hard copy, but just a note for those considering the read. She is definitely an icon, and continues to be, more so than I think most would realize.

6 people found this helpful

Elaine G

Cyndi never disappoints

Reviewed in the United States on 2 August 2023

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Loved reading the story of her life. She is a remarkable woman and her life is as colorful as she is! Never a dull moment for sure.

Amy L C

Okay Read

Reviewed in the United States on 10 July 2023

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Cyndi Lauper was the first tape I ever had and her music was very popular when I was growing up. I thought the book was ok. The font was very small and hard to read. The content was at times kind of boring and dragged on forever. I think she's very creative and I like that she goes against the grain and doesn't seem to compromise her artistic vision. The book was just slow and hard to get through.

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Cyndi Lauper: A Memoir Paperback – 1 August 2013

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