My Own Devices
True Stories from the Road on Music, Science, and Senseless Love
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Narrated by:
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Dessa
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By:
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Dessa
About this listen
“I love the way Dessa puts words together. In her songs, in her poetry, in her short stories, and now in this beautiful and candid memoir. Wanna be an artist? Get this book.” (Lin-Manuel Miranda)
"Dessa writes beautifully about a wide range of topics, including science, music, and the pain that comes with being in love; it's a surprising and generous memoir by a singular voice." (NPR, best books of 2018)
Dessa defies category - she is an intellectual with an international rap career and an inhaler in her backpack; a creative writer fascinated by philosophy and behavioral science; and a funny, charismatic performer dogged by blue moods and heartache. She's ferocious on stage and endearingly neurotic in the tour van. Her stunning literary debut memoir stitches together poignant insights on love, science, and language - a demonstration of just how far the mind can travel while the body is on a six-hour ride to the next gig.
In "The Fool That Bets Against Me", Dessa writes to Geico to request a commercial insurance policy for the broken heart that's helped her write so many sad songs. "A Ringing in the Ears" tells the story of her father building a wooden airplane in their backyard garage. In "'Congratulations'", she describes the challenge of recording a song for The Hamilton Mixtape in a Minneapolis basement, straining for a high note and hoping for a break. "Call off Your Ghost" chronicles the fascinating project she undertook with a team of neuroscientists to try to clinically excise romantic feelings for an old flame.
Her writing is infused with scientific research, dry wit, a philosophical perspective, and an abiding tenderness for the people she tours with and the people she leaves behind to be on the road.
My Own Devices is an uncompromising and candid account of a life in motion, in music, and in love. Dessa is as compelling in this memoir as she is onstage, making My Own Devices the debut of a unique and deft literary voice.
©2018 Dessa (P)2018 Penguin AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
“[Dessa is] a natural at the written word. There's not an essay in My Own Devices that's less than fascinating.... [My Own Devices] is funny, heartbreaking and brilliantly written, and very possibly the best memoir by a musician since Patti Smith's Just Kids.” (Star Tribune)
“Dessa has captured the punishing beauty of untenable love and touring, states of being that both require a stubborn, romantic heart.” (Tegan and Sara)
“Dessa’s words are an articulation of the universal.” (MN Daily)
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- By: Lincee Ray
- Narrated by: Lincee Ray
- Length: 4 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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If there is one thing Lincee Ray has learned over the years, it's that the majority of women on the planet struggle with insecurities. Our skinny jeans mock us. Our just-trying-to-help mothers are just driving us crazy. Our social media feeds taunt us with everyone else's picture-perfect lives. It's enough to send you on a gummy-bear bender while binge-watching Friends reruns and not showering for a week. Lincee knows. She's been there. Right there, in fact. Gummy bears and all.
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Perfect in every way!
- By Anonymous User on 10-19-22
By: Lincee Ray
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Fairyland
- A Memoir of My Father
- By: Alysia Abbott
- Narrated by: Alysia Abbott
- Length: 10 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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A beautiful, vibrant memoir about growing up motherless in 1970s and 80s San Francisco with an openly gay father. After his wife dies in a car accident, bisexual writer and activist Steve Abbott moves with his two-year-old daughter to San Francisco. There they discover a city in the midst of revolution, bustling with gay men in search of liberation - few of whom are raising a child. Steve throws himself into San Francisco's vibrant cultural scene.
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Great representation of the time
- By AvidReader22 on 06-07-19
By: Alysia Abbott
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There's Nothing in This Book That I Meant to Say
- By: Paula Poundstone
- Narrated by: Paula Poundstone
- Length: 5 hrs and 59 mins
- Abridged
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What do the lives of Lincoln, Helen Keller, Joan of Arc, and other historical figures have in common with Paula Poundstone? In the hands of this wryly observant and self-deprecating comedian, the answer is outrageously funny and unexpectedly touching. Poundstone compares her crazy life to theirs, as she holds forth on her children, her career, and the time in her life when it appeared she would lose them both.
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More!
- By Evelyn on 02-11-07
By: Paula Poundstone
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Road Dog
- Life and Reflections from the Road as a Stand-up Comic
- By: Dov Davidoff
- Narrated by: Dov Davidoff
- Length: 5 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Road Dog is comedian, actor, and writer, Dov Davidoff's unflinching memoir told through reflections of twelve months on the road. Davidoff travels across the country from college campuses to local theaters doing stand-up comedy and telling it like it is. He's been known to wax poetic about everything from encounters with large fake breasts, to people who have too many kids, to magnum condoms the size of CD cases. He is hilarious and relatable and will have you laughing at yourself in no time.
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dark, real, & exceptional
- By Luis F Rodriguez on 11-22-17
By: Dov Davidoff
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Punk Rock Blitzkrieg
- My Life as a Ramone
- By: Rich Herschlag, Marky Ramone
- Narrated by: Corey M. Snow
- Length: 13 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Having outlived his bandmates, Marky is the only person who can share the secrets and stories of the Ramones' improbable rise from obtuse beginnings to induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. But it wasn't all good times and hit songs, and Marky doesn't shy away from discussing his own struggles.
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Dedicated Punk Fans Must Read
- By Leostriple on 03-26-15
By: Rich Herschlag, and others
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My Year with Eleanor
- A Memoir
- By: Noelle Hancock
- Narrated by: Emily Beresford
- Length: 9 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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After losing her high-octane job as an entertainment blogger, Noelle Hancock was lost. About to turn 29, she'd spent her career writing about celebrities' lives and had forgotten how to live her own. Unemployed and full of self-doubt, she had no idea what she wanted out of life. She feared change - in fact, she feared almost everything. Once confident and ambitious, she had become crippled by anxiety, lacking the courage required even to attend a dinner party - until inspiration struck one day in the form of a quote on a chalkboard in a coffee shop.
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Right on time!
- By Leah on 02-19-18
By: Noelle Hancock
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The Book of Help
- A Memoir in Remedies
- By: Megan Griswold
- Narrated by: Megan Griswold
- Length: 11 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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A hilarious and heartbreaking memoir-in-remedies by a self-described "professional soul-searcher" that details a journey of self-discovery through more than 160 tonics, seminars, regimens, and transformative therapies. With a voice that is at once intimate and hilarious, Megan captures the openness and honesty necessary for people to take a new path in life. Listeners will open the audiobook with curiosity about all the different healing therapies that Megan tries, but leave with a new understanding of themselves.
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Mr. Toad's Wild Ride has some serious competition!
- By Elisa R. Goodman on 02-15-19
By: Megan Griswold
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Your Band Sucks
- What I Saw at Indie Rock's Failed Revolution (But Can No Longer Hear)
- By: Jon Fine
- Narrated by: Jon Fine
- Length: 10 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Jon Fine spent nearly 30 years performing and recording with bands that played various forms of aggressive and challenging underground rock music. And, as he writes in this memoir, at no point were any of those bands "ever threatened, even distantly, by actual fame". Yet when members of his first band, Bitch Magnet, reunited after 21 years to tour Europe, Asia, and America, diehard longtime fans traveled from far and wide to attend those shows.
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Life in a band-the ups, downs and truth!
- By C Christopher Taylor on 07-10-18
By: Jon Fine
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Confessions of a Latter-Day Virgin
- A Memoir
- By: Nicole Hardy
- Narrated by: Nicole Hardy
- Length: 10 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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When Nicole Hardy’s eye-opening "Modern Love" column appeared in the New York Times, the response from readers was overwhelming. Hardy’s essay, which exposed the conflict between being true to herself as a woman and remaining true to her Mormon faith, struck a chord with women coast-to-coast. Now in her funny, intimate, and thoughtful memoir, Nicole Hardy explores how she came, at the age of 35, to a crossroads regarding her faith and her identity.
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This Book Spoke to Me
- By Allison on 04-08-14
By: Nicole Hardy
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Rats Saw God
- By: Rob Thomas
- Narrated by: Johnny Heller
- Length: 6 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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By his senior year, Steve York has come through the worst two years of his life. His parents have divorced, and his girlfriend has betrayed him. Worse yet, after running away to live with his mother in San Diego, forays into the drug culture have turned his A-average into a thing of the past. Steve's only hope to graduate on time and avoid summer school is to write a 100-page paper for his guidance counselor. Unfortunately, he has to write about something he knows, and all he knows well are the last two years of his life.
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Real
- By Mary on 06-26-09
By: Rob Thomas
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Bright Lights, Big City
- By: Jay McInerney
- Narrated by: Daniel Passer
- Length: 5 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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The tragicomedy of a young man in New York City, a writer, never named, who works as a fact-checker for a prestigious magazine. He struggles with the reality of his mother's death, alienation, and the seductive pull of drugs and a vibrant nightlife.
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Curiously, mundanely real
- By Amber on 01-07-12
By: Jay McInerney
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A Little Bit Wicked
- Life, Love, and Faith in Stages
- By: Kristin Chenoweth
- Narrated by: Kristin Chenoweth
- Length: 6 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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In this frank and funny memoir, the Tony Award-winning star of stage and screen shares her journey from small-town Oklahoma to big-time Broadway, vamping on what it takes to stand firmly on a foundation of family and faith while wearing a hot pair of Jimmy Choo platform sling-backs.
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Salt of the Earth + Sparkles
- By Holly on 10-01-09
-
The Opposite of Loneliness
- Essays and Stories
- By: Marina Keegan
- Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller
- Length: 5 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Marina Keegan's star was on the rise when she graduated magna cum laude from Yale in May 2012. She had a play that was to be produced at the New York International Fringe Festival and a job waiting for her at the New Yorker. Tragically, five days after graduation, Marina died in a car crash. Even though she was just 22 when she died, Marina left behind a rich, expansive trove of prose that, like her title essay, captures the hope, uncertainty, and possibility of her generation.
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Probably buy the book too.
- By Soupergirl on 09-14-15
By: Marina Keegan
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You're Better than Me
- A Memoir
- By: Bonnie McFarlane
- Narrated by: Bonnie McFarlane, Alexander Cendese
- Length: 7 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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In the spirit of Mindy Kaling, Kelly Oxford, and Sarah Silverman, a compulsively listenable and outrageously funny memoir of growing up as a fish out of water, finding your voice, and embracing your inner crazy person from popular actress, writer, and comedian Bonnie McFarlane.
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Sandy!!! She wrote a book...it's crazy, a book!!!
- By Jonathan Placek on 03-02-16
By: Bonnie McFarlane
What listeners say about My Own Devices
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
- R.W.
- 03-11-20
Even more beautiful 2nd read thru
Love this artist!! So insightful and beautifully written. Will be re-reading/listening again for sure
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- Josh
- 10-06-18
If you like Dessa, you'll love the book
If you're into anything she does, this book will be an easy entertaining listen. This book gives background for all the things she's done, career or otherwise. It is like a sneak peak into Dessa's head.... almost literally
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- Elsa S
- 09-25-18
Prose for the soul
Absolutely stunning and vulnerable story everyone who has ever loved and lost and kept trying can find healing in. A must listen.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Stefan J Hertel
- 12-05-18
Interesting and Impressive
This book is beautifully written and performed by the Author, and while it chronicles the life of a touring musician, it investigates the realities of a career as a creative artist and the chaos of powerful love. For sure worth a listen or a read, the view through the eyes of Dessa is fascinating.
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- Alex M.
- 09-09-20
Cool Read
Cool read. Dessa definitely has a way with words and the extent to which she tries to forget her love for Xzibit was surprising. Would love to see a full fiction from Dessa, that would be neat.
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- Hollie
- 03-14-19
Beautiful, intellectual, and fascinating
I fell in love with Dessa's music about eight years ago after picking up a copy of Badly Broken Code at my local record store. Since then, her voice has been a constant in my life. When she released Spiral Bound, I fell in love with her prose. This book does not disappoint. It is intellectually fascinating, and full of vulnerability and strength. I found myself laughing, and crying at times. Pick this gem up, you will not be disappointed. Thank you for this gift Dessa!
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Overall
- Lisa
- 08-13-19
I just love everything Dessa does. She knows words
Seriously though. She has a way with metaphors like no-one else. I knew she was smart but dang....she's brilliant. I am super curious about who "ex" is.... but she would have told us if she wanted us to know. #Dessaforpresident
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- Mostly happy
- 02-20-23
Brilliant, witty, poignant, joyful
So well written, colorful, textured with keen observations. A meditation on growing up, living an artist’s life and coping with “senseless love”. Made with care. Read with flair. Dessa takes us on her journey, and generously shares her brilliant insights from the road - thus far. Entertaining!
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- S
- 12-03-23
Skillful and natural storytelling
The stories in this book flow as naturally as if Dessa were simply reading from a journal, but also as beautifully as poetry. A very enjoyable listen.
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- Caitie
- 10-13-18
Lives Up To Dessa's Amazing Music
Found myself crying on a long car ride as things got too relatable. Beautifully well-written.
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