Face It by Debbie Harry

 (Dey St, 2019) This is fantastic, as the always cool, weird, and grounded Blondie-frontwoman compiles stories of her life, fantastic photos of her fantastic face, hot goss, and her philosophies about art and creativity into a beautiful brick of a book. One theme, starting from when a man compliments her "bedroom eyes" as an infant, is men acting terrible in response to her powerful beauty. As a 12 year old Buddy Rich covertly tails Harry all night, pursuing her for an after-hours date (ultimately meeting her parents while Debbie presumably is in footie pajamas in the next room). An ex REALLY stalks her in horrifying ways. And she even does time as a Playboy Bunny close enough to the Mad Men era to make you fear for her pinch bruises. But what makes her descriptions of the perils and horrors of dangerous sexism and misogyny, treacherous punk rock poverty, and life-defining drug addictions, so compelling is that either in retrospect, or, more likely, because the 60s and 70s and her own tough/adventurous/realist nature built her that way, Harry never frames her darkest experiences as trauma or victimhood or shame, (or even particularly dark to go by her writerly voice). Even her detailed description of a rape is presented very matter-of-fact, and does not inspire her towards lifestyle/neighborhood/career changes. But her voice is her voice, and you don't doubt her even if you know you would never be able to recount horrors in such  a calm deadpan. If you know Blondie's story you know that they made VERY bad business moves, early on making them broke as fuck during their height of fame, and you know that Harry's artistic, and often romantic, partner Chris Stein suffered from a lengthy debilitating illness (Harry was at his side, sneaking heroin into the hospital). But if you know their work you know that art came first. Harry and Stein believed in the music and videos and movies and weird side projects and fashion and ideas. Harry definitely devotes as much love and care and ink to the bizarre mess of a cable access show she did with Glenn  O'Brien, Fab Five Freddie, and Klaus Nomi as she does to "Heart of Glass." And that seems about right. Making the package even more amazing are huge sections reprinting fan art from the decades, many for kids. What a perfect cable access decision!