High School

High School by Sara Quin & Tegan Quin, 369 pages

In 2019, the twin queens of Canadian indie rock, Tegan and Sara, published this memoir of their high school years. These were the years when they started learning to play music (by stealing their step-dad's guitar out of his office while he wasn't home and playing along to whatever grunge music they had playing at the time), write songs (many of which were spurred by their confused feelings about their best friends/girlfriends), and work together musically while fighting tooth and nail otherwise. 

This was a great book, and I can see why it's being adapted into a TV series for Amazon. It's relatable, captivating, and full of stories that are a bit more dramatic than anything I experienced in high school (of course, I was a band geek, so what do I know?). I highly recommend listening to the audiobook, which is read by the the twins (thankfully they announce their name before each chapter they read, as their voices are pretty similar) and is interspersed with low-fi recordings of their first songs. More than once, I found myself humming the songs, none of which I'd heard before, despite being a big fan of theirs. It also includes a short interview between Tegan and Sara about writing the book and recording the audiobook. A great book and an even better audiobook.