Within this memoir filled with humor and heart, comedian, writer, and producer Cristela Alonzo shares personal tales of developing up as a first-generation Mexican-American in Tx and following her dreams to go after a career in comedy.

When Cristela Alonzo and her family lived as squatters within an abandoned diner, they just had two luxuries: a television and a radio, which became her pop cultural touchstone and a guiding light.

Cristela shares her experiences and struggles to be a initial- about Music to My Years: A Mixtape-Memoir of Growing Up and Standing Up era American, her dreams to become a comedian, and how it feels to be a creator in a world that often minimizes people of color and females. Her stories add the ridiculous—just like the period she made her own tap sneakers out of bottle caps or how the theme tune of The Golden Girls landed her in the primary’s office—towards the sobering moments, like how she turned to stand-up comedy to grieve the heartbreaking lack of her mother and exactly how, years afterwards, she’s focused on giving back to the community that helped make her.

Each significant moment of the book relates to a song, and the resulting playlist is deeply shifting, resonant, and memorable. Music to My Years can make you laugh, cry, and even inspire you to produce a playlist of your own.