Ten Steps to Nanette by Hannah Gadsby is a powerful and inspiring memoir that takes readers through the defining moments in the life of one of Australia's most beloved comedians. As a queer person from Tasmania, Gadsby faced many challenges and obstacles on her path to success, including the struggle with adult diagnoses of autism and ADHD. Despite these challenges, she persevered and went on to create one of the most groundbreaking and transformative stand-up specials of our time.

The memoir traces Gadsby's growth as a comedian and as a person, from her early days performing in small clubs to the worldwide success of Nanette. Along the way, she discusses the importance of rejecting self-deprecation and misogyny in comedy, and the moral significance of truth-telling. Her journey is both harrowing and hilarious, and her ability to create tension and laughter in a single moment is truly remarkable.

What sets Ten Steps to Nanette apart from other memoirs is Gadsby's unique voice and perspective. She is not afraid to confound expectations and norms, and her willingness to tell the truth no matter the cost is truly inspiring. Her story is one of resilience, strength, and hope, and it is sure to resonate with readers of all backgrounds.

Overall, I highly recommend Ten Steps to Nanette to anyone who is a fan of Hannah Gadsby or who is interested in the transformative power of comedy. This memoir is a must-read for anyone who has ever struggled with their identity or felt like an outsider. Gadsby's story is a reminder that we all have the power to overcome adversity and create a better world for ourselves and those around us.

In the ‘stand-up comedy show’ Nanette, Hannah Gadsby powerfully and emotionally discusses why she has to quit the type of comedy she has been performing throughout her career: it revolved around her trauma growing up as a lesbian in a homophobic society, and locking this trauma into self-deprecating jokes to the extent that she was unable to move past the shame she grew up with and tell her story properly.

In her own words: “part of my problem is comedy has suspended me in a perpetual state of adolescence. The way I’ve been telling my story is through jokes. And stories, unlike jokes, need three parts: a beginning, a middle and an end. Jokes only need two parts: a beginning and a middle. And what I had done, with that comedy show about coming out, was I froze an incredibly formative experience at its trauma point and sealed it off into jokes. But unfortunately that joke version was not nearly sophisticated enough to help me undo the damage done to me in reality. I still have shame. You learn from the part of the story you focus on. I need to tell my story properly.”

The Ten Steps to Nanette, which I was listening to on audiobook alongside the @tandemcollectiveuk readalong participants, allows Hannah Gadsby to tell her story in more detail and not purely reduced to a punchline. Don’t get me wrong, the memoir is still funny and has plenty of punchlines — but it also has made room for Hannah to tell her story in other multifaceted ways as well, including her moments of joy. Nanette was an incredible show, so it was interesting to read more about Hannah’s upbringing, her experiences of queer identity, autism and ADHD, and her path from childhood right through to the show Nanette, through which many people — including me — discovered her.

Hannah Gadsby is a great performer, and so listening to the book as an audiobook narrated by her was a great experience to really feel the emotion of her story, told properly, coming through.

Now I’m not a stand up comedy fan and had never heard of Hannah or her Netflix show Nanette but I enjoyed listening regardless.

I must admit, I find it a little odd when young(ish) [minor] celebrities decide to write a memoir. They can be quite self indulgent and more of a vanity project and the first chunk of Hannah’s I found to be of this thread, lots of memories of growing up etc which I do appreciate fed into her production on Nanette, but still a little self indulgent.

What I found most fascinating was the process of creating Nanatte. The thought process and rational behind its production was so intriguing. I also found the story behind becoming a stand up comedian and the challenges such a career entails to be interesting.

Despite my earlier criticism of the memoir being a little self indulgent, Hannah talks openly and candidly about her life experiences. Her honesty about topics such as her sexual assault and coming out is commendable. It’s a brave story and doesn’t shy away from or sugar coat the challenges she’s faced.

I hope writing the book was a therapeutic task for Hannah and allowed her processing time and perhaps some closure.

The audiobook benefitted from being narrated by the author making it much more personal and raw.

This isn’t a book I would have been likely to pick-up if it hadn’t been for Tandem Collective and NetGalley and I am glad I had the opportunity to read it. I learnt a lot about stand up comedy, producing a show and growing up in Australia and would definitely recommend to fans of memoirs or of Hannah!

I was lucky to be accepted onto a Tandem Collective listen along for Ten Steps to Nanette. I love an audiobook. I especially enjoy listening to memoirs when read by the author because I get more from it that the words on the page.

Gadsby intertwines history and facts with her story. Whilst hearing about Hannah’s life, I was learning so much about Tasmania, and how it’s viewed by mainland Australia and the differing views and laws (although, I’m not sure how much I’ve retained but that’s a me problem!).

There are triggers galore for this book but they are not dwelled on. If anything, Gadsby brushes over many of them in a factual, “that happened” way. And I can understand not wanting to go into detail for some traumatic things.

I especially enjoyed the conversations about being autistic, having ADHD, mental health and being a member of the LGBTQIA community.

I can’t express how different this memoir is. It doesn’t feel narcissistic; it’s someone sharing their story with humour and a bit of education along the way.

I went into this book not knowing much about Hannah but that didn't stop me from enjoying this book.
This book is raw, honest and witty - Hannah really pours her heart into sharing her experiences, history and journey in the creation of 'Nanette'.
I usually don't gravitate towards memoirs but am glad to have had an opportunity to read this one and highly recommend!! This is a must read.

Many thanks to the team over at @tandemcollectiveuk and to @wfhowes for having me on the tour as part of the listenalong.

I’ve seen and heard of Hannah before signing up the book tour, I found her style of comedy intriguing and entertaining and this book didn’t fail to deliver on giving us an insight into the creation of her title work: Nanette.

Having the audiobook actually narrated by Hannah really makes the whole experience pop. We hear her experiences, her memories, and her story narrated and delivered by her.
I really loved this book and I’m glad I signed up. I rated Ten Steps to Nanette a total of ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ five stars!

I went into this book complete blind, I had never heard of, let alone watch Nanette. What I found was a funny, heartbreaking and emotional memoir.

Hannah’s story follows her as an awkward child, to finding her feet in adulthood, ending with the hit Netflix show Nanette.

Listening to Hannah tell her story made the story hit home more, especially regarding her mental health. She is brutally honest about heru dark days, and how she struggled to get an accurate diagnosis for years. Autism isn’t diagnosed in women very often, and listening to Hannah struggle to get her diagnosis really highlights this.

The memoir wasn’t all dark though, there were some stand out hilarious parts. Especially when Hannah is retelling the first show she did in front of her mum, that had my chuckling away out loud on my car.

Even if you haven’t heard of Hannah or her show I still recommend that you listen to this memoir!

Can’t wait to watch Hannah’s shows now after listening to this. A really warm and nicely narrated memoir.

Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publishers for letting me read this book in exchange for my review.

I knew absolutely nothing about Hannah Gadsby when I saw Ten Steps to Nanette pop up on Netgalley and once I read the blurb I instantly knew I wanted to know more.

Ten Steps to Nanette is Hannah's brutally honest memoir where she openly talks about her unusual childhood growing up in Tasmania, where it was illegal to be gay until 1997, her uphill battle to attain her ASD diagnosis as an adult, a mountain of trauma she experienced, her life as a comedian and all the funny nitty gritty bits in-between.

This isn't an easy read by any means and I spent huge sections spiraling from crying with laughter to tears of genuine sorrow at some of Hannah's experiences. But, what is clear is that Hannah has an amazingly powerful and poignant story to tell which everyone needs to hear and learn from. It's not doom and gloom as Hannah has a real talent in making even the darkest of situations have some comedic value. So do yourself a favour and go watch Nanette on Netflix and then pick up Ten Steps to Nanette on audiobook for a truly enlightening giggle.