Published in 1996, Robert Greenfield’s "Dark Star" is an oral biography of Jerry Garcia built from the memories of the people who knew him. Instead of a single narrator steering the ship, Greenfield lets a chorus handle the navigation: family, friends and bandmates who sometimes harmonize, sometimes contradict one another, and often do both in the same breath. Individual recollections range from a couple of sentences to the occasional full page. The result is living portrait.

Bill Kreutzmann’s Deal is not a historian’s chronicle of the Grateful Dead. It reads like a field recording from the drummer’s stool told by the man who held the beat. Co-written with journalist Benjy Eisen, the book is exceptionally candid, percussive and sometimes messy in a way that feels honest rather than careless.

Phil Lesh approaches memory like he approached music—with precision, curiosity and the occasional dissonant note. Searching for the Sound isn’t a tell-all or a nostalgia trip. It’s the bassist’s attempt to trace the arc from Palo Alto jam sessions to the strange, mythic machinery the Grateful Dead became.