Music legend and author Etta James has passed away. She was 73 years old.

In the video embedded above, James sang her classic tune, “At Last.” In 1995, she co-wrote a memoir with David Ritz, a book called Rage To Survive: The Etta James Story. Follow this link to read excerpts from her memoir.

Here’s one review of her book: “This is a personal testament to one woman’s struggle to survive. Etta doesn’t seem to leave much out, but she’s largely non-judgemental, both about her own failings and those of others. She tells of her own demons and how self-doubt and her heroin addiction threatened to destroy her, but she never descends into self-pity. There are numerous stories about those she has known and worked with, including Johnny Otis, Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Sam Cooke, Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, Esther Phillips and Bo Diddley.”

Novelist Paul Auster‘s 22-year-old daughter Sophie (pictured, via) sang songs in New York last night at a benefit for PEN America’s Readers & Writers program. Book Bench was there, sketching the literary luminaries in the audience.

Here’s an excerpt: “Auster, who is twenty-two, is already at work on her second album and is slated to appear in two films next year. Her father, the novelist Paul Auster, was standing in the crowd as well, listening with one knee bent against the back of his seat. He looked unabashedly proud. Sophie, at moments, became more like a kid than a star, as though unaccustomed to the power of her voice. ‘This one is my, uh, Aretha Franklin song,’ she said of her last act, rolling her eyes and mussing her hair. Salman Rushdie, who was sitting across from Auster and his wife, Siri Hustvedt, tried to take a picture with his iPhone.”

Find out more about Auster’s music on her MySpace page.