Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon, and the Journey of a Generation Shelia Weller 2008 |
Everything in GIRLS LIKE US will be amazingly familiar to those of us born in the bay boom, and yet Sheila Weller, a talented if erratic prose stylist, brings us to emotional places that will be new to all but those most intimate with the trio of songwriters whose lives, she declares, form a "journey of a generation. It's nearly a biography of five people, not just three, as there is so much about James Taylor you will never need to read another word about him if you have this book on your shelf; and for some reason there's tons of material about Judy Collins. GIRLS LIKE US is a book that, for all its flaws, convinces us roundly in its larger arguments and dazzles with its wide-ranging portraits of artistic life in the 50s, 60s and 70s. Reviewed by Kevin Killian |
Out on a Limb Shirley MacLaine 1986 |
The book describes in an entertaining and gripping writing style, full of humour and insight, Shirley's exciting adventure of spiritual awakening. It is an autobiographic book of a very small but intense time of Shirley's life, in which, as many who have had an awakening will be able to relate to, life becomes brilliantly alive, full of synchronicities and magic. Shirley is lead from book, to teacher, to channel, to places across the globe as she follows the promtings of spirit that lead her to glimpse and explore realities that break down her previous belief structure about the world. And as she travels and learns, a completely new way of viewing life emerges for her- and a completely new Shirley! Spiritual insights aside, just the way in which this book is written is superb - Shirley has a real gift for bringing to life her experiences on the page and the book reads as an exilarating adventure novel. I loved it and re-read it occasionally when i want to recapture that feeling. Reviewed by Catherine Gallanti |
But enough About Me: A Jersey Girl's Unlikely Adventures Among the Absurdly Famous Jancee Dunn 2007 |
But Enough About Me is an engaging account of her life as a writer for Rolling Stone magazine, as well as the time she spent as a veejay for MTV2 and reporter for Good Morning America. Dunn chronicles how she managed to get one of the world's best jobs, and she shares lots of details about meeting the rich and famous. The chapters alternate between her personal memoirs and accounts of some of the interesting interviews she has conducted. Ms. Dunn does a nice dance of sharing just enough information without giving away too much of her clients' musings, and her name-dropping is fun in an unpretentious way. This is a fast, enjoyable read, and anyone with any interest in entertainment personalities will enjoy it immensely. Excellent writing with great stories! Reviewed by Tamela McCann |
Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously Julie Powell 2009 |
The premise of this book is quite interesting - a woman who is looking for direction in her life stumbles across her mother's old, hardback copy of Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking", and has an epiphany. She decides, that in one year, she will cook all 524 recipes in the book, and write about her experiences in a blog - still a relatively new "art" form at that time.
The resulting blog, and book, are filled with lustily-written passages describing cooking; her rather surreal job at an unnamed government job; (Something to do with designing a new memorial building at the Twin Towers Site post 9/11); her interesting, bohemian friends and their escapades; and her marriage. Her writing is full of angst, passion, and verve. All-in-all, a highly entertaining read. The recipes, as such, are limited. This is not a cookbook. This is a memoir of cooking. This is a memoir of life. This is a memoir of joie-de-vivre. This is a book that has more to do with discovering that while you can hate your job, your coworkers and where your life is going, you can love to cook, love your husband, love your friends, and that, in the end, is what matters. Reviewed by C. Wallis Davenport |
Home: A Memoir of My Early Years Julie Andrews 2008 |
"Home" was the first word that toddler Julia Wells -- soon to become Julie Andrews -- spoke. Though it was denied her as a young girl, a normal home life was important to Andrews from the beginning. The embodiment of a class act, Julie Andrews tells the story of her impoverished upbringing in London with grace and candor. She recounts what must be painful memories in a straightforward way, never whining or asking for pity. She holds nothing back.
Stories of her alcoholic stepfather -- and his obvious efforts to molest her -- left me shaken. When she was 9, he insists he show her "how I cuddle with Mummy." At 16, he shows up in her bedroom and demands that he "really must teach you to kiss properly." Her uncle installs a padlock on her bedroom door. Julie's two younger brothers are regularly beaten and abused. When her 3-year-old brother has a potty-training accident, the stepdad rubs the little boy's nose in it. Andrews began performing to support the family while still very young. She tells fascinating stories of learning to sing properly and working the shabby vaudeville circuit. The result of her first screen test? "She's not photogenic enough for film." To combat the stress the 12-year-old would go to a nearby cinema to watch Mickey Mouse cartoons between her two performances of the night. The fact that Cinderella is her door out is almost too perfect. Later, when Walt Disney picked her to play Mary Poppins, she gets a whirlwind tour of Disneyland by Walt himself, riding the Jungle Cruise and seeing the Swiss Family Treehouse. "Mary Poppins" author P. L. Travers even calls her, complaining: "Well, you're much too pretty, of course. But you've got the nose for it!" The memoir ends there, with Andrews on the cusp of real stardom. Reviewed by Julie Neal |
Me: Stories of My Life Katherine Hepburn 1991 |
Ms. Hepburn writes in a casual tone that draws the reader into her unique life and presents herself in the most open way possible. Being an actress, she writes surprisingly well. Her recent death has made her life all the more poignant. Her stinging rhetoric that wons the hearts of America shines through her writing and convinces the reader that he or she is merely sitting in Kate's living room, having tea and a nice chat. Of course, there are some sentimental moments that are truly touching. This books provides deep insight into Ms. Hepburn the person, but she only briefly touches on her historical career. If you're looking for a chronology of her work, choose a different biography. "ME" lets the reader getto know Katharine the Human Being. As distant and unapproachable as Katharine Hepburn may seem, her autobiography gives an aura of almost frailty and dependence. Certainly, Hepburn was one of the most independent role models modern women could hope for, but her life through her own eyes was a hard journey, something she couldn't've accomplished very easily. Reviewed by Starfire |
SkyWriting: A Life Out of the Blue Jane Pauley 2005 |
SKYWRITING begins with the 2001 bipolar episode, a side effect of a heavy dosing of steroids for persistent hives. If the news stopped me, just a television viewer who does not know Pauley personally, imagine what it did to her, a person who always seemed to be sailing forward in her busy public life. As she healed, she began experimenting with what she calls "skywriting," starting out with an image or memory and seeing where the pen took her. When she was done, she had revisited her childhood, adolescence, career in television and family life. She invites readers along on her journey to self rediscovery.
Pauley's writing is clear as a bell, and the chapters on the bipolar experience are delivered without overdramatization. Once the book turns to her life, it measures out in segments reminiscent of "Dateline" pacing, with segues fraught with foreshadowing. Those looking for hot gossip will not find it. There are several personal revelations but none that will change the way Pauley is received in the world: warm, smart and genuine. Few journeys of the self are as downright decent and ultimately as reassuring as this one. Reviewed by C Ebeling |
My Life in France Julia Child 2006 |
We all have a version of Julia Child in our head and it is likely one that stems from fondness. This book only makes you love her more. She has such a joie de vivre as she finds herself and creates a beautiful life with a wonderful husband and very charming and interesting family and friends. She's also honest about the things that may not have gone so well. But you always get the feeling that
Ms. Child looked at all her experiences - good and bad - as part of a remarkable journey and that she loved the people who accompanied her along the way. Reviewed by Anonymous |
A Natural Woman Carole King 2012 |
Even leaving out her entertainment career, Carole King has led a fascinating, full life. In her personable and engaging new book she references the many current events, societal shifts and pervasive memes that have had an effect on her, so besides
being the memoir of someone at the heart of the music business, A Natural Woman is an absorbing cultural history of the last 60-some years. Carole King has a lot to recount about her long love of music. She began making up songs when she was three and had her first public performance on the Horn and Hardart Children's Hour television show at eight. As a young adolescent, her ability to compose and sing helped her begin to make the move from nerdy toward cool. Barely out of high school, she and her young husband got jobs writing popular, highly acclaimed songs, many of which are still covered, including Loco-motion and the at the time risqué Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow. By the early 1970s her album Tapestry added multiple Grammy winning recording star to her list of accomplishments, and she's still creating and performing today. But Carole King's career in music is only part of what makes her wide ranging story so interesting. She married and had her first children while not much more than a child herself, just before the free-love era of the later 1960s, and there were three other marriages, two more children, and several long term relationships, all of which she writes about in a reasonably candid manner. One husband became a drug addict, another was physically abusive, and she explores the reasons why she stayed with them as long as she did, and offers advice to women in similar situations. Carole grewup in the New York City area, moved with her children to the hip Laurel Canyon section of Los Angeles when her first marriage ended, where she jammed with other famous and soon-to-be-famous musicians, and then lived a rugged, off-the-grid, back-to-the-land life in Idaho where she fought a multi-year legal battle to retain property rights to a road through her homestead. Because she had children while she was still young, all her musical and peripatetic adventures had to not compromise what she thought would be best for her offspring, though she admits to making mistakes. Carole's life and her capacities for engagement and reinvention are remarkable enough to make for captivating reading, but she's ordinary and everywoman enough to make it feel like she's one of us. Reviewed by Jaylia3 |
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The Same River Twice Alice Walker 1996 |
"The Same River Twice" was a very good book and it gave so much insight into who Alice Walker is as a person. I never knew that Ms. Walker has Lyme disease and that she loved to garden. The casting of certain individuals in certain roles shocked me it never dawned on that Tina Turner was their first choice in playing Shug Avery and that Lola Folana and Diana Ross were also considered for the part. Also I did not know that Ms. Walker had a problem completing the screenplay for the actual movie due her disease. Ms. Walker is one of the best authors of our time and it is a shame that people cannot see the beauty in her work.I do remember all of the controversy surrounding "The Color Purple" when I was a teenager and how I was forbidden to see the movie. When I finally saw the movie after it had been out on video cassette three years later I was shocked and enlightened all at the same moment. I was shocked at seeing two women kiss and enlightened to see Celie break away from her abusive husband and flourish as person. The book and the movie are different and people should read the book before passing judgement on Ms. Walker's character if they have only seen the movie. I know now Ms. Walker had somewhat of a different vision of her book being made into a movie than Steven.
Reviewed by PA Lewis |
Hazel Scott: The Pioneering Journey of a Jazz Pianist from Cafe Society to Hollywood to HUAC 2010 |
Hazel Scott's compelling story writtten by Karen Chilton captures you mmediately through adventure, extraordinary perseverance and determination exhibited by the female characters. Karen has woven this narrative of history, culture, gender and explicitly demonstrates how a black woman was brave, courageous and determined to fight for her ideals
and beliefs. Hazel Scott endures pain and obstacles, yet remained steadfast and purposeful exhibiting her talent as a child prodigy, an unselfish wife, a devoted mother and a fierce civil rights fighter. Karen Chilton weaves the threads that will conquer the attention,applause and vicarious experiences with an anticipation that keeps you reading and wishing for more as the story concludes. Book clubs will be able to have enlightening, meaningful chats after reading "Hazel Scott, The Pioneering Journey of a Jazz Pianist from Cafe Society to Hollywood to HUAC". A must read! Reviewed by Yvonne. |
Sissy Spacek: My Extraordinary Ordinary Life Sissy Spacek 2012 |
As a long time admirer of Sissy Spacek, I couldn't wait to listen to her autobiography. It was simply wonderful ! If I found myself back home before a section ended I would sit in the car and listen until I got to a stopping point. Sissy's story is not a gossipy Hollywood tell-all, so if that's what you're looking for, look elsewhere. This telling of Sissy's life, from her birth in Texas to New York and Hollywood and finally to her serene life in the horse country of Virginia is a open, honest and unvarnished as any autobiography I have ever read. Sissy makes the reader feel that she could be a friend telling her story while sitting together on a big front porch sipping iced tea and reminiscing about good times and some sad ones. I too grew up in the South about the same time Sissy did, but in a city, not a small town like Quitman, TX. She made me long for a small town childhood. The book is open, honest, and well-written. It captures the reader's attention from the first few words makes him/her wish for more when it ends. In a world where children of celebrities are dressed to look like mini adults, have every wish granted, and are indulged to a ridiculous extent, it is so refreshing to read that there is someone Like Sissy Spacek who had the good sense and enough concern for her family to move them away from all the trappings of Hollywood and rear them in a truly family-oriented environment. She has been married to the same man for over 30 years and makes no bones about how much they love each other. The bottom line is this: Sissy Spacek is for real and so is her book. Reviewed by K Coxwell |
Life in Motion: An Unlikely Ballerina Misty Copeland 2014 |
Misty Copeland's story is an inspiring tale of overcoming a difficult childhood of poverty and rising en pointe to become a brilliant soloist with American Ballet Theater.
Misty's drill instructor (she was captain of the drill team at school) advised her to study ballet at the Boys and Girls Club, which became her salvation. She started at the late age of 13. But she was a prodigy, with natural strength sufficient to graduate to toe shoes after just three months of instruction. Ballet was her element, she became devoted to the art form, and was given unstinting support from the owner of the studio. She went to live with her teacher and her husband for two years, in the only stable and prosperous home she had known. But a custody struggle between her mother and her ballet teacher ended with Misty being returned to her mother. However, her talent and hard work won out, and she was accepted at every summer ballet intensive ballet she auditioned for (with the exception of New York City Ballet!). She moved from the San Francisco Ballet's intensive summer to American Ballet Theater's, and was immediately encouraged by the director of the studio company, a feeder to the professional company. The story of how Misty overcame the instability of her childhood and teenage years is told sensitively and with compelling interest. She is the first and only ballerina of color to reach soloist level in a classical ballet company, especially one of ABT's importance. All along she must overcome obstacles - of lack of confidence, of prejudice in favor of "white swans", and the universal ballet rule to have a boyish figure, while Misty was attractively feminine. In the end, Misty is victorious, chosen to play the Firebird on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera in a new ballet choreographed by Alexei Ratmansky. After surgery for a serious injury, she is back at ABT and her future is still open before her. Her story will inspire teenage dancers. Graciously, she acknowledges the help her early dance teachers gave her and the past "black swans" she met and befriended during her career. I eagerly look forward to her sequel, when she becomes a principal at ABT. Reviwed by Eileen Pollock |
They're Playing our Song Carole Bayer Sager 2016 |
Once upon a time there was a fearful little girl who thought she was too short, too fat, and that she would never find Prince Charming. However, she was blessed with an amazing talent that enabled her to put words to music. She was also blessed with intelligence, spunk, an amazing ability to roll with the punches, no matter how painful, and a delicious self-deprecatory wit. All that is evident in this engrossing memoir by one of the great names in pop culture. Carole Bayer Sager did not have an easy childhood, beset as she was with fears and a mother who was the opposite of nurturing. Her Prince Charming, in the guise of Burt Bacharach, turned out to be not so charming. However, Carole recalls all the ups and downs of her incredibly successful life with understanding and humor and a great deal of forgiveness and graciousness to those who hurt her (Mom and Burt included). She writes with humor about events and situations that were undoubtedly not funny when they occurred and with warmth and affection for her many friends and the musicians with whom she worked. What a wonderful life she has led and is evidently still living with her family and her late career as an artist. This is one of the best memoirs I've read in a long time. Reviewed by Galla |
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I have to say, this book was FAR more engaging than I had ever hoped for. I can easily say I loved every page and found myself thinking about it often during the day when I'd put it down. I'm a long-time fan of Ms. Streep, but the book is not just a great account of her life and development, it does a terrific job of bringing to life an entire era of AMerican social, political and dramatic revolution. The details are both funny and yet often intimate; you gain insight into the actress yes, but as well all of the "cast" of people who have been around her. So fans of recent history will be as rewarded as fans of Meryl Streep.
What stands out the most to me is just how much Ms. Streep worked to bring her amazing gifts to life, never taking anything for granted, never settling. Reviewed by Doug bowker |
Her Again
Michael Shulman
2016
Michael Shulman
2016
Natural Disaster Ginger Zee 2017 |
I could NOT put this book down. The more I read this book the more I thought I was reading about myself. Aside from the meteorologist part....Ginger has had some incredible experiences both negative and positive and this book shows you that everyone is dealing with tha right own struggles. Nobody is perfect and she highlights this beautifully. It’s very well written, a little sporadic and all over the place and keeps you wanting to know what happens next. I think I’ll be re-reading this a few times.
reviewed by Kristen B |
Diamond Doris Doris Payne 2019 |
I read this in two days, Doris lived a life that was risque & daring. It baffles me how she was able to lure & charm all the different employees at various jewelry stores to show her more jewelry than they should have, and be able to steal right under their eyes. I definitely see Kerry Washington or Halle Berry playing Doris in a movie version of this book. A great read!!
reviewed by Gloria Serrano |
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Just started reading Todd's book and it's one of the best biographies I've read. The flow is great, feels like we are sitting one and one and having a conversation. It's a very intimate portrait of a life lived with two amazing, legendary women. I appreciate his candor, and Todd sharing his perspective with us, even allowing us a more in-depth glimpse into their lives by granting access to his personal archives of photos and videos (available on his website). You can tell he is a very genuine, caring person who was trusted implicitly by his mother and sister. What an incredible, unique life this family lived. I can't imagine the devastating loss and tremendous void left with their deaths so close together. I highly recommend this book. Reviewed by Darlene Smith |
My Girls
Todd Fisher
2018
Todd Fisher
2018
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A great book with lots of photos, and such a personal story. I'm from Tennessee and have followed Tina and loved her music for so long. It was nice to catch up with her since her retirement by reading this memoir. It's amazing what she has gone through and overcome, even since her days with Ike.
This book starts with her second marriage in 2013. It dwells a bit in the past and covers her days with Ike and on tour, eventually walking away from that and reinventing herself, and then retiring and finding love again. From there, we learn of her struggle with cancer, a stroke, and a kidney transplant! The book even ends with one last tragedy that just happened earlier this year! I really enjoyed the personal stories she shared, like about her friendship with David Bowie or her farewell tour or why she became a citizen of Switzerland. There's lots of little things like this sprinkled throughout the book that really make it an enjoyable read. Great read! Tina really is simply the best! Reviewed by Shannon Yarbough |
Tina Turner: My Love Story.
Tina Turner
2018
Tina Turner
2018