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| Author: Sheila Weller
Publisher: Atria
Category: Book
List Price: $27.95
Buy New: $17.10
You Save: $10.85 (39%)
New (41) Used (16) from $15.84
Avg. Customer Rating:  118 reviews
Sales Rank: 2401
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 592
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.9
Dimensions (in): 9.7 x 6.2 x 2
ISBN: 0743491475
Dewey Decimal Number: 782.421640922
EAN: 9780743491471
ASIN: 0743491475
Publication Date: April 8, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Stayed In Bed All Morning . . . June 17, 2008
7 out of 9 found this review helpful
. . . just to finish reading this book. It's a long one, especially when you devour each little word contained in the many footnotes, but worth every hour spent. Reading this thorough, well-researched, and respectful biography of three notorious singer-songwriters, Carole King, Joni Mitchell and Carly Simon, from their days as young, aspiring artists to current days as grandmothers, was like listening to their music for the first time again. I couldn't help but break out my vinyl, stored in a moving box in the attic.
Sheila Weller clearly spent years gathering facts, information and quotes from those closest to these icons, (and in some cases from the women themselves), and braids the three stories together to paint a historical account of modern folk/rock/pop music. She doesn't merely regurgitate already published material from music reviews and Rolling Stone articles, but instead offers similarities and differences that made this reader appreciate the subjects as individuals as well as their contributions and reflections on the women's movement in general.
A surprising ribbon running through this braid is James Taylor, who had profound yet differing relationships with all three. What also ultimately struck me about the book was how deeply interested I was at the beginning and how it merely passed the time toward the end. I think it's a direct reflection on the careers of these women: exciting, fresh, ultra-talented in the beginning. . .but in the end, it becomes a biography of ordinary--albeit ambitious--women who've led extraordinary lives while looking for love and fulfillment, and endured tremendous public scrutiny. One thing the critics in our society can't take from them is their recorded music--their true biographies--and I, for one, will listen to them sing for the rest of my life.
Very well written, very well done and I certainly recommend this book to fans of these musicians (as well as James Taylor, and others like Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young), and to those interested in the music scene as it developed and evolved through the 1960s-1980s.
Michele Cozzens is the author of It's Not Your Mother's Bridge Club
Part Biography, Part History, Part Gossip! June 11, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Girls Like Us is one of the most fascinating books I've read this year. I've long been an admirer of Carole King, Joni Mitchell, and Carly Simon individaully and I guess I was vaguely aware that there was a thread that linked all three: James Taylor. I've been a fan of James Taylor since his first record on Apple. This book is almost as much about James Taylor as it is about the three stated subjects. Without a doubt, this is one of the most candid accounts of the various ways people achieve success in the music business I've ever read, and I read about this subject all the time. All three women come from totally different social strata. Obvious advantages turn to disadvantages and vice versa. Weller does not whitewash or try to flatter anyone. King's masochism, Mitchell's arrogance, and Simon's nymphomania (I don't know what else you'd call it!) are discussed as candidly as Henry Miller would have done. Taylor's drug addiction, too, is explored in detail. So, you think you have a little musical talent and would like to do this professionally? Well, this book tells you who makes it in the music business and who doesn't. These are the faults you can get away with and the talents you have to have, and in some cases the faults you have to have to achieve great success selling records and concert tickets. The book also examines the lifestyles of people who have achieved great success not just in the music business but in western society. I came away with a different view of the term "middleclass morality." The poor and the wealthy both have their own ways of doing things. Only the middleclass cares what other people think of them. That's what keeps them middleclass. Fame and success are swords that cut both ways. People have no idea how to treat those who have achieved them. If you try to be candid and honest, you come off seeming ungrateful, arrogant, and unrealistic. If you try to engage as an artist or a business person in your own right, you come off as a user or a confidence trickster. Even artists at the same level wind up competing with each other financially and sexually. The pleasures of achieving great wealth and recognition for your art is a tremendous ego trip. The ability to recognize the people who can make this happen for you, and your willingness to give them what they want and need until you pass them and move to the next level is what each of these three stories is about. Weller interviewed dozens of people who knew these women at every juncture of their lives. She gives us whole quotes from these interviews, not distilled or interpreted abridgements. In some cases the interveiw subject comes off as bitter and insincere, others are compassionate or analytical. The reader comes away with consistent "big pictures" of three powerful women who have truly achieved the American Dream... such as it is.
Great history on very private artists, but. . . June 11, 2008
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
This was an interesting book--particularly the sections on the elusive Carole King. It also reinforced my natural inclination to dislike Joni Mitchell. But those gigantic, never-ending footnotes that digress so wildly are a real turnoff!
Great book written in an extremely annoying style June 7, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I really enjoyed this book for many of the same reasons that other reviewers have listed. However, this author is badly in need of an editor. The book is filled with long sentences filled with parenthetical asides and unrelated side comments. It took me twice as long to read because I had to read sentences two or three times to completely comprehend the message.
I am also left the observation that each of these women possess amazing talent and have enjoyed great success. None of them has been able to sustain constructive, satisfying relationships. I suppose that's part of the point.
More than just the music June 5, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book helps the reader understand not just how these women changed the music scene (in a wonderful way) but also how they changed the lives of women in general. Carly in particular did a lot for helping women understand their influence and power in what was largely a mans world. While Joni and Carole struggled with still trying to fit into the "old ways" (Joni giving up an out of wedlock baby, Carole marrying very young when she discovered she was pregnant), Carly on the other hand was so comfortable with her sexuality that her example was liberating to a whole generation of women. I don't think she gets enough credit for this, even in Weller's book. As for myself, I say thank you Carly. Although it's easy to be sexy and comfortable with yourself when your legs are a mile long and your sexy smile a mile wide, this was the 60s.
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