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| Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon--And the Journey of a Generation | 
 enlarge | Author: Sheila Weller
Publisher: Atria
Category: Book
List Price: $27.95
Buy New: $15.56
You Save: $12.39 (44%)
New (45) Used (23) from $13.49
Avg. Customer Rating:  119 reviews
Sales Rank: 1618
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
Condition: Brand new item. Over 3.5 million customers served. Order now. Selling online since 1995. Order with confidence. Code: B20081121221340T
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| Customer Reviews:
So Sad This Song April 16, 2008
6 out of 10 found this review helpful
Girls Like Us is a heartbreakingly sad book. As a Carly Simon and Carole King fan I never thought for all the honesty and warmth of their music there would be no lyrics are melodies to capture the absolute sorrow of this book.
Carole's life has always been hidden from the public and after reading this book I wish so many things had never been revealed. I've always felt that the grace of Carole's melodies absorbed the sorrow of the lyrics. Carole has a grace I will never have or understand.
Carly's story on the other hand has been widely told. I remember reading "I never sang for my mother" all those years ago in Vanity Fair. I was shocked by her revelations and the depth of sorrow in that article. Over the years I have been shocked by Carly's candor and have questioned her discretion, but I deeply admire her ability to "keep at it".
Joni Mitchell on the other hand has always rubbed me the wrong way. I've always hated her sense of superiority. Although I respect her musical ability I have never been a fan, but that did not stop me from mourning with her when she gave her daughter up for adoption and the joy I felt when they were reunited all those years later.
Girls Like Us is the final nail in the coffin for all the myths surrounding the era of the 70's female singer-songwriter.
 Glossy glitz May 10, 2008
6 out of 10 found this review helpful
This book is what you'd expect from an author who has written previous books about OJ Simpson's marriage and the life of Amy Fisher. Kind of trashy with lots of sex and drugs and violence but low on the rock & roll. Sort of odd for a book about singers and musicians, but that's the way it's slanted. Oh, and throw in a few small attempts at describing what happened during the era to try to make the book meaningful.
Of course, as a man ten years younger than these women, it's true I'm not really the target audience. But I've had some kind of relationship with the music of all three at some point over the years, whether it be liking Carly's voice and photos back then, or the many great pop songs Carole wrote long ago, or that Joni's Hejira remains one of my favorite albums of all time even though in general I wasn't a fan of hers at all.
But this book added very little to those relationships. For its size, it's an astonishingly lightweight book. The best thing I took from it was learning who were the subjects of a few songs, and I had to wade through a lot of dreck to find that.
All in Vain May 23, 2008
6 out of 9 found this review helpful
Author sure did her homework--but when it came time to sit down at the keyboard, she apparently couldn't figure out exactly what to do with her hundreds (or is it thousands?) of hours of interviews.
Result is a badly-structured juggling act in which she valiantly tries to keep stories of all three ladies (each of whom could warrant an individual bio) in the air but frequently drops several of the balls to go off on unimportant tangents. Clumsy run-on sentences and endless footnotes (many of them fascinating factoids in and of themselves--but distracting nonetheless) make this a tough read for any but the most ardent fans of the title trio.
 Needed an Editor July 27, 2008
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
This books reads like it was written by someone with ADHD. It jumps from topic to topic for no reason other than the author apparently cannot control and organize her thoughts. We go from Carole to Joni to Carly and back and forth; within each section we jump from event to event; and within paragraphs and sentences we jump from topic to topic. To me, the stream-of-consciousness style did nothing to serve the author's thesis and was very distracting.
Nonetheless, if you can ignore the fact the book reads like a very bad term paper, the subject matter is quite fascinating -- particularly the section on Carly Simon.
 Maybe you had to be there, but May 9, 2008
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
I found this book fascinating. Far more than just the story of the 3 women
(King, Mitchell,Simon) it is a story of the whole rock scene from the 60s
to present. You really don't have to be a hard core fan of any of these three singers to enjoy their stories. Someone you knew and liked will show up at some point.
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