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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:
 Didn't live up to the hype June 25, 2008
5 out of 7 found this review helpful
This book was entertaining and interesting, but only if you are hard-core fans of the three women it is about. The jacket proclaims it is also the "Journey of a Generation"...not really. It reads like a glorifed People article.
It should be telling that not one of the women the book was written about gave an interview to the author. Also like others have commented, there are parts where important things are mentioned and then never touched on again, and the reverse, some fact is casually mentioned as if an entire previous chapter had been written about it leaving you wondering, "Did I miss something?"
 Patchwork that is big on sizzle and short on substance July 8, 2008
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
In a way, this is a very odd idea for a book. Aside from the fact that all of these people are women and singer/songwriters, there is little that unites them. As a result, there is a patchwork quality to this book. The author goes from one singer to another and back again. You feel as a reader like you're the passenger in a car where the driver doesn't really know how to use a stick shift. There is a lot of lurching.
Most of the focus on the book is not on these women as artists, but which famous people they slept with. Since Ms. Simon apparently has slept with a tremendous number of famous men, Girls Like Us is best when focusing on her. At the other end of the spectrum, the author can't seem to get much of a handle on Carole King. Joni Mitchell falls somewhere in between.
If you want to know more than just about their sex lives and love affairs and get to the real heart of the matter - the music of these women - this book comes up short. There is very little insight here as to the art of their songwriting. What motivates these people to do what they do? What were they thinking when they wrote their classic songs? These are the kinds of questions that the author does not possess the depth to answer.
The tone of the book is very girlie and chatty. It's like eavesdropping on a coffee shop conversation with some fifty-something year old women dishing the dirt about relationships and sex lives. If you're a woman, maybe this tone is fine. For me, it was a distraction.
In essence, this book is a beach read for female boomers. It's full of well-researched celebrity gossip. To her credit, the author does treat the subjects with respect. She also knows how to write a sentence. But if you want to truly get inside the head of any of these songwriters, you'll have to look elsewhere.
 I love this book! April 29, 2008
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
Wow, I just finished "Girls Like Us". I loved every page of it and highly recommend it. Its about three amazing women, but it reveals a lot about our culture too. You couldn't make these stories up, it really recreates the headiness and newfound freedom of the world they helped forge, along with all the dangers that were part of the package.
The book is full of things I did not know about the lives of Carole King, Joni Mitchell, and Carly Simon. Everything is here, the music, the personal history, and the love lives that were so intertwined with their art. It is a close up view of three living legends.
The books reminds us how tough it was for each of the three women to face the hurdles of the times, both in the music industry and their personal lives. I had forgotten what it was really like for all of us in those years. And, that reality informed the choices we all made. It was indeed the journey of a generation, as the title suggests.
This book is meticulously researched, well written, and totally engrossing.
I have ordered six copies, for myself and for birthday gifts for my close friends. Before I could mail it to her, one of them called to tell me she was reading a book that I have to get immediately, sure enough it was "Girls Like Us." So, I decided to give that copy to a young friend who is in college and who loves music. I suspect this book will fascinate her. Its not just the stories of the three women's lives, although that is fascinating reading. It's the way the author, Sheila Weller, weaves them all together, making it a much bigger story that still resonates today. I suspect a lot more of us will be giving and getting this book this year, its a book about old friends, and its a real gift to be able to meet them again in such a vivid personal portrait.
Bring Something Else to the Beach May 23, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Most of the reviews for this book seem to fall into one of two categories: those who loved it, and those who wanted to love it but were disappointed.
I fall into the latter category. For those of us who are big fans of this trio of women, disappointment in love is not unknown!
At the risk of sounding repetitious, I had the following issues with this book: way too many footnotes (a separate book could be created from them) - rambling, twisty, hard-to-follow sentences - too many unimportant detours and side stories. While there were a few choice nuggets to be found, it wasn't worth the effort of slogging through this LONG book. I could have lived without knowing who Joni's song "Carey" was about, and I still don't know who Carly accused of being so vain!
Just Plain Annoying June 21, 2008
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
This is the first time I have ever been encouraged to comment on a book purchased through Amazon. But it is also the first time I have felt my money was taken under false pretenses.
I thought I was purchasing a book about three very acccomplished singer/songwriters.Two of whom are in my top five of all time. I thought that perhaps I would come to understand and learn a little as to what inspired such brilliant works of creativity.
Like many, I suspect, I knew some anecdotes about their history.
But on starting to read, I realised that the tone of this book seemed to be more about the authors own political bias and how she could trumpet her views which were inspired, in part, by her exposure to three strong independant women.In short. I felt I was reading a Lite Feminist Manifesto.
Now, there is nothing wrong with these views. They are just as valid as millions of others.
But, I wanted to read a book about Creators of some of my favourite music and not a book about Right Wing Feminism.I say right Wing, because the author constantly re-inforced steriotypes that all men are Wife Beaters, Non committal and insensitive and responsible for every unfortunate decision that a women makes.
She is entitled to hold these views. I don't share them and as a result the book was annoying and difficult to read. I struggled to finish it and regretted doing so.
Now before the extreme politically minded get too upset,I am aware that the book was to have some relevance to Feminism and that these three individuals were inspirational to the movement. But, it dominates the book to such an extent that, I imagine, it alienates a goodly proportion of the prospective readership.
Perhaps the book should come with a warning that it is not so much about Carole, Joan and Carly but that it is more about the author's own political views, contextualised by her historical exposure to these three inspirational women.
I would then have waited for a truly impartial and factual Auto/Biography to spend my money on.
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