Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.43 AVERAGE
3.43 AVERAGE
As a child, I watched so many reruns of old shows on TV Land. I loved them so much. I loved I Dream of Jeannie. I have had this on my TBR since 2012 and I can say that I really truly didn't know much about Barbara Eden other than she played Jeannie. I love listening to life stories even if I'm not this mega fan of a well-known person. And most times, I gain a new level of respect and admiration for a person. This wasn't one of those times.
It was so self-indulgent. Every person she had ever met was a deeply insecure person. Every man she had ever met wanted her. She felt bad for all sorts of people in a way that seemed like she was above them and had to pity them. She had the audacity to say her second husband Chuck name-dropped. Girlfriend, this entire book is just name drop after name drop with no real substance. It's so hard for me to not roll my eyes when she seems so out-of-touch with reality in all aspects of her life.
It was so self-indulgent. Every person she had ever met was a deeply insecure person. Every man she had ever met wanted her. She felt bad for all sorts of people in a way that seemed like she was above them and had to pity them. She had the audacity to say her second husband Chuck name-dropped. Girlfriend, this entire book is just name drop after name drop with no real substance. It's so hard for me to not roll my eyes when she seems so out-of-touch with reality in all aspects of her life.
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
Full review posted on http://www.momkatreads.com/2017/07/jeannie-out-of-bottle-by-barbara-eden.html
Listened to on audio - which was narrated by the author.
This was a gossipy, name dropping kind of memoir which I found fun overall but not particularly insightful. I decided to pick this up because I liked I Dream of Jeannie - but other than that I didn’t know much about Ms. Eden. As a result, I found that this book provided enough of an introduction to me to be reasonably engaged throughout.
The writing isn’t the greatest - Ms. Eden skips a lot of bit to side tangents which provide some gossip about big name stars but don't really add much to her own story. Plus there were one too many uses of “Jeannie-blink” for me!
Side note - the author laughs at her own stories when she is reading the text - it was a bit performative / self-conscious. It was like she was trying to act the book out - it was a bit odd. The narration had an odd tone / intonation sometimes - like Ms. Eden wanted us to focus on the light and fun only instead of anything more sensitive or dark.
However, there wasn’t much depth to the stories in the first place so I suppose the audio didn’t really detract from the reading experience. The only time Ms. Eden seems to get real is when she talks about her son and her miscarriage - the rest of the life comes across as upbeat and pretty wonderful. Nothing wrong with that - in fact, I admire the positivity of the book. I just wonder at the lack of her own point of view in the telling.
I decided in the end to round this book up to 3 stars because I think the intent of the book was to be a light little memoir - and even if that wasn’t exactly to my taste I did think it was successful. I would have gone with 2.5 stars but the last chapter where she talk about the death of her son was moving. She doesn’t spend too much time on the event - which I respected, because it kept the grief private.
3 overall stars for ending honestly but keeping things positively. This was what I expected to marks for that.
This was a gossipy, name dropping kind of memoir which I found fun overall but not particularly insightful. I decided to pick this up because I liked I Dream of Jeannie - but other than that I didn’t know much about Ms. Eden. As a result, I found that this book provided enough of an introduction to me to be reasonably engaged throughout.
The writing isn’t the greatest - Ms. Eden skips a lot of bit to side tangents which provide some gossip about big name stars but don't really add much to her own story. Plus there were one too many uses of “Jeannie-blink” for me!
Side note - the author laughs at her own stories when she is reading the text - it was a bit performative / self-conscious. It was like she was trying to act the book out - it was a bit odd. The narration had an odd tone / intonation sometimes - like Ms. Eden wanted us to focus on the light and fun only instead of anything more sensitive or dark.
However, there wasn’t much depth to the stories in the first place so I suppose the audio didn’t really detract from the reading experience. The only time Ms. Eden seems to get real is when she talks about her son and her miscarriage - the rest of the life comes across as upbeat and pretty wonderful. Nothing wrong with that - in fact, I admire the positivity of the book. I just wonder at the lack of her own point of view in the telling.
I decided in the end to round this book up to 3 stars because I think the intent of the book was to be a light little memoir - and even if that wasn’t exactly to my taste I did think it was successful. I would have gone with 2.5 stars but the last chapter where she talk about the death of her son was moving. She doesn’t spend too much time on the event - which I respected, because it kept the grief private.
3 overall stars for ending honestly but keeping things positively. This was what I expected to marks for that.
Enjoyed reading about her life. The "Jeannie blink back in time" thing was repetitive and annoying. She is so lovely and I'm sure she did have MANY men interested in her, but it was a tad Eyeroll inducing how she wrote that ALL of these make stars were after her (Elvis!) and ALL of these actresses were intimidated by her. Lauren Bacall, Kate Hepburn? Not going to give her any grief for name dropping, as she knows that is what readers want to read! She is such a cute little thing though and I loved her in IDOJ. Didn't realize she lost her son and I'm glad she's found happiness.
Read the other 2 and 1 star reviews. That about covers it.
This book was horrible! It was essentially a bragging list of people Barbara Eden knew, worked with or got hit on by. By the end of the book I was just wishing she would stop talking!
Interesting book about Barbara's life, on screen and off. There were a lot of things I didnt know about her and some of it is really heart breaking. As others have pointed out, there is a lot of name dropping which gets old after awhile. Overall an interesting book if you are a fan.
informative
lighthearted
fast-paced
Enjoyed the stories about various actors and the anecdotes about her jobs. Enjoyed learning about her personal life.
She has some outdated ideas about drugs and kids that were not my favorite but that’s not factoring into the rating.
Overall it was fun, if not super deep or memorable. It’s enjoyable
She has some outdated ideas about drugs and kids that were not my favorite but that’s not factoring into the rating.
Overall it was fun, if not super deep or memorable. It’s enjoyable
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Drug abuse, Medical content, Grief, Suicide attempt, Pregnancy