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chonnie_'s review against another edition
3.0
Love Carole King - and liked reading some stories from her life, but the book moved slowly for much of the time.
booksuperpower's review against another edition
2.0
A Natural Woman: A Memoir by Carole King is a 2012 Grand Central Publication.
I have a feature on my blog called “Monday’s Musical Moments” where I spotlight a book with some kind of musical elements. Rock biographies and memoirs make up the majority of these posts, but recently, I have not used this feature because the books have been so lackluster I didn’t feel comfortable promoting them.
But, surely a memoir by Carole King would not fall into that category….
I didn’t read any reviews of this book in advance, so had no idea how well it was received, but I had really high hopes for it.
Growing up in the seventies, I heard all the songs from ‘Tapestry’ as they got loads of radio airplay and I knew every one of them by heart. It wasn’t until I got older, though, that I really understood why this album was so phenomenal. I also had no idea Carole co-authored so many hits in the fifties and sixties with her first husband, Gerry Goffin, until I was much older.
The amount of success, as a songwriter, that Carole has enjoyed is mind boggling. Just reading over the list of songs she has written is incredible. There is no doubt she is very gifted and her body of work is very impressive. However, this book is not….
The book is written by Carole King and she claims it took her twelve years to complete it. While she is certainly adept at composing music, authoring a book is not one of her strong suits. Although the book is organized chronologically for the most part, and is organized, the author’s choices of what to leave in or what to leave out were poor.
The first half of the book is told with great enthusiasm, as the author looks back over her childhood, her first musical successes and failures, her desire to act, her first marriage, parenthood, living as a traditional fifties housewife, as well as maintaining a career in the music field.
But, cracks began to appear as her first marriage dissolved and she moves to the west coast. By the time we got to how Carole went from being mostly behind the scenes or a ‘side man’, to taking center stage herself, the book began to lose ground as Carole herself did, in my opinion.
It was interesting how Carole was nudged into stepping out of the shadows and taking center stage herself and how easily she made that transition after having avoided it for so long. But, the author seemed to forget that while readers are curious about her personal life, the reason they long to know more about her is because of her career. Carole failed to balance her personal life with her career in this book, totally glossing over any insights into ‘Tapestry’, giving the making of this iconic album little time, but did spend tons of space relating her legal battles over land in Idaho.
Carole’s personal life was marred by troubled relationships with men, having four failed marriages, one of which was abusive.
Once more, a musical memoir has left me with the feeling of ‘what you don’t know won't hurt you’. I have admired Ms. King for decades and love, love, love her music. But, her personality, and the way she handled her personal life left me less than impressed and I now regret having read this book.
It is sometimes difficult to separate what we know about an artist personally from what they do for a living. I can do that in most cases, so I will always love Carole’s contribution to music and enjoy her songs just as I always have, but do wish I could have been as impressed by her personal life as I have been with her professional one.
At this point, the future of ‘Monday’s Musical Moment’ spotlight is up in the air as I have become a bit uneasy about reading more memoirs written by musicians….
Overall, this one gets 2 stars
I have a feature on my blog called “Monday’s Musical Moments” where I spotlight a book with some kind of musical elements. Rock biographies and memoirs make up the majority of these posts, but recently, I have not used this feature because the books have been so lackluster I didn’t feel comfortable promoting them.
But, surely a memoir by Carole King would not fall into that category….
I didn’t read any reviews of this book in advance, so had no idea how well it was received, but I had really high hopes for it.
Growing up in the seventies, I heard all the songs from ‘Tapestry’ as they got loads of radio airplay and I knew every one of them by heart. It wasn’t until I got older, though, that I really understood why this album was so phenomenal. I also had no idea Carole co-authored so many hits in the fifties and sixties with her first husband, Gerry Goffin, until I was much older.
The amount of success, as a songwriter, that Carole has enjoyed is mind boggling. Just reading over the list of songs she has written is incredible. There is no doubt she is very gifted and her body of work is very impressive. However, this book is not….
The book is written by Carole King and she claims it took her twelve years to complete it. While she is certainly adept at composing music, authoring a book is not one of her strong suits. Although the book is organized chronologically for the most part, and is organized, the author’s choices of what to leave in or what to leave out were poor.
The first half of the book is told with great enthusiasm, as the author looks back over her childhood, her first musical successes and failures, her desire to act, her first marriage, parenthood, living as a traditional fifties housewife, as well as maintaining a career in the music field.
But, cracks began to appear as her first marriage dissolved and she moves to the west coast. By the time we got to how Carole went from being mostly behind the scenes or a ‘side man’, to taking center stage herself, the book began to lose ground as Carole herself did, in my opinion.
It was interesting how Carole was nudged into stepping out of the shadows and taking center stage herself and how easily she made that transition after having avoided it for so long. But, the author seemed to forget that while readers are curious about her personal life, the reason they long to know more about her is because of her career. Carole failed to balance her personal life with her career in this book, totally glossing over any insights into ‘Tapestry’, giving the making of this iconic album little time, but did spend tons of space relating her legal battles over land in Idaho.
Carole’s personal life was marred by troubled relationships with men, having four failed marriages, one of which was abusive.
Once more, a musical memoir has left me with the feeling of ‘what you don’t know won't hurt you’. I have admired Ms. King for decades and love, love, love her music. But, her personality, and the way she handled her personal life left me less than impressed and I now regret having read this book.
It is sometimes difficult to separate what we know about an artist personally from what they do for a living. I can do that in most cases, so I will always love Carole’s contribution to music and enjoy her songs just as I always have, but do wish I could have been as impressed by her personal life as I have been with her professional one.
At this point, the future of ‘Monday’s Musical Moment’ spotlight is up in the air as I have become a bit uneasy about reading more memoirs written by musicians….
Overall, this one gets 2 stars
yeahdeadslow's review
4.0
Though I never had any of her albums till this past year, somewhere along the line in the last five years or so, I became a Carole King fan. It's hardly surprising. Being a fan of 60s and 70s music, my music library is littered with songs where Carole has at least part of the songwriting credit.
I've always thought of Carole King as a really kind, down-to-earth lady. I don't know why, she just comes off that way when she performs, and even in the way she sings. I am happy to say this book only confirmed what I had known all along, she really is like that. A "natural woman", if you will.
One of my favourite parts was getting to drool over all the people she got to meet. Though Carole never got into the hardcore hippie culture, she certainly knew (or met, at least) enough people of that crowd. She jammed with Paul Simon at their college; met all the Beatles in 1965; knew Sandy Hurvitz (no, I don't expect that name to mean anything to anyone else) in Laurel Canyon; ran into Yoko Ono in a restroom at a movie theater and then hung out with her and John at their apartment. By the time she was hobnobbing with Paul and Linda McCartney in Tokyo my mouth was agape. I am HUGE fan of Linda, and a HUGE fan of Paul, so my heart was throbbing with envy and happiness. Carole essentially ended up writing a beautiful, moving tribute to the amazing woman Linda was that had me in tears by the end.
Though this was a small part, and probably not worth mentioning, I loved learning how people-watching on the subway helped inspire one of my favourite Carole King songs, 'Beautiful'.
Anyway, definitely a memoir I would recommend, either to Carole King fans or people who are interested in life in the 60s and 70s.
I've always thought of Carole King as a really kind, down-to-earth lady. I don't know why, she just comes off that way when she performs, and even in the way she sings. I am happy to say this book only confirmed what I had known all along, she really is like that. A "natural woman", if you will.
One of my favourite parts was getting to drool over all the people she got to meet. Though Carole never got into the hardcore hippie culture, she certainly knew (or met, at least) enough people of that crowd. She jammed with Paul Simon at their college; met all the Beatles in 1965; knew Sandy Hurvitz (no, I don't expect that name to mean anything to anyone else) in Laurel Canyon; ran into Yoko Ono in a restroom at a movie theater and then hung out with her and John at their apartment. By the time she was hobnobbing with Paul and Linda McCartney in Tokyo my mouth was agape. I am HUGE fan of Linda, and a HUGE fan of Paul, so my heart was throbbing with envy and happiness. Carole essentially ended up writing a beautiful, moving tribute to the amazing woman Linda was that had me in tears by the end.
Though this was a small part, and probably not worth mentioning, I loved learning how people-watching on the subway helped inspire one of my favourite Carole King songs, 'Beautiful'.
Anyway, definitely a memoir I would recommend, either to Carole King fans or people who are interested in life in the 60s and 70s.
hannahlee's review against another edition
3.0
While Carole King isn't the world's greatest author, she has lived (and continues to live!) a very interesting life. For someone who loves her music and loves learning about the relationships between musicians of Carole's era, it was an enjoyable, if sometimes somewhat slow, read.
rebstan's review against another edition
informative
reflective
slow-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Domestic abuse
Moderate: Drug use and Mental illness
jchant's review against another edition
4.0
Back when I was in college, I practically wore out my copy of Tapestry, and when I read Girls Like Us a few years ago, I loved the sections on Carole King. That being said, while I liked this book, I didn't love it. I did find the early chapters fascinating, especially the story of how Carole King got into the music business and her songwriting experiences with her ex-husband, Jerry Goffin. I also have to give her huge credit for being honest about the more difficult parts of her life, especially for writing about the abuse she suffered in her third marriage. The later chapters were pretty thin, and that part of the book had the feeling of just being slapped together to get it finished. Overall, it was an enjoyable read, but it could have been better.
carrster's review against another edition
4.0
Loved learning about Carole King. She has had a varied & quite interesting life. I would enjoy hanging out & having conversations with her about just about everything. Really enjoyed this. (read by the author).
zdn's review against another edition
3.0
First half of the book was fascinating; the second half not so much.