Tag: Autobiography / Biography Books Reviews

On May 25, 1977, a problem-plagued, budget-straining independent science-fiction film opened in a mere thirty-two American movie theaters. Conceived, written, and directed by a little-known filmmaker named George Lucas, the movie originally called The Star Wars quickly drew blocks-long lines, bursting box-office records and ushering in a new way for movies to be made, marketed, and merchandised. It is now one of the most adored-and successful-movie franchises of all time. Now, the author of the bestselling biography Jim Henson delivers a long-awaited, revelatory look into the life and times of the man who created Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and Indiana Jones. If Star Wars wasn’t game-changing enough, Lucas went on to create another blockbuster series with Indiana Jones, and he completely transformed the world of special effects and the way movies sound. His innovation and ambition forged Pixar and Lucasfilm, Industrial Light & Magic, and THX sound.

I need to admit here that I wanted to read this book for a while now, since as many of you guys who are frequent readers on this website might know is that am a huge star wars fan. So when I found out that this book was published I put it on my TBR list and now I have finally read it.

I really liked this book since the author of this book tries really hard to make George Lucas seem sympathetic at every stage of his life even thou George Lucas might not be the sympathetic person ever. Even thou at times George Lucas appears in this book to prefer spending time working rather than with his family or other people for that matter.

The thing that I liked a lot about this book is that this book contains a lot of behind the scenes information and fun facts about star wars movies and Indiana jones movies George Lucas created.

The writing style of this book is very good and easily my favorite part of this book. I have read a lot of biographies in my time on this website, and I gotta admit that a lot of biographies I have read so far have the most boring and text book like writing style. But this book on the other hand makes reading this biography fun and interesting. 

The only reason why I gave this book a 3 star rating is because I think that this book was entirely too long and I’m not that big of a fan of long biographies since I tend to get bored quickly of them.

But at the same time this book gives us a good explanation of George Lucas life and career. Which I really liked because I love star wars ever since I was 6 or 7 years old and watched star wars for the first time. I personally think that George Lucas is easily one of the greatest movie maker of all time.

The majority of this book talks about the star wars era of George Lucas’s life and we get a few glimpses of George Lucas’s life outside of being the creator of star wars like his divorces from his wife and childhood.

As you may have seen from this review so far, is that I have pretty mixed feelings about it. Because on one side I liked this book but on the second side I didn’t like this book. And I just can make up my mind on if I should write a positive or negative review of this book and I want to be as honest and forward coming as possible in every review I write on this website.

I Give This Book 3 / 5

Nikki Sixx is one of the most respected, recognizable, and entrepreneurial icons in the music industry. As the founder of Mötley Crüe, who is now in his twenty-first year of sobriety, Sixx is incredibly passionate about his craft and wonderfully open about his life in rock and roll, and as a person of the world. Born Franklin Carlton Feranna on December 11, 1958, young Frankie was abandoned by his father and partly raised by his mother, a woman who was ahead of her time but deeply troubled. Frankie ended up living with his grandparents, bouncing from farm to farm and state to state. He was an all-American kid—hunting, fishing, chasing girls, and playing football—but underneath it all, there was a burning desire for more, and that more was music. He eventually took a Greyhound bound for Hollywood.

I gotta admit that this year I’ve been getting into rock star biographies which I find to be very interesting, heartbreaking but also very enjoyable to read. And this book is probably one of the best biographies I’ve read so far in my life. But without naming this into longer than it already is, lets get into the review of this book.

The first thing I need to say about this book is the fact that it is very honest. Nikki Sixx really talks about all the shit he went through as a kid which really is very depressing and sad. But at the same time it made me like him so much more after reading this book than I already did.

This book talks about the first 21 years of Nikkis life from when he was born until the point he officially changed his name from Frank Feranna Jr to Nikki Sixx.

The only downside of this book in my opinion is that it doesn’t go into a lot of details of his upbringing. In this book Nikki Sixx only talks briefly about all the shit he went through in his early life and late teens. But even thou we only get fried details of his upbringing it is still very sad and depressing to read about.

This book also talks about how Nikki Sixx meet Mick Mars for the first time, while working at a liquor store and where he got the name “Nikki Sixx” from. Which was very interesting more me to read about because I didn’t know that fact about him even thou I think of myself as a huge Motley Crue fan.

The writing style in this book is very good. Because it was like Nikki Sixx knew exactly what words to use in this book to completely grab my attention and not let it go until the very end of this book which really made me give this book extra points for doing. 

This biography is one of the rare biographies I would recommend to anyone to read, because it shows that even the biggest musicians can have a fucked up life no matter how famous they are or how much money they have today.

I Give This Book 5 / 5

Set against the frenzied world of heavy metal superstardom, the co-founder of Motley Crue offers an unflinching and gripping look at his own descent into drug addiction. It follows him during the year he plunged to rock bottom and his courageous decision to pick himself up and start living again.

As some of you might know, I am the biggest Motley Crue fan even thou I wasn’t around when they were the biggest in late 80s and 90s. And I need to admit that Nikki Sixx in his 20s and 30s was my all time biggest crush growing up. With that being said lets get into this review.

I always knew that Nikki Sixx went through some very big shit in his life to overdosing multiple times and he struggled with alcohol, cocaine, acid and heroine but them this big was a very big eye opener. Since fuck this book is very dark, depressing and it really shows us how much shit he went through.

One of the things this book make me think as I was reading this book was “How the fuck is this guy still alive?”. Its a big miracle that we still have Nikki Sixx around, because if I did so much drugs as Nikki did, I would have died in the first week. And he lived like this for years.

This book is Nikki diary entires in 1987 right before he overdosed and died for 2 minutes. And I need to say that this book is very heavy, I really think that this book will really stick with me for the rest of my life just because how heavy and dark it was but also because how much of a difficult time I had reading this book. 

To be honest here, after reading this book I became even bigger fan and fan girl of Nikki Sixx. Because damn, he went through very dark times which almost no one else will go through in their lives. 

If you are looking for a very heavy and dark nonfiction book then this book is a perfect go-to book. If you are a fan of motley crue or music in general you really should read this book. Because it truly shows how dark the world of musicians can get and that it is not only the glitch and glamour of earning a load of cash and almost everyone on earth knowing your name. 

After reading this book I need to be honest here and admit that this book is easily the best book and the most heartbreaking book I ever read in my life. And I will for sure re-read this book countless of times in the future. 

I Give This Book 5 / 5

Ian Fraser Kilmister was born on Christmas Eve, 1945. Learning from an early age that chicks really do appreciate a guy with a guitar, and inspired by the music of Elvis and Buddy Holly, Lemmy quickly outgrew his local bands in Wales, choosing instead to head to Manchester to experience everything he could get his hands on. And he never looked back.

I gotta admit here that I wanted to read this book for a while now, because I love Motörhead and of course as I devoted Motörhead fan I needed to read this book, and now I finally read.

This book is very good, because there are so many good things I have to say about this book. If you want me to be very honest here, I need to admit that this book is one of the best autobiographies I’ve read so far in my life.

One of the things I liked a lot about this book is that it feels more like a transcription of an long and interesting interview rather than a book. Because of this, the entire time I was reading this book I heard Lemmy’s voice in my head actually saying the words I was reading on paper.

This book offers us fair share of humor, and at the same time we get Lemmy’s opinions and thoughts on other musicians which really makes feel like an real human being rather than one of the rock gods he is. Some of the things Lemmy says about other musicians is very brutally honest.

At the same time Lemmy also gave us his thoughts about feminism and vegetarianism amongst other things. And a little spoiler he didn’t have a lot of good things to say about feminism. Because of this I realized that I agree with Lemmy on more things that I actually thought I would. 

You don’t have to be a big fan of Motörhead to enjoy this book, if you have slightest interested in music then I very strongly think that you will enjoy this book as much as I did.

The one bad things I have to say about this book is that it could easily be longer because I just couldn’t get enough of this book because I find it to be so good and damn interesting.

This book also shows us that Lemmy is much smarter than all of us expected him to be, and at times there are moments in this book where he is pretty fun.

A huge topic throughout this book is that Lemmy doesn’t exactly paint himself in the best light and admits that some of the things he done in life from his drug and alcohol struggles weren’t the smartest and kindest things to do while being self-confident and unapologetic himself. 

The writing style in this book is very good. I said it above, but this book feels like an transcription of an extended interview or like having a coffee chat with Lemmy rather than just reading a book which he had written. 

I Give This Book 4 / 5

He was just a boy from the Bronx with stars in his eyes. But when he picked up his guitar and painted stars on his face, Ace Frehley transformed into “The Spaceman”—and helped turn KISS into one of the top-selling bands in the world. Now, for the first time, the beloved rock icon reveals his side of the story with no-holds-barred honesty . . . and no regrets.

I wanted to read this book for a few years now, since when I was in elementary school and high school I used to listen to a lot of KISS songs, dressed as KISS for countless of halloween growing up so it is safe to say that I was a pretty solid fan of KISS. So of course I needed to read this book at some point. 

This book is very good and interesting to read because it contains a lot of behind the scene information and stories which I personally liked a lot. 

I need to be honest here and say that Ace was always my favorite member of the KISS, and after reading this book I only liked him more. Since he is very honest in this book and tells all the good and bad shit which happened during his time in KISS without posting fingers at anybody and saying “yeah, he is the bad guy here” which happens in a lot of bands where the group splits up or fires someone from the band.

Some of the stories which Ace talks about in this book makes him seem like an ass, but we gotta keep in mind that most of the stories happened when he was addicted to various substances which doesn’t make a human being very likable when they are addicted to alcohol and drugs.

This book also talks about Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley being a little of control freaks when it comes to the band, which I always thought might be true. But the way Ace talks about this aspect in this book, really doesn’t put all the blame on why Ace and KISS split onto control issues which Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley had.  But rather he says that it was necessary for him to grow as a person and as a musician. Which I really liked since the way Ace put it, it seems like there wasn’t a big bitter fight between them and like they might be on somehow good terms after that event where Ace left the band.

As I said above, I found this book to be very interesting and enjoyable to read because I learned a lot about the band which I didn’t knew before reading this book. But also the way Ace have written this book, made it somehow more interesting in a way, because it really felt like the entire book was his perspective on the inside dealing of KISS during his time, and on all the shit he went through like different addictions to substance and car crashes, the now infamous car chase with the police he had in 1982 and other things he went through. 

The writing style in this book was very good, because it really felt like something written by Ace because I felt like it was his style in a way. But also the writing style made the book feel like sitting down with him and having a talk with him because it didn’t feel like reading a book but rather as him telling the whole story to you directly. 

I personally think that if you are fan of KISS or rock n roll music in general you should read it. Because it really shows that most of the time, things aren’t as they seem they are in the music industry and that there are a lot of things fans of a certain band or musical don’t know about. 

I Give This Book 5 / 5

Former vice president Joseph R. Biden Jr. has been called both the luckiest man and the unluckiest – fortunate to have sustained a fifty-year political career that reached the White House, but also marked by deep personal losses that he has suffered. Yet even as Biden’s life has been shaped by drama, it has also been powered by a willingness, rare at the top ranks of politics, to confront his shortcomings, errors and reversals of fortune. His trials have forged in him a deep empathy for others in hardship – an essential quality as he addresses a nation at its most dire hour in decades.

The main reason why I deiced to read this book was that I wanted to learn more about Joe Biden without reading a 500 + pages long book on him. I was never a fan of Joe Biden and I wanted to learn more about him to change my opinion about him. 

This book tries to paint Joe Biden was a good guy but it gives us the opposite effect. Since it talks about people who he had disagreements with and all the questionable things he said about people he didn’t like. Its easy to say that this book didn’t help me to change my opinion about him but rather made me agree more with my opinion about him. 

This book is under 200 pages long, but reading this book felt like infinity and like this book would never end. 

The majority about this book is about how bad of a president candidate Donald Trump is and how much better president would be Joe Biden. Which isn’t a Joe Biden biography but rather a woke commentary about why you shouldn’t vote for republicans. 

This book doesn’t have any chronological order of events in Joe Biden life because it keeps jumping back and forward in time without any correlation. It starts with talking about Joe Biden senator, then it goes to talking about Joe Biden being the vice president, then it goes back in time to talk about how Joe Biden became a candidate for vice president under Barack Obama’s presidency, then it goes to talk about Joe and Jill living together, then it goes to back to talk about Joe’s first wife dying etc. 

This book is all over the place and doesn’t have any timeline it follows. So if you are looking for an actually biography about Joe Biden then this book isn’t the choice for that.

The wiring style felt like it belongs more to a blog rather than to a biography book which this book is put under on Goodreads. 

I Give This Book 2 / 5

A riveting, deeply personal account of history in the making—from the president who inspired us to believe in the power of democracy. In the stirring, highly anticipated first volume of his presidential memoirs, Barack Obama tells the story of his improbable odyssey from young man searching for his identity to leader of the free world, describing in strikingly personal detail both his political education and the landmark moments of the first term of his historic presidency—a time of dramatic transformation and turmoil.

So I’ve been wanting to read this book ever since it first came out in late 2020. But after reading it I just don’t understand why it won the  “Best Memoir & Autobiography” category on Goodreads in 2020. Because its very far from being a good book. But let me explain by this.

Majority of this book feels like a personal therapy session rather than a biography about 44th president of USA. And there are a lot of times it feels like Barack Obama is trying to defend himself from the people who don’t like him or his presidency. At the same time there were many times I got the feeling that Barack Obama tries to glorify himself and make you think that during his political career he never did anything wrong at all.

This book feels like a very broad and shallow chronological timeline of Obama’s political career, from his start in community organizer to him becoming president and ordering the killing / capture of Osama bin Laden. 

If you have seen at least one speech from Barack Obama you would have notices that his speeches are filled with inspiration, hope or motivation. But this book is written by the same guy but this doesn’t feel like it. Because were is the inspiration, hope or motivation in it?

At the same time Barack Obama is very reserved and way too kind to himself in this book which really made me have the impression that he is way too full of himself. Even thou I like Barack Obama and think that he was the best president since JFK.

Of course there are some good parts about this book, like it having the occasional acknowledgement of moments or situation that the press didn’t captured or report on but should which proved that he was better president than people on the right give him the credit for. And this book has few interesting anecdotes which really made me learn something more about Barack Obama and which I found to be very interring and fun to read about. But those moments were very rare and I personally wish that we had gotten more of them.

This book has over 700 pages (which depends on the edition of the book you got), and it feels like Barack Obama have written a love letter to himself which turned out to be 750 pages long. Which really made me view him in a different light than I did before reading this book.

There were a lot of moments during reading this book where I found myself bored of it, uninterested and thinking about if I should DNF this book because I was very bored at times.

The edition I got of this book is 752 pages long, and after reading this whole book I think that it should have been shorter and it would only make this book better than it is now. Because as it is now it feels more like a boring text book from high school which everyone hate but which everyone needed to read.

At the same time this book doesn’t talk or even mention about the major events which happened during his presidency but rather this book talks about the insignificant events which no one really cares about. 

Throughout this book keeps mentioning how much it sucks to be president of USA and how hard of a job it is. I personally think that being a president must be a hard job and not just sitting on the couch all day everyday and making some decisions, but Barack Obama signed himself to being possibly a  president when he started his presidential campaign. 

The writing style in this book wasn’t the best. Of course it had some good moments. But for the most part it feels like a writing style worthy of a high school text book rather than a biography book about a president.

I Give This Book 2 / 5

In June 2021, the whole world was listening as Britney Spears spoke in open court. The impact of sharing her voice—her truth—was undeniable, and it changed the course of her life and the lives of countless others. The Woman in Me reveals for the first time her incredible journey—and the strength at the core of one of the greatest performers in pop music history. Written with remarkable candor and humor, Spears’s groundbreaking book illuminates the enduring power of music and love—and the importance of a woman telling her own story, on her own terms, at last.

I really dislike reviewing autobiographies and memoir books since to me it feels like judging the experience the person had in their life. But lets review this book and keep in mind that I’m talking about this BOOK not about anything else.

This book is quick read, because its short and its actually interesting. I didn’t know much about Britney Spears before reading this book, I never was a fan of her even thou I liked a few of her songs. I knew very basic things about her like she was in a very shady conservatorship, her love life wasn’t the greatest and she making weird videos on instagram in the recent years.

After reading this book I’ve realized how much she actually went through in her life and reading this book was really so sad because you learn about how much shit she went through since she was born. And it really makes me feel very sad for her.

The writing style in this book was on the 5th grade level which really was pretty painful at times especially when she talked about being forced to do things she didn’t want, be manipulated by her parents or being forced to stay somewhere which she wanted to leave.

The chapters are over the place in this book. The chapters aren’t chronological but instead they jump back and forward in time without any reason. The chapters would go to where she was still in school to her giving birth to her kids like 17 years later and then it would jump back to where she was starting her career and the things she done to kick star her career.

The chapter ending were very abrupt and it felt like the author didn’t bother to give us any details than whats absolutely necessary for us to feel sad about what Britney Spears went through in her life. Which really didn’t help me to like the book.

But this book was very inserting and enjoyable even thou it had its fair share of things which didn’t work out for me. But I still like it and would recommend this book if you are interested in learning more about Britney Spears.

It is said on wikipedia that this book was written together with a ghostwriter named  Sam Lansky. But of course anything taken off of Wikipedia needs to be taken with a lot of salt. If it is true then it might explain why I didn’t like this book as much as I wanted to.

I Give This Book 3 / 5

Founder. Entrepreneur. Pop Culture Maker. Innovator. Survivor. Activist. Daughter. Sister. Wife. Mom. These are roles Paris Hilton embraces now as a fully realized woman. Paris rose to prominence as an heiress to the Hilton Hotels empire, but cultivated her fame and fortune as the It Girl of the aughts, a time marked by the burgeoning twenty-four-hour entertainment news cycle and the advent of the celebrity blog. Using her celebrity brand, Paris set in motion her innovative business ventures, while being the constant target of tabloid culture that dismissively wrote her off as “famous for being famous.” With tenacity, sharp business acumen, and grit, she built a global empire and, in the process, became a truly modern icon beloved around the world.

Its important to say that I didn’t know a lot about Paris Hilton before reading this book, and this is the reason why I decided to buy and read this book.

This book is very interesting, enjoyable and very engaging in a way. Ive read this book in one day so its very easy sign that I just couldn’t put this book down because I was sucked into this book and learning more about Paris Hilton.

Before reading this book I wasn’t a fan of Paris Hilton, but after reading this book I’ve learned a lot about her and saw how much shit she went through in her life and because of it, I grow to like her and in a way look up to her because this book shows that there are much more to her than what meets the eye on the interest or in the gossip newspapers.

In the prolog she kept jumping from thought to thought a lot and it made me think that the rest of the book will be just as poorly organized as the prolog but it was actually very far from the truth. And really this book is really worth reading even if you are like me before reading this book, who didn’t like her at all.

The cover of this book is pink which really makes you think that this book will be happy and not have anything bad in this. But don’t be fooled. Thats far from the truth. Because Paris Hilton in this book really talks about all the bad shit she went through in her life and it involves all from beating beaten up, being forced to take drugs, made to do some creepy shit and PTSD. There are a lot of things that are really hard to read about in this book and I just cant image how all of those things must have felt like to be Paris Hilton in this situations she went through in her life.

The writing style in this book is amazing because it is really simple and it was like having a one-on-one conversation with Paris Hilton because it was a every day language.

In this book Paris Hilton gets really really honest with us and spills all the things she went through which really made me change my opinion about her after reading this book.

I Give This Book 4 / 5

What story begins in a bedroom in suburban New Jersey in the early ’60s, unfolds on some of the country’s largest stages, and then ranges across the globe, demonstrating over and over again how Rock and Roll has the power to change the world for the better? This story. 

Ive been waiting to read this book ever since it was released back in late 2021 and finally I have read it.

Before we start this review I need to admit that I am a huge fan of Steven Van Zandt ever since I watched The Sopranos and Lilyhammer.

I had a lot of expectations for this book, which it quite didn’t live up to. And it made me sad.

But I need to admit that I didn’t know a lot about him before reading this book, and this book provides to you with his upbringing and his early days as a musician along side Bruce Springsteen. 

This book also contains some little fun facts about his life, like how he met Bruce Springsteen and how it was working on the Sopranos as well as on the Lilyhammer. Which I loved a lot.

But I personally would want to get more background and his experiences about how it was filming the sopranos and working with all of those good actors which were on the show.

This book also contains a lot of images from his life, like him with his family, behind the set of the sopranos, his parents etc.

But I need to admit that he comes of as really full of himself and bitter during a lot of moments in this book. 

At times he also come across as jealous of Bruce Springsteen’s super fame, and there were times he claimed that Bruce Springsteen getting famous was solely his doing. I need to say that I don’t know how true or false that is but still it felt like he was very very jealous and angry about Bruce Springsteen’s super fame.

There were times during this book where he claimed that the only reason Bruce Springsteen’s concert had sold out tickets to almost every concert was because of how great he was. Well I wouldn’t quite agree with that even thou I’m a big fan of his.

The writing style in this book was okay for the most part. But it was clear that he is a far better musician and actor than a writer. 

I Give This Book 3 / 5