Customer Reviews
brutally honest...brilliant! - By: RD, 01 Oct 2006 
Wow. I've just finished reading this book & it has left mein a kind of stupor. It may be one of the shorter biographies out there but the title says it all. What it is saying is `this is the truth, as I see it & saw it then, feel it now & felt it then.'
There are so many things about this book that I love firstly that it's so raw & pure that it has left me bewildered & yet full of emotion towards this woman who doesn't even know I exist. The tale is so simply told but it grabs you till you can almost feel what she feels...the pain, sorrow & happiness become yours.
There's quite a bit on where her music comes from. The real stories behind some of the lyrics that have become so famous, & you'll be amazed just how different they can be from general perception. One of my favourite is how she came to write `sleep', the presence of which had always seemed odd on her `Breakdown' album. The bittersweet origins have made this song a little more special to me as I had brushed it aside before.
A few unpublished lines she has penned creepin as do pictures of friends & family. Plus the one I read had an Afterword which was written a year after the book was finished & bringsin a bit about Tammy & the new life.
This book takes the image of the perfect lives of the rich & famous & tears it apart to show a real human beneath it all.
A wonderful book that will add more meaning to the music & one I recommend with 10 stars.
Melissa writes honestly and with no apologies for her past and with passion about her lyrics. - By: any, 11 Aug 2006 When we boarded the ferry for a family holiday to France my friend Jacqui got out her book. She read a few pages & put it down. Big mistake. I picked it up & by the time we arrived at the caravan I had finished it.
It was the singer / songwriter Melissa Etheridge's autobiography. Seemingly it must have been called "The Truth Is... My Lifein Love & Music" but to be honest I don't think I looked at the title!
Last year my other friend Maaike introduced me to loads of new artists I had never heard of before. Melissa was one of them. Later Jacqui & I surfed eBay & we added most of Etheridge's cds to our collection.
I knew a little about Melissa's life through general conversation but had wondered about how she had arrived where she is now. This book explained most everything, warts & all. It was incredibly easy to read & was also an ongoing explanation of the reasons behind the lyrics of her songs - some of which I absolutely love. The book proves that the lyrics are personal to her - not her just churning out songs to appease the record company.
Melissa writes honestly & with no apologies for her past & with passion about her lyrics. I enjoyed her explanations & find myself understanding the songs a little better now when I listen to them.
Should you? : If you know her music then yes - if you don't a lot of it will pass over your head. It isn't the longest bookin the world so it wouldn't take forever to get through if you fancied it.
Did I? : Most definitely enjoyed this one yup. I think it could stand for a new edition soon as a couple of things have happened to Melissa since that edition.
Amazing... - By: M LeBlanc, 20 Aug 2004 I hate biographies. They usually contain too much completely boring information. This autobiography was more like sitting down over a coffee & listening to someone be completely open.
Melissa describes her life growing upin small-town America & reveals very personal parts of her life. She tells of her struggles with her relationships & with her family regarding her sexual orientation.
She's very frank about her relationships with people. She's also very passionate & fairin her descriptions of them...in many cases, she may be too fair to people who probably don't deserve it.
Allin all, a pleasing (if quick) read. A candid & fascinating memoire by a passionate & enduring figure who deserves every ounce of respect she gets.
This book will make you a fan. - By: , 04 Sep 2002 I bought this book as an on/off Melissa Etheridge fan - I had Breakdown & I listened to it on & off but I never felt the urge to go out & buy all her previous albums. This book changed that. The insight Melissa provides into her songwriting is more than enough to make you want to hear the songs she's talking about. She writes down the lyrics but obviously that's no substitute for the real thing. This was the main thing I took away from the book. It was also interesting to see how her various relationships have affected her writing. Of course, there's a reason why she called the book 'My Lifein Love & Music.'
Amazing! - By: J. Campbell, 24 Jun 2002 The most truthful, honest, emotional, sensitive & factual auto biographies ever written. No holes barred, frank & straight to the point. A powerfully, condensed, raw book of feeling. A must for any Melissa Etheridge fan & anyone else fed up with flowered up, fancy life stories. Highly recommended, amazing book that will take you from misunderstanding, through intrigue to joy & tears then back again.
