First off, I don't know if you can fully appreciate this book unless you've listened to Billie Holliday extensively and have a cursory knowledge of what happened to her...

Just picking up this book and plodding through it -- I think will leave you frustrated -- if you don't know which years, were her best recording years and when life started to go horribly wrong for her then you lose many details that are given away in the book -- if you haven't listened to several different recordings of the same song, you won't understand what makes this woman so talented, because by all accounts most people would find her voice unique -- but not classified under the definition of a spectacular voice -- so the fact that she never sung the same song the same way, twice and that her phrasing and timing is one of a jazz instrumentalist, not a singer... you'll end up wondering why Blackburn wasted her time on an alcoholic drug addicted and abused woman.

In the end, the book will paint a faded picture of a woman -- her fears -- unrealized dreams -- and her music will fill in the rest. If you've ever listened to out takes of Holliday talking between takes -- you would suspect she was a pretty rough woman -- I found this book shed some light on her compassionate side... the fact that if you were her friend, she would give you the shirt off her back.

Through interviews, layers of assurance are slowly built up -- and what is left is not a laundry list of facts -- because many of the people interviewed were old -- or junkies -- or drunks -- so sometimes things are hazy... but they still convey the spirit of the woman -- they know she was a good person, that was caught in an endless cycle of booze, drugs and abuse, she just couldn't rise above it --

I think the most fascinating thing about this book, why it ranks so highly in my opinion -- is the discovery that this giant of her industry feared the same thing that the people that live in everyday America do -- and her desires and dreams were not far from the person that goes to a cubicle everyday --in the end, and what makes her life seem somewhat tragic -- she realized too late that all that matters are the people we love and those that love us back. --originally posted as mkubee(er, that's me) ( )

If you are at all a fan of Billie Holiday, then you will want to read this book. It is not your average biography; the author presents basic facts in a timeline up front, then proceeds to tell Billie Holiday's story through the words of those people who worked with her or knew her in other ways throughout her life. Most of the interviews were actually done in the 1970s by another person, who was going to write a book based on these interviews, but who committed suicide before the book went to press. Julia Blackburn took these interviews, did a great deal of work on her own, and has put them down in the words of those who knew Billie Holiday. Fascinating book and story of a tragic figure. I VERY highly recommend this one. My only complaint is that there's one picture in this book outside of the cover picture, but that's okay. ( )