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Loading... The Woman in Me (edition 2023)by Britney Spears (Author)
Work InformationThe Woman in Me by Britney Spears
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. Do I love Britney? Yes absolutely. Did I learn a lot about her experiences and her emotions throughout her life including the trauma she endured? Yes and it was incredibly eye opening. Was it my style of writing? No and that’s what had me stuck. It felt more like a conversation, which would be better if I had listened to an audiobook rather than reading a physical copy. But I still love Britney nonetheless. Let me first say that I honestly had an open mind going into this one. I didn't have a strong feeling one way or another regarding Britney Spears and I haven't really followed her chronicles in the media other than to know a few basic things that stuck out in my head: her obvious rise to fame in the late 90s, a history with the Mickey Mouse Club, a stint with Justin Timberlake, a *very* brief marriage resulting from an impulsive decision in Vegas, another impulsive decision when shaving her head bald, and then some odd control thing with her parents. I liked her early music and I could see her appeal -- she is/was a beautiful girl and she knew how to command attention on stage. And so I was curious to read her memoir. But this was a train wreck, and I'm not talking about Britney's life (which might also fit that description). For some reason there are a lot of high-rated reviews for this book, and based on that, I had no idea what I was getting into. I rarely, if ever, rate a book as low as I'm rating this one, but...yikes. I'm not sure where to start. Britney supposedly had a ghost writer assist in this book's writing, but for the life of me I cannot see how this made it past all the editors. The writing is so poor -- it reads like a 13-year-old's diary. Britney is very back & forth in her writing, repetitive, contradictory, shallow, choppy.....it's very incohesive and immature and I am guilty of a lot of eye-rolling. Despite the relative short length and "easy" reading, it took me a long time to get through this. I know that Britney's been through a lot. It can't be easy for anyone who rises to fame quickly, esp. at a relatively young age who becomes a victim of the media and those who try to exploit her. I have no doubt that her family, esp. her father, took advantage of her via the conservatorship. But I also have to wonder if maybe in some ways it was indeed for her own good. She did (and does currently) seem to be out of control in a lot of ways, with some questionable mental instability and definitely some poor decision making. The last portion of the book, dealing with the conservatorship and the aftermath, was especially hard to get through. Lots of repetitive self-pity. I know there are two (or more) sides to every story, but I don't feel that Britney did herself any favors in releasing this book. The least she could've done was to let someone else write this for her. no reviews | add a review
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In June 2021, the whole world was listening as Britney Spears spoke in open court. The impact of sharing her voice and 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 terms, at last. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)782.42164092The arts Music Vocal music Secular Forms of vocal music Secular songs General principles and musical forms Song genres Western popular songsLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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Look, I'm very glad that Britney Spears has escaped what was clearly an abusive legal conservatorship and that she is now better able to live her life on her own terms, but this is not a well-written book. It didn't feel like I was reading about the traumatic experiences Spears has had, and her reflections on them, so much as a manifestation of that trauma. There's no analytical depth here, but in a way that felt less like Spears was boundary keeping and more that she just doesn't have the emotional maturity needed for true self-reflection. She's a woman in her 40s but she sounds like a teenager. The writing is repetitive and contradictory, and while it's great that Spears feels more capable of sharing her own perspective and experiences, she comes across as a fairly textbook example of an unreliable narrator.
Spears also needs to have some friend around her who can say "Girl, no." Who thought that, after all of the Crazy Britney media narratives of the '00s that this book is trying to refute, it was a good idea for her to publish a memoir in which she says things like "I've always been almost disturbingly empathic. What people are feeling in Nebraska, I can subconsciously feel even though I'm thousands of miles away"? Girl, no.
(Justin Timberlake: Christ, what an asshole.) ( )