Belinda Carlisle

I started with 3* but progressively downgraded the ranking after reaching the halfway point of this book. Overall, this is a shallow autobiography. The account of the cultural context and origins of the Go-Go’s gave a revealing snapshot but the subsequent career reminiscences focus on, and circle around, personal insecurities, cocaine addiction and eating disorders. Carlisle’s evaluations of her music, relationships and impulsive behaviours appear unreflective and largely unexplained, show more and I couldn’t develop much empathy or appreciation for her experiences: self-centred, self-indulgent but not self-aware. show less

Grown up in the SF Valley, she made a pact on a street curb in Venice, California to form the Go-Gos with two others. This book is almost a journal in that she portrays her life as a struggle towards personal enlightenment. Fighting a long drug addiction, she claims that she is now past that stage of insecurity and shame. She claims yoga and mediation have helped her first cope and then accept herself for what she is. The beginning of the book mentions her attraction to witchcraft but she show more doesn't connect that with her addictive personality. She describes this phase as a type of searching that left her empty and the process would repeat itself over and over again in her life. As a whole, not what I was expecting when I bought this a few years back. One the most successful singers to come out of LA, Carlisle does a good job in this work. The book isn't highly crafted literature but its a solid memoir of the music business and her family-social life. show less

the beginning of the book was good, where she wrote about her early years. but i think she glossed over too much of the 'on the road' antics. and she doesnt even bring up any of the plastic surgery she had. the book could have been so much more.

how can you go wrong with 80's autobiograhies?! Interesting life she has led, though not particularly moving. Perhaps what makes this book so good...no need to go "Atta a girl!"...very Go-Go's ish, I suppose.