Love, Ellen

I picked this book up after I heard country singer Chely Wright mention it when she appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. She said this book was a great support to her in coming out as a lesbian. I love Ellen and her mom Betty so I knew I had to read this book.

Love, Ellen was about more than just Ellen and Betty’s relationship. It’s really a memoir of Betty’s whole life. Luckily, she has had an interesting life. After she divorced Ellen’s father, she married a man she refers to only as “B” who was abusive to both her and Ellen. Of course, there is a lot about Ellen’s life in here too. Betty quotes letters Ellen wrote to her through the years and she writes in detail about the period in Ellen’s life when she decided to show more come out publicly as a lesbian. If you are a fan of Ellen’s brother Vance DeGeneres you should know that there is a little bit about him in the book but it’s definitely more about Ellen and Betty.

This book was written when Ellen and Anne Heche were still together and Anne was still masquerading as someone not completely bonkers (in my opinion). I cringed a little every time Betty referred to Anne as her other daughter. However, that’s just one more way in which Betty is completely supportive of Ellen – she welcomed Ellen’s partner with open arms right from the beginning of their relationship.

Betty DeGeneres is an inspiring example of a woman who loves her children unconditionally. Betty isn’t perfect and she knows that. She writes about her mistakes as well as her successes in life. This is a wonderful book for pretty much everyone – Ellen fans, Betty fans, LGBT people and allies. show less

how to review this book... so, obviously i'm glad that a book like this is out there, that this woman wants to send this message of love and acceptance. i'm sure that it's helpful for people who need or seek that message. it's absolutely an important thing for people to hear if they're struggling with loving their gay children or parents. it was extremely repetitive, though. and i know that's for a reason, so i can sort of ignore it. what's harder to ignore is how disjointed and poorly written it is. maybe it's just misbilled - it's a memoir, with a focus on her work as an advocate for gay rights. written by a non-writer.

A personal memoir of her journey of acceptance of her daughter Ellen and her lifestyle. I am glad that she wrote it, much of it was helpful to follow her process of love for her daughter and moving on to speak out for others as well. I did feel that it was disjointed, and had much more details of her life and several marriages than I needed to read about. However, if she needed to write it to work through it all, so be it. As a pleasurable read, I would give this two stars. As an insight into a mother's heart for her child, it deserves four, so that is why I gave it three.

The things Mothers go through for their children and to show their support. It is so very hard to be raised a certain way and then in the day of your child, which are different times, your up-bringing is challenged by something you never heard of or thought would happen in your family. Betty's moving thoughts and exeriences that she had when her daughter told her that she is gay were very moving and realistic. It is not a judgmental book but one that you can actually walk in her shoes. This book gives you the history of Betty's life and how she was raised and then meeting Ellen's father. You see how close mother and daughter are and the emotional turmoil that Ellen goes through because she isn't "normal" to society. It becomes somewhat show more of a guide to show you how to stand by your child and see what happens when others won't. show less

Meh - not really what I was expecting. This book could have been half the pages - I didn't even finish it. In my opinion, this book should have been called "All about me, Betty" not "Love, Ellen". It was interesting to a point, but for my taste there was way too much background on the mom herself, and not really on both of them together. I don't know - I was really looking forward to reading it, and came away disappointed.