My Crazy Beautiful Life / Kesha / 192 pages

In honor of Kesha's 32nd birthday as well as the start of Women's History Month, I thought I'd start off with this autobiography.

The autobiography begins with Kesha at the Galapagos Islands, with only a notebook and a pen.  As she stares out at the ocean, she writes the first word that comes to mind: Warrior.

She goes into some detail with her early life; her mother and older brother were the main inspirations for her when it came to music and songwriting, but plenty of rock musicians between the 1960s and the 1980s helped too.  Working her way to achieve her dream, she had to move from Nashville to LA and work many side-jobs before getting an uncredited appearance in Flo Rida's "Right Round", and even later making her big hit "Tik Tok".  She  calls back to her most memorable tours, from Manchester to Budapest to Rio, closing with the Galapagos Islands and the many thanks to her friends, family, and fans.

I've had some mixed views with this book;  I loved the photography (her brother Lagan did a good job with a lot of them).  However, this book was published in 2012, prior to her admiting that her producer then was a corrupt and horrible person to her, so I was REALLY unnerved by the only-positive bits she writes about him. 

Personally, I'm just glad she left that studio and has improved overall as a result.

Let It Be Me/ Kate Noble / 308 pgs

I quite liked this book! This is a historical romance set partially in England but mostly in Venice. The change of scenery was lovely. Bridget is the middle of three daughters and she's been overshadowed by her beautiful older sister for years. That sister has recently married but Bridget is not known among Society as having a pleasant personality, so the gentlemen ignore her. After a string of unusual circumstances, Bridget, her mother, and her younger sister set off for Italy, ostensibly to escape the English winter but Bridget has an ulterior motive of hoping to study piano with an Italian composer she once met. Once in Venice things do not go exactly as she planned but she does end up studying with the composer because he needs a female student to perform in a competition for him. Bridget begins her tutelage under the volatile composer with his half-English, half-Italian brother watching out for her.


This story starts out so slowly I almost gave up on it. I am glad I didn't. The romance is absolutely wonderful, mostly because the hero Oliver is my kind of guy: kind, protective, in love with the heroine before she even realizes it, always do the little things for her. The scenes in and around Venice are descriptive and full of life. The very best part of the book, though, is the way the music is described. It's first rate. Bridget is studying Beethoven's Sonata No. 23 but she and Oliver also are privileged enough to hear one of the first performances of Beethoven's 9th Symphony. I wish I had thought to listen to these two pieces of music while I was reading the book. Anyway, I highly recommend Let It Be Me.

Music was it : young Leonard Bernstein / Susan Goldman Rubin 178 p

California author Susan Goldman Rubin relates the early years of Leonard Bernstein.  Lenny, as a baby, would tap in time.  Soon he knew music was it and would be his life's career.  His father, a successful businessman, wanted him to take over the family business.  Music was no career, he said--  Music was for klezmers. Lenny worked constantly to convince his father to at least partially pay for piano lessons and his musical education.  He played piano to pay his way through school. In the 1930s and 40s, classical music was dominated by Europeans.  An American Jew would find it difficult to be a success in the classical world.  Rubin presents his relationship with his family, his lifelong friends and fellow musicians, adventures and accomplishments, teachers, in a warm, vibrant way.  Biography concludes with his triumphant conducting debut at Carnegie Hall with the New York Philharmonic.  And it is there that Lenny's father realizes that his son is a great success.  Delightfully illustrated with photos, concert programs, early doodles and letters, excerpts from musical scores and other primary documentation.

2012 Notable Children's Book