Girls Like Us

Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon & the Journey of a Generation

By: Sheila Weller

Narrated by: Susan Ericksen

Length: 22 hrs and 52 mins

Publisher's summary

Joni Mitchell, Carole King, and Carly Simon remain among the most enduring and important women in popular music. Each woman is distinct: King is the product of outer-borough, middle-class New York City; Mitchell is the granddaughter of Canadian farmers; and Simon is a child of the Manhattan intellectual upper crust.

Collectively, they represent, in their lives and their songs, a great swath of American girls who came of age in the late 1960s. Their stories trace the arc of the now-mythic generation known as "the 60s" - the female version - but in a bracingly specific and deeply recalled way, far from cliché.

The history of the women of that generation had never been written - until now - and it is told through the resonant lives and emblematic songs of Mitchell, Simon, and King.

Filled with the voices of dozens of these women's intimates, this alternating biography reads like a novel - except it's all true, and the heroines are famous and beloved. Sheila Weller captures the character of each woman and gives a balanced portrayal, enriched by a wealth of new information.

Girls Like Us is an epic treatment of midcentury women who dared to break tradition and become what none had been before them: confessors in song, rock superstars, and adventurers of heart and soul.

©2008 Kellwell Inc. (P)2008 Tantor

Critic reviews

"An exhilarating look at three of the most creative talents of their era....Wonderfully detailed." ( The Boston Globe)

Well Worth The Read

This book grabs you in the first chapter and simply does not let go. And, as I was approaching the end I was actually beginning to wonder how she was going to 'wrap it up' so to speak. The books ends with a feeling much like you feel after you've had a wonderful day and you lay down on your bed at night and when your head hits the pillow, you think, 'wow, what a nice day!' Then you fall asleep and have nice dreams all night. This is a great read.

The meat and potatoes of this book is in the telling. Sheila Weller hit a home run on this one. It is great women's history. She brings the distance of a historian and the philosophical overview of someone who has deeply considered her topic. So much of this book made me feel like I was privy to a conversation with someone intimately familiar with details and intelligent enough to have considered the details and explained them without sounding like they were just regurgitating facts. What she showed here is that when you are in the middle of a revolution it is virtually impossible to see or be aware of the many different facets of the revolution. If you go back and study it, after it is over, it is possible to see the interplay between one side and another and see how two or three different and unrelated aspects interacted and helped intensify the revolutionary fire. This is what Sheila Weller did in this book. She did it with such clarity that the reader is able to see the subtle interactions between the poets and industry of a society going through change. This book gives presents a candid view into a 30 year segment of three women in American society. I am sure this book will be a corner stone of reading about the past another 30 years from now. Sheila Weller - wow - fantastic writing; fantastic overview.

Took a bit to get into, but enjoyed very much!

What did you like best about Girls Like Us? What did you like least?

I had very little former knowledge about these three women, or any of the other artists I found out about in the book. I'm glad I chose a book tape format as opposed to the paper copy because it's very long and very slow. i would never have finished if I had to flip the pages. NOT because it was a bad book, because it was not. I had a hard time in the beginning, thinking that the mention of experiences or other characters was irrelevant, but it turned out to all come back around and put the pieces together through the middle and end. But I get very antsy. I listen to my books at 1.5x and 2x speed, if that helps you understand my antsy-ness. I like tot get tot eh point and this isn't a cut to the chase story. But it is still very much worth reading if you dig history in any way.

Did Girls Like Us inspire you to do anything?

Listen to the music, research some of the artists further, and talk o my mom about it :) Since that was her time. This book was her upbringing.

Any additional comments?

I got really cranky at how many time the phrase "Who would be" was used. You'll see.

Compassionate Reflection

I enjoyed reading about these women with context and compassion. I’d be curious to hear their personal takes on it- but I enjoyed the read.

A Shifting Culture

Having read (listened to) this book, I deeply appreciate the cultural shift from the 1950s conservativism to the liberalism of the 1960s, especially for women. The featured songwriters/singers lived through and influenced that shift. The lives of Carole King, Joni Mitchell and Carly Simon were the undercurrent of the popular music culture, which transformed from bubble gum pop to straight shots of protest songs.
This is also a book that celebrates the emancipation of women in many ways, especially their emergence outside of the shadows of men.

A must read for a music lover .

Really great book, full of the sociology and history around these 3 women's lives and careers.

Not sure about the accuracy. Very bad narration.

What did you like best about Girls Like Us? What did you like least?

I'm not sure about the accuracy of Weller's information. Just prior to this book, I read Carly Simon's memoir, "Boys In The Trees." Ms. Weller's account of many events is very different from Ms. Simon's. I suppose that's to be expected. In any event, she does way too much psychoanalyzing of the three women and their songs, as if she is an expert psychoanalyst and an expert music critic as well. She comes to conclusions without enough information, nor does it seem she actually met any of these women. It was interesting see the trajectory of their careers juxtaposed against each other, and to see how their paths crossed.

Any additional comments?

Susan Ericksen should stick to reading JD Robb's "In Death" series. She does an incredible job with those books. In this book, however, she seriously mispronounced names of very famous people and her inflections were melodramatic and annoying.

Captures the Evolution of Women’s Roles

Using the biographies of these three brilliant women as a symbol of the changes in women’s roles from the 50s through the 2000s was really interesting. It also showed the personal turmoil in their lives during these times, which was also being experienced by women throughout the country as their roles and society changed.

Great time period depicted in this biography

I really liked getting to know these three performers that were so influential while I was a teenager and beyond. It was a critical time in our history and they each played an important part of our evolution.

Good, but...

I've just finished listening - and came away with generally a good feeling about this book, even if - TMI - the exhaustive research could have been edited a bit. BUT - it was the narrator (Ms Ericksen) who annoyed me -with her numerous mispronunciations of names (oh well, if that sort of thing annoys you... then READ the book, I suppose). I loved the details about the early, formative years of these three women and the people who came into and out of their lives, shaping their creative talents from a very early age.

Everything you wanted to know

Great book. At times to much detail but great research. Wonderful reader. Great listen about our social evolution the last 40 years also. I always thought of these women as my fantasy girlfriends and it was a pleasure to finally "get to know them".