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)

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.

Very disappointed

I was looking forward to the "back story" of a period I lived through and artists I admire. The narrator was so annoying - couldn't even pronouce correctly some of the names and word she was saying. On top of which her lame attempts to emphasize the lyrics to the songs was so bad that I couldn't even finish listening. A real shame.

Overall, a disappointment

I'm in too far to give up now. This book is so long--it easily could have had all the necessary info contained in a book half the size. The lead up to Carole's relationship with Rick 1 was way too long, and, "who are these guys?" I thought maybe part of a different book had mistakenly been added. Yikes.

The reader's reading of the song lyrics, Really? It would have been nice to have clips of the actual songs. And after 18 hours, the reader's voice is really getting to me.

I agree, TMI about the sexual relationships and the reports of venereal disease.

I love the music of all these woman and what I DID like was the back story to many of the songs.

Boring as can be

Nothing to do with the narrator, this book is one of the most boring, unorganized, tangential, dull books on this very interesting subject. I could not get through reading the book, so I downloaded it.

SKIP IT. There are many other books more interesting and better written than this book.

Can't do it

I'm sorry, I love these 3 ladies, but I just cannot finish this book. The detail after detail after detail is beyond boring. It's kinda like attending a wedding where you only peripherally know the bride, and the aunt sitting next to you is giving you a blow-by-blow biography of each and every one of her 84 grandchildren. Maybe an abridged version would be better?