About this item
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 a granddaughter of Canadian farmers; and Simon is a child of the Manhattan intellectual upper crust. They collectively 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 sixties" - the female version - but in a bracingly specific and deeply recalled way, far from clich. 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 many 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.
About the Author
Sheila Weller is a best-selling author and award-winning magazine journalist specializing in women's lives, social issues, cultural history, and feminist investigative.Her latest book, "The News Sorority: Diane Sawyer, Katie Couric, Christiane Amanpour - and the Triumph of Women in TV News," is a lively and detailed story of three very particular lives and a testament to the extraordinary character of women everywhere.Her sixth book was the critically acclaimed "Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon -- And The Journey of a Generation." On the New York Times Bestseller list for 8 weeks, it has sold over 170,000 copies, is featured in numerous Women's Studies programs at major universities, and was chosen as one of the Best Books of 2008 by Library Journal, The Christian Science Monitor, Amazon.com, and Tina Brown's DailyBeast. Her previous books, including the New York Times bestseller "Raging Heart," have included well-regarded, news-breaking nonfiction accounts of high profile crimes against women and their social and legal implications.She is a writer for Vanity Fair, a Senior Contributing Editor for Glamour, a former Contributing Editor for New York, a reviewer for The New York Times, and has written and writes for numerous other magazines. She has won nine major magazine awards, including six Newswomen's Club of New York Front Page Awards and two Exceptional Merit in Media Awards from The National Women's Political Caucus, and she was one of three winners, for her body of work, for Magazine Feature Writing on a Variety of Subjects in the 2005 National Headliners Award.
