The audio had her songs and is narrated by Janis, herself! View all 9 comments. Jun 25, D. This is an interesting book by an interesting writer. Janis Ian had her first big hit when still in her teens with the classic "Society's Child," and has had no less than TWO musical comebacks over the course of her career. Who says there are no second acts in American lives?
Following her life from her very "hippie" upbringing through the present day, this autobiography shows Ian's ups and downs as she deals with fame, personal and professional problems, and all t This is an interesting book by an interesting writer. Following her life from her very "hippie" upbringing through the present day, this autobiography shows Ian's ups and downs as she deals with fame, personal and professional problems, and all the ups and downs of her interesting life.
Ian is a strong writer, and she goes a good job of elucidating her thinking during the various phases of her life. There are several interesting tidbits here, including her friendships with Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin, but the majority of the book chronicles Ian's struggles to be an artist working within a system the record business that doesn't understand her or know what to do with her. The book deals frankly with her sexuality she has male and female lovers, sometimes at the same time and her emotionally and physically abusive relationships.
In the end, the book is interesting for the long-term Ian fan, as it fills in the background for several of her biggest hits, "Society's Child," "At Seventeen," "Stars," etc. Jul 29, Linda Lipko rated it really liked it. Highly Recommended While listening to Janis Ian perform at a local Musikfest, I took a wonderful, magical trip down memory lane. I purchased a copy of her recently released autobiography and read it in one sitting -- late into the wee morning hours.
I know the words to all the songs and now it is a special gift to hear the stories behind some of them and to learn the twists and turns of her journey. Her well-written, insightful book shines a bright light in the corners of the rough spots of darknes Highly Recommended While listening to Janis Ian perform at a local Musikfest, I took a wonderful, magical trip down memory lane.
Her well-written, insightful book shines a bright light in the corners of the rough spots of darkness of her life.
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Her vulnerability is profound. While writing in a non melodramatic fashion, she quietly invites the reader to sit beside her as she unravels the joys, the sadness, the blessings and the mysteries. She touched our hearts years ago when she learned some truths at seventeen, and now, this incredible woman continues to share some of the truths she has discovered throughout her life. Jan 05, Harriet rated it it was ok.
I have loved Janis Ian's music for 30 years. But I like it less having read this autobiography, which disappoints me terribly for its endless self-indulgence and frequent deviations into irrelevance or self-justification. It's got one of the best first lines of any autobiography I've read--"I was born into the crack that split America"--but it's all downhill from there. Ian doesn't emerge as a very likable character, alas.
I wish her well and am glad her life is finally on track, but in this cas I have loved Janis Ian's music for 30 years. I wish her well and am glad her life is finally on track, but in this case, I wish I hadn't read the book.
Society's Child: My Autobiography
Sep 06, Bethany rated it it was amazing Shelves: I joined a new library system the other week, and was finally able to get my hands on a copy of this book. I should've have just gone ahead and bought it since I've been wanting to read it for so long, but oh well. I have been a massive fangirl of hers and have spent hours alone listening to or singing her music. This book just increased my surety that Janis Ian is a matchless a I joined a new library system the other week, and was finally able to get my hands on a copy of this book.
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This book just increased my surety that Janis Ian is a matchless and amazing woman. I was astounded by the amount of devastating things in her life; I kept thinking it couldn't get worse, but most every chapter brought new heartbreak. Janis is still alive to tell her tale, and that is incredible and makes me so happy. Sep 19, Elizabeth rated it it was amazing. The best way to enjoy this book is to listen to the audio version, narrated by Janis. You'll get some wonderful, musical chapter openers from Janis that really set the mood.
Janis appears to be a very courageous, positive person, someone to be admired. The only thing that puzzled me is that Janis did not express her feelings concerning the death of her friend, Janis Joplin. She mentioned JJ, but did not mention her feelings after JJ had passed away. I found this odd. But I guess she had her reas The best way to enjoy this book is to listen to the audio version, narrated by Janis. But I guess she had her reasons for not wanting to go into that in this book. Again, give yourself a treat, and listen to the audio version. It's a joy to listen to Janis's soothing, upbeat voice telling her own story.
Dec 31, Karen Ireland-Phillips added it.
Take My Hand: The Extraordinary Story of a Girl Named Janis by Audrey M. Revell - Paperback
Ian said she wanted to write her autobiography as if it'd been written by John Grisham. It's fast-moving, covers a lot of years and deep emotional territory without ever dipping very far into the underlying emotional state of the author. Far more moving, and immediate, was the talk about the book I had the fortune to hear her give about the book in Cl Ms. Far more moving, and immediate, was the talk about the book I had the fortune to hear her give about the book in Cleveland just after its release.
Ian spoke about her mother's decline and death, it was as if the listeners were with her. Sep 28, Gerry rated it really liked it. Another librarian posted an article about Janis Ian's talk at a library conference. It was very moving and so I put her autobiography on hold at the library. It's taken me quite a while to get through it. There was a lot of sadness and sometimes, I just had to put it aside. I have 3 children who are artists of one kind or another. Reading this book about this artist makes me hope for them that they have enough joy and enough success to have a good life without the awfulness of big success.
It seems Another librarian posted an article about Janis Ian's talk at a library conference. It seems that Janis has found peace and joy in her life. I'm glad I read her autobiography. Apr 23, Linda Ann Rentschler rated it it was amazing.
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From her early stardom to her present circumstances, Janis has written from her heart--even when it was broken. This was the most honest autobiography I've ever read. This book is for anyone who has heard the soulful sounds in her music and wondered where it all came from. Mar 28, Ashley rated it it was amazing. I found this an incredibly compelling read. For those who say that it is ego-centric or self indulgent Autobiographies are, by their very nature, self-indulgent.
Ian actually wrote a song making fun of this fact. I'm a big Janis Ian fan and hearing herself telling the fantastic story of her rather difficult life, was an uplifting experience! Sep 22, Tom Mueller rated it it was amazing Shelves: This read has prompted me to immerse myself in Janis Ian's work. She is playing in Chicago and Ft. Laud in and I hope to make her concerts. Have written to her webpage.
Jan 07, Daniela Botterbusch rated it liked it. If you're considering this book, I highly recommend the audiobook Audible version. Janice Ian narrates, and she performs snippets of her own work throughout. Dec 01, Jami rated it really liked it Shelves: I enjoyed this autobiography. I knew of Janis Ian's songs, and I remember "At 17" being one of the songs I learned to play on the piano. However, I knew nothing of her life, so this was an interesting story for me.
She had quite a lot of unique experiences, both positive and negative, and her book also gave glimpses into the recording industry. I loved the format of having her singing part of one of her songs, and then you would get the part of her life that inspired that particular song. It was I enjoyed this autobiography. It was definitely a unique way of telling the story.
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I'm glad that she narrated the book, as her narration and singing added to the listening experience. Nov 26, Jlsimon rated it it was amazing. This is my vote for best book read this year. Ian tells her story. What can I say, I laughed, I cried What a truly amazing woman. I wish I knew her. I wish I would be interesting enough to introduce myself to her and get to know her more. I didn't know any of her music, but of course I looked her up. Smart, and funny, and despite her opinion that she is not a beauty I think she is just that. I wont give away any of the plot but I will offer the following recommendations I This is my vote for best book read this year.
I would recommend this book to individual looking for: In fact I think that is why I loved this book, I could feel her feelings. I could feel her joy, feel her fear, feel her frustrations, feel her success. What a breathtaking individuals. I'll say it again, I wish I knew her. She was a gifted, comical, exciting, vibrant, intellectual, and a challenging individual. Her spirituality and sensitivity produced tremendous joy for those. Her spirituality and sensitivity produced tremendous joy for those who knew her. It is a moving story of joy, family warmth, and of bright achievement tarnished by the coldness and failures of dreary and inefficient bureaucracy and highlights the shining examples set by caring volunteers, in stark contrast to the paid functionaries of grey, faceless and dismissive authority.
Above all, this book is a searing indictment of a system in which closing ranks is more important than establishing the truth, and in which the concerns of those who are subject to the system are treated with arrogant dismissiveness. In Take My Hand, Audrey Revell paints a vivid and moving picture of the life and indomitable spirit of her daughter Janis, an exceptionally talented musician and composer despite having lost her sight as a child together with progressive hearing loss.
Enduring and overcoming all the difficulties and disappointments of a lifelong fight against the rare and incurable disease Retinitis Pigmentosa. This is a true story of love, dedication, shining devotion and black betrayal by the system. This is Audrey Revell's honest, heart-breaking, funny, powerful, and sometimes controversial story of the life and dreadful, harrowing death of her daughter, written to fulfill a promise she made to Jan before her life support was switched off.
It is also a tribute to Janis. It is lovingly and honestly written in unsparing graphic terms in the hopethat it will challenge you to a better understanding of many issues. And then the hunters come…. While riding Ning Nong along the beach, the eight-year-old noticed the elephant was attempting to pull away from the receding sea water. He saved my life. For more information, visit www. Chichester Festival Theatre February www. Belgrade Theatre, Coventry 22 — 25 February www. Lyceum Theatre, Sheffield 7 — 11 March www.
Wycombe Swan 14 — 18 March www. Hackney Empire, London 22 — 25 March www. Grand Theatre, Blackpool 4 — 8 April www. West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds 11 — 15 April www. The Lowry, Salford 18 — 22 April www. Theatre Royal, Norwich 25 — 29 April www. Kings Theatre, Edinburgh 2 — 6 May www. Newcastle Theatre Royal 9 — 13 May www. Wolverhampton Grand Theatre 6 — 10 June www.
We may differ, but even then perhaps only minimally, as to how we achieve what we are all hoping for, seeking and working for: We know, without reminding ourselves endlessly, the obvious and less obvious benefits children can glean from developing a life-long love of reading, the widening and deepening of knowledge and understanding, the ability to empathise, to explore and discover, to be comforted, excited, provoked and challenged, to spur confidence and creativity. Like many wordsmiths and storymakers, I speak of all this often, rather too often, I fear, at conferences here and there, at literary festivals, at gatherings of likeminded folk, as I am doing this evening.
I think it is why we are all here. But is this a vain hope? What are we doing this for? What is the point? Who will be listening, except ourselves? I, like you, can sing the old song, blow the trumpet, bang the drum, for the love of books, the importance of literacy for our children, proclaim it loud. I could blame successive governments who have all indulged in short-termism in their education policies, to a greater or lesser extent, who corral schools and pressure teachers into teaching literacy fearfully, who insist that measurable outcomes and results are the be all and end all of the education process, who often make a chore and a trial out of reading and books, who have succeeded so often only in banishing enjoyment.
But that would be passing the buck. We live in a democracy — just, an imperfect democracy certainly. We choose our governments. We are all of us in some way responsible both for the successes and failures of our literacy and our society, for they are, as we know, intimately connected. So when it comes to reading and books, if we have failed to engage and enthuse generations of children, especially those millions from less advantageous backgrounds — and most certainly we have failed far too many of them — then for all of us, even here amongst so many who have striven to create a more literate society, it is mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.
Indeed I think it could be said that literacy, or the lack of it, helps divide us, helps define and separate those who have from those who have not, those who feel they belong and those who feel they do not, who feel alienated. The truth is that over the years, the centuries, reading and literacy amongst our children, in our society, has certainly grown, but sadly it is also true it has not been all inclusive, as it should have been, far from it. And that has been the great failure on our part. But let me focus a while on the progress that has been made, the positive, on what has been achieved, by many people here today, and others, and not just in our time but over the centuries before us.
We should see this progress in some kind of historical perspective, to see where we are, where we have come from. This striving for a society which encourages reading and writing, where knowledge and understanding are accepted as important, indeed vital, to our wellbeing as well as our productivity, as well as our cohesion as a tribe, our sense of belonging — all this this striving was not entirely down to King Alfred.
But I like to think he helped begin it. I like Good King Alfred, because I love a good story. I am one of those sleepy heads inclined to let the toast burn at breakfast, so I feel for the man. He knew education and reading was the way forward. He pointed the way. So thanks for that, Good King Alfred.
The church then held the baton of education and reading and writing for many centuries — I myself went to a school founded by St Augustine. But then I was at school a long time ago! So thanks for that, St Augustine. All right, so there was another agenda here.
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In reading terms it is true there was predominantly only one best seller out there, the Bible, a book by the way that is a treasure trove of great stories. But the growth of those early schools and universities slowly slowly spread the notion, through the monks, to the people, that this world of reading was beneficial both to our prospects in this world and the next, as well as to our spiritual wellbeing; and the notion grew that words were power, that we could have our say. There was a growing thirst for law and rights.
The written word mattered, framed laws, framed Magna Carta. Even then we had our stories and our songs. We have always had them, renewed and retold for each generation. They helped make us who we have become, to keep us in touch with who we have been. Then technology gave us all in this country a huge helping hand, truly a giant leap for mankind, womankind too, childkind as well.
William Caxton thought up the printing press. Now, stories and poems and pamphlets could be printed in their dozens and hundreds and thousands. No longer did everything have to be copied out laboriously, and often beautifully, exquisitely, by monks. No longer could the church hold such sway over what we wrote and read. The book genie, the story genie, was well and truly out of the bottle. The book took off, went viral. So thanks for that Mr Caxton! What an invention, Mr Caxton! Still going strong, more needed that ever! The printed word could now be read by anyone who could read, and because of the printing press more and more people could read, and more and more people wanted to read.
This reading thing was spreading like wildfire. Knowledge was for everyone.