Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon--And the Journey of a Generation

Sheila Weller

Simon and Schuster, Apr 8, 2008 - Biography & Autobiography - 584 pages

A groundbreaking and irresistible biography of three of America's most important musical artists -- Carole King, Joni Mitchell, and Carly Simon -- charts their lives as women at a magical moment in time.

Carole King, Joni Mitchell, and Carly Simon remain among the most enduring and important women in popular music. Each woman is distinct. Carole King is the product of outer-borough, middle-class New York City; Joni Mitchell is a granddaughter of Canadian farmers; and Carly 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 sixties generation -- female version -- but in a bracingly specific and deeply recalled way, far from cliché. The history of the women of that generation has never been written -- until now, through their resonant lives and emblematic songs.

Filled with the voices of many dozens of these women's intimates, who are speaking in these pages for the first time, 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.

What people are saying

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - pennsylady - LibraryThing

nteresting bios I was taken back by the complexity of their lives (although I shouldn't have been) and especially enjoyed learning what motivated a particular song.

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - ennie - LibraryThing

At almost 600 pages, there's no point in picking this book up without an interest in the subject. That was not a problem for me, since the subjects are 3 singers whose work provided an important sound ...

Contents

• chapter: 29
• chapter three Carly: 78
• chapter four: 103
• 1961Early 1965: 124
• 1961Late 1965: 153
• March 1965December 1967: 208
• 19651969: 249
• Late 1967Mid1970: 273
• 19691970 Joni 1970: 306
• Mid1970Early 1973: 340
• 19721984: 377
• 19721982: 403
• Late 1973Late 1987: 440
• Source Notes: 529
• chapter: 531
• Acknowledgments: 541
• Discography: 561
• 1964Early 1969: 569

About the author

Sheila Weller is a New York Times bestselling author and award-winning magazine journalist. She is the author of five previous books, most recently her 2003 family memoir, Dancing at Ciro's, which The Washington Post called "a substantial contribution to American social history." She is the senior contributing editor at Glamour, a contributor to Vanity Fair, and a former contributing editor of New York. To learn more, visit www.girlslikeusthebook.com.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon--And the Journey of a Generation
• Author: Sheila Weller
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: Simon and Schuster, 2008
• ISBN: 0743491475, 9780743491471
• Length: 584 pages
• Subjects: Biography & Autobiography / Composers & Musicians; Biography & Autobiography / General; Social Science / Women's Studies