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Short Synopsis
Girls Like Us is an epic treatment of Joni Mitchell, Carole King, and Carly Simon, 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.

Full Synopsis
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 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 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.

"There were five books by my bedside when Girls Like Us arrived, but this was the book I had to keep reading." ---Sara Davidson, bestselling author of Leap!

"Susan Ericksen reads like one of the girls, picking up from Weller's tone and sounding like a woman of the era.... Her performance is...very solid." ---Publishers Weekly Audio Review

"Narrator Susan Ericksen has a ball dishing the rock-n'-roll dirt with the girls, and so will listeners.... Her reading is controlled and intelligent." ---AudioFile

"Juicy.... Girls Like Us is intriguing for both its revelations and the questions it leaves unresolved." ---USA Today

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

"A strong amalgam of nostalgia, feminist history, astute insight, beautiful music and irresistible gossip." ---The New York Times

"A must-read...this bio will prove an absorbing, eye-opening tour of rock (and American) history." ---Publishers Weekly Starred Review
Library Journal Bestseller

Book Sense Bestseller

New York Times Bestseller

Publishers Weekly Review

New York Times Bestseller

Girls Like Us

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

Author Sheila Weller

Narrated by Susan Ericksen

Publication date Apr 15, 2008

Running time 24 hrs

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