The Meaning of Mariah Carey by Mariah Carey

The Meaning of Mariah Carey

by Mariah Carey

The global icon, award-winning singer, songwriter, producer, actress, mother, daughter, sister, storyteller and artist finally tells the unfiltered story of her life in The Meaning of Mariah Carey.

It took me a lifetime to have the courage and the clarity to write my memoir. I want to tell the story of the moments - the ups and downs, the triumphs and traumas, the debacles and the dreams - that contributed to the person I am today. Though there have been countless stories about me throughout my career and very public personal life, it's been impossible to communicate the complexities and depths of my experience in any single magazine article or a ten-minute television interview. And even then, my words were filtered through someone else's lens, largely satisfying someone else's assignment to define me.

This book is composed of my memories, my mishaps, my struggles, my survival and my songs. Unfiltered. I went deep into my childhood and gave the scared little girl inside of me a big voice. I let the abandoned and ambitious adolescent have her say, and the betrayed and triumphant woman I became tell her side.

Writing this memoir was incredibly hard, humbling and healing. My sincere hope is that you are moved to a new understanding, not only about me, but also about the resilience of the human spirit.

Love,
Mariah

Reviewed by Angie on

4 of 5 stars

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Proceed With Caution:

This book contains mentions of violence, drug use, child abuse, racism (including use of the n-word), domestic abuse, and miscarriage.

The Basics:

This is singer-songwriter, actress, superstar, diva, Mariah's Carey story in her own words. She goes down deep and tells all. There are also pretty pictures and song lyrics.

My Thoughts:

I am so glad that I had the opportunity to read The Meaning of Mariah Carey. She was such an important part of my childhood. She's the first singer that I remember being a true fan of. My parents played her music and I was obsessed. I also thought she was so pretty and was shocked to see someone famous who actually looked kind of like me!

Even though I would consider myself a fan of Mariah, I am guilty at poking fun of her "antics" over the years. After finishing The Meaning of Mariah Carey, I take back anything bad or thoughtless that I said about her. This woman has endured and overcame so much and I just had no idea. Some of things that looked "crazy" were of course twisted by the media to look that way, or were things that happened and we had no idea what was going on inside her at the time. I certainly had a new appreciation for everything Mariah Carey has done.

The one thing that I didn't like about The Meaning of Mariah Carey was how jumpy the narrative was. Mariah did warn us that she was going to tell her story her way and that's not necessarily in an organized manner. I like organization! Sometimes she'd switch timelines in the middle of a story and I'd get confused, have to flip back, and then proceed. That's not really a bad thing, since we all get off track when telling a story and have to tell a little backstory and then get back to the story we were originally telling. But I just wished it had been a little more linear.

I do wish I had listened to the audiobook version of The Meaning of Mariah Carey. She narrates it herself, which is awesome. And she sings in it! I love her voice, so I'm going to have to add myself to the forever long library wait list to grab it. I think it'll be a whole experience.

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Reading updates

  • 1 November, 2020: Started reading
  • 1 November, 2020: on page 0 out of 368 0%
  • 2 November, 2020: Finished reading
  • 27 February, 2021: Reviewed