Book Review: True You: A Journey To Finding And Loving Yourself
by Janet Jackson
Publication Date: Feb 15, 2011
List Price: $25.99
Format: Hardcover, 259 pages
Classification: Nonfiction
ISBN13: 9781416587248
Imprint: Gallery Books
Publisher: Simon & Schuster, Inc.
Parent Company: KKR & Co. Inc.
Read a Description of True You: A Journey To Finding And Loving Yourself
Book Reviewed by Kam Williams
"Writing my first book was an adventure [which] comes from
my heart with love… This is not an autobiography. It’s a journey that I am
still taking to love and accept myself just as I am.
I want you to walk this road with me. You can never be happy until you
understand why you’re doing what you’re doing. If this book helps people
find those answers, it has succeeded."
—Excerpted from the Acknowledgements (pgs. v-vi)
Whenever I’ve interviewed Janet Jackson, I’ve always had the sense that I was speaking with a very grounded individual for someone who was born inside the bubble of celebrity and has lived her whole life in the limelight. Thus, I am not surprised to discover that she would seem as real and equally accessible in her autobiography.
Janet co-wrote True You: A Journey to Finding and Loving Yourself with
ghostwriter to the starsDavid Ritz, who has also penned memoirs with
Ray Charles,
Marvin Gaye,
Aretha, Etta James, B.B. King, Smokey Robinson, Natalie Cole,
Grandmaster Flash, Billie
Holiday, The Neville Brothers
and The Wire's
Felicia "Snoop" Pearson. The prolific Ritz credits his uncanny knack for
the genre with an ability to become one with his subjects by "absorbing
himself into the artist’s very heart and soul."
Such is certainly the case with True You, an unusually humanizing tome in
which Janet is forthcoming about the host of challenges she’s had to face in
the public eye over the years, ranging from bouts with depression to
overeating and yo-yo dieting. Despite her phenomenal singing and acting
career, the five-time, Grammy-winning pop icon freely admits to having
struggled with self-esteem issues.
Fortunately, Janet has finally broken free of the negative mindset, and she
now has some sound advice for folks who might themselves be battling similar
demons. She even shares some of her favorite, health-conscious recipes, an
imaginative, mouth-watering menagerie with names like Strawberry Clouds,
Oatmeal Pancakes and Cauliflower Popcorn.
Of course, this bio wouldn’t be complete without her reflections about
growing up a Jackson. Not to worry, such fond reminiscences are here in
abundance, especially about her late brother, Michael, as well as family
photographs featuring Janet from infancy to the present, and at every stage
in between.
Truly Janet!