#TheWomaninMe – Rosepoint Publishing

Rosepoint Reviews – June Recap – Boo to Century July Temps!

The rabbits and deer have won the fairy garden. It’s official. I’ve given up on live plants and planted plastic instead. Animals 1 – farmer 0. It’s a tie on the veggie bed with chicken wire and mesh around my tender plants. They did manage to penetrate to a vigorous bean plant and that plant won’t be going anywhere now. Love the animals, but…

Punkin the Pom is carefully beginning to enjoy her walks.* The CE, having a closer bond, is trusting her more and she’s taking advantage. Otherwise, still accepting few treats, no toys, no offers of companionship, and housetraining is a throw of the dice.

June was a struggle, once again, with the CE’s attention divided and my spending more time in the kitchen. It didn’t help that I decided my next personal challenge was to make a sourdough starter and produce a loaf of sourdough bread. I’m currently on the third try which is not looking good right now at Day 4 of a 6-7 day cycle of starter. Of course, it’s also that time of the year when the gardens and outdoor activities take precedence.

I’m thinking, if not a sabbatical, then a greatly reduced schedule through July and probably August. Most of my reading now includes audiobooks as time for reading has been greatly reduced. Of the twelve books, half were audiobooks!

As always, links on titles are to our reviews that include purchase or source information.

The Curse of King Midas by Colleen M Story (CE review)
Lockdown by Sara Driscoll
The Cyanide Canary by Robert Dugoni and Joseph Hilldorfer (audiobook)
The Wild Road Home by Melissa Payne
If Something Happens to Me by Alex Finlay (audiobook)
The 6:20 Man by David Baldacci (audiobook)
The Woman in Me by Britney Spears (audiobook)
Best House on the Block by T R Ragan
The Husbands by Holly Gramazio (audiobook)
Prevailing Wind by Thomas Dolby (CE review)
Breach by Holly S Roberts (blog tour)
Beach Town by Mary Kay Andrews (audiobook)

Favorite Book of the Month

I really loved The Wild Road Home—it was addictive, kept me reading, and I was thoroughly invested in the well-developed characters. It fell just one-half star short of five, however, and the CE easily gave his book, Prevailing Wind, five stars even with a rather slow start. It’s a toss up, but I’ll have to give the nod to his book.

Favorite for June – Prevailing Wind by Thomas Dolby

My Reading Challenges page…Reading Challenges page—well, you know the score. Life is scattered and chaotic right now. The Goodreads Challenge is now six books behind schedule at 68 of 150. I make no promises.

Welcome as always to my new subscribers! My blog hopping time has seriously suffered having apparently landed somewhere underneath getting a review out. I apologize for the slow response to your great posts, but I’m trying. Honest.

Loggin' off

*Apologize for the poor GIF, apparently I’m not allowed to upload an MP4 even when I get it down to 11 MGs.

The Woman in Me by Britney Spears #AudiobookReview #ThrowbackThursday

Best Books of the Year 2023

Book Blurb:

The Woman in Me is a brave and astonishingly moving story about freedom, fame, motherhood, survival, faith, and hope.

In June 2021, the whole world was listening as Britney Spears spoke in open court. The impact of sharing her voice—her truth—was undeniable, and it changed the course of her life and the lives of countless others. The Woman in Me reveals for the first time her incredible journey—and the strength at the core of one of the greatest performers in pop music history.

Written with remarkable candor and humor, Spears’s groundbreaking book illuminates the enduring power of music and love—and the importance of a woman telling her own story, on her own terms, at last.

My Review:

I admit to the curiosity as well as the accolades by reviewers that drove me to listen to the audiobook that Britney Spears wrote (with, I assume, help from a ghostwriter). I’ve read memoirs of other famous singers and actors and many were twice as long and certainly exhibited more depth.

I also admit that I’ve not one of her songs in my favorites list and couldn’t name one that made it big. So, yes, I might have gone into this slightly prejudiced, only seeing another young, pretty blonde exploiting her body for a short fall in talent.

Okay, okay! Sorry! Just not my generation but really my question is: Was this book a complete account of the evolution of the singer, her talent growth, the origin of her songs, personal life and creative assistants, or the horrendous chronicle of the family financially spoiled by excess into literally locking her up for thirteen years.

Thirteen years! How does that happen? Yes, I was aware of the news regarding the lawsuit. It’s an indictment of the system, the lack of proper legal representation, and the loss of financial power. But I’m not sure the memoir was meant to be the story of her rise to fame or an exposé of the family’s attempt to keep her under their total physical, financial, and media control.

Britney takes the opportunity to defend a lot of her actions, but it seems like she more than once pushed the envelope when it would have been in her larger interest to back off, particularly when she wanted so desperately to keep her boys. This would also be a condemnation of sexism in the media world (many admittedly of her choice–check the book cover) as well as conservatorships, mental health, exploitation, and (again) the paparazzi.

In the audiobook, she bubbles over with her love for Hesam (Sam) Asghari, but that was strike three as of May 2024 and fourteen months of marriage.

The memoir told a little flatly, there is always more to the story than is revealed.

Michelle Williams narrated and did a great job. I downloaded a copy of this audiobook from my local well-stocked library. These are my honest thoughts.

Rosepoint Publishing: Three point Five Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Composer & Musician Biographies, Actor & Entertainer Biographies, Biographies of Celebrities & Entertainment Professionals
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
ASIN: B0BRBPSXCW
Listening Length: 5 hrs 31 mins
Narrator: Michelle Williams, Britney Spears – introduction
Publication Date: October 24, 2023
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Links: The Woman in Me [Amazon-US]
Amazon-UK
Barnes & Noble
Kobo

The Author: Multi-platinum, Grammy Award–winning pop icon Britney Spears is one of the most successful and celebrated entertainers in music history, with more than 100 million records sold worldwide. In 2021, she was named one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People. Spears’s album Blackout was added to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s Library & Archives in 2012. She lives in Los Angeles, California. [Amazon]

Britney Jean Spears (born December 2, 1981) is an American singer, dancer, songwriter, actress and author. She has sold over 83 million records worldwide according to Zomba Label Group. The RIAA ranks her as the eighth best-selling female artist in American music history, having sold 32 million albums in the U.S. Her success as a recording artist has allowed her to work in other media; she has acted in film and television, has written two books, and has been contracted to endorse several products, including her own perfume line.

Spears released her debut album …Baby One More Time in 1999, propelling her to international stardom. It spawned the Billboard topping single “…Baby One More Time”. She released her second studio album Oops!… I Did It Again in 2000 with continued success. A third album Britney was released in 2001, followed by the release of her fourth album In the Zone in 2003. The album’s breakout single “Toxic” won Spears her first Grammy Award. After the release of a remix album/greatest hits collection, she released her fifth album Blackout in 2007.

As a result of her fame, Spears’s personal life has received much media attention. This only escalated after her marriage to Kevin Federline in 2004. She gave birth to her first child, Sean Preston, in 2005 and to her second child, Jayden James, in 2006. The couple’s divorce in November of the same year was highly publicized, followed by an ongoing custody battle over their sons. [Goodreads]