ARE YOU LISTENING? CAROLE KING - A NATURAL WOMAN: AN AUDIO BOOK REVIEW AND GIVEAWAY

WELCOME TO BOOKIN' WITH BINGO'S" 
ARE YOU LISTENING? DAY" 
I AM EXCITED TO ANNOUNCE TODAY'S 
AUDIO BOOK CHOICE.....

GIVEAWAY ENDED
A NATURAL WOMAN

BY CAROLE KING

READ BY CAROLE KING

ABOUT THE BOOK:

Carole King takes us from her early beginnings in Brooklyn, to her remarkable success as one of the world's most acclaimed songwriting and performing talents of all time. A NATURAL WOMAN chronicles King's extraordinary life, drawing readers into her musical world, including her phenomenally successful #1 album Tapestry, and into her journey as a performer, mother, wife and present-day activist. Deeply personal, King's long-awaited memoir offers readers a front-row seat to the woman behind the legend.

The audiobook includes a bonus PDF of pictures, an original piano piece, a cappella performances, and a video conversation with the author are included.

PRAISE FOR A NATURAL WOMAN:

Summed up by Jim Farber of The New York Daily News: "Like her songs, King’s autobiography soars on an almost impossible level of sincerity. If that doesn’t make for the most nuanced, knowing or insightful of biographies, it does make for one that will win your heart."

Caroline Sullivan of The Guardian, "Natural Woman" has an "earnestness" that "permeates the book," which makes for a "cosy" and "comfortable" read.

Elysa Gardner of USAToday waves a lighter in the crowd of praise: "Natural Woman" is a "candid, endearingly chatty memoir that traces King's rise from a precocious Brooklyn girl to one of the world's most beloved singer/songwriters."  

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Carole King is a singer, songwriter, and pianist. King and her former husband Gerry Goffin wrote more than two dozen chart hits for numerous artists during the 1960s, many of which have become standards. As a singer, King's album Tapestry topped the U.S. album chart for 15 weeks, in 1971, and remained on the charts for more than six years.

She was most successful as a performer in the first half of the 1970s, although she was a successful songwriter long before and long after. She had her first No. 1 hit as a songwriter in 1961, at age 18, with "Will You Love Me Tomorrow", which she wrote with Gerry Goffin. In 1997, she co-wrote "The Reason" for Celine Dion.

In 2000, Joel Whitburn, a Billboard Magazine pop music researcher, named her the most successful female songwriter of 1955-99, because she wrote or co-wrote 118 pop hits on the Billboard Hot 100.

King has made 25 solo albums, the most successful being Tapestry. Her most recent non-compilation album is Live at the Troubadour, a collaboration with James Taylor, which reached #4 on the charts in its first week, and has sold over 400,000 copies.

She has won four Grammy Awards and was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for her songwriting. In 2009, Carole King was inducted into the "Hit Parade" Hall of Fame. She holds the record for the longest time for an album by a female to remain on the charts and the longest time for an album by a female to hold the #1 position, both for Tapestry.

Audio and Video

MY THOUGHTS/REVIEW:

Carole King has given us the gift of her music. Now in A NATURAL WOMAN, she shares with readers the story of her life as well as a fascinating, first hand description of a generation. In the audio book, that Ms. King reads herself, she gives us her life as it parallels an honest look at our country over the past 60 years. This counter-culture that changed so many lives forever is fascinating.  King’s personal journey goes from the birth of rock and roll, through the Beatles, the civil rights movement, Vietnam, Women’s Lib, and our country waking up to such issues as ecology and political awareness. She writes so well and draws the reader in so that you feel like surely “You’ve Got a Friend”.

As our country ventured into a new era, one Carol Klein was born into her own era in 1942, in New York. Growing up in Queens and Brooklyn, King tells of her Polish-Russian Jewish background with great pride and mostly happy memories. However, when Richard, Carole’s younger brother, was tested and found to be deaf, back then it was also labeled “severely retarded” quite easily, and so he was placed in a facility that could give him the proper care. Carole remembers visiting him there on weekends and her words ring with love for him in her nonjudgmental way, of course

Carole’s love for the piano started when she was about 4, while her mother was teaching children in their neighborhood to play. Listening to the radio as so many did in those days, Carole could play along on the piano by just hearing the music. She quickly moved into rock ‘n roll thanks to Alan Freed whose shows at the theaters back then had a strong hold on Carole and influenced her musical choices. By listening to rock ‘n roll, she knew she could make that kind of music. She began writing music and by the time she was sweet 16, she was signed to a contract.  

It was then that she also met Gerry Goffin and before long began the first of several marriages as she became a young teen mom. With Goffin, she wrote some of her best music including “Natural Woman” and “Will You Love Me Tomorrow”. Carole King’s musical and personal biography go hand in hand.  She is straight forward and doesn’t shy away from her mistakes or regret anything. She is a gifted song writer and entertainer but she also lived through four marriages that weren’t so sweet. She writes about becoming a battered woman and how she finally got out of that marriage. A “natural” woman seeking approval from each of these husbands, Carole King instead emerged as a strong woman. She raised her four children and they are all successful in their own right so it appears she has done things right and perhaps never needed to seek any man’s approval.

King loved to write and record but only when James Taylor pushed her to get on stage did she find her true place to be. Her autobiography is fascinating and yet shows that she is humble while being self-confident, and has deep convictions about politics and local and world wide causes. She writes how the Northwest Rockie Eco-system Protection Act is now her project of choice. Listen to A NATURAL WOMAN and see if you don’t come away feeling that you have made a new friend. 

GIVEAWAY

 THANKS TO MITCH AND THE FINE FOLKS AT

HACHETTE BOOK GROUP, I HAVE TWO COPIES

OF THIS AMAZING CAROLE KING AUDIO BOOK

  TO GIVE AWAY TO 2 LUCKY WINNERS!

 

--U.S. AND CANADIAN RESIDENTS ONLY
--NO P. O. BOXES, PLEASE
--INCLUDE EMAIL ADDRESS IN COMMENT
--ALL ENTRIES/COMMENTS MUST
 BE SEPARATE IN ORDER TO COUNT
AS MORE THAN ONE ENTRY

HOW TO ENTER:

+1 ENTRY: COMMENT ON SOMETHING YOU FOUND INTERESTING ABOUT A NATURAL WOMAN THAT WOULD MAKE YOU WANT TO WIN THIS AUDIO BOOK

+1 MORE ENTRY: BLOG OR TWEET ABOUT THIS GIVEAWAY AND LEAVE A LINK I CAN FOLLOW IN THE ENTRY

+1 MORE ENTRY:COMMENT ON EITHER A FAVORITE CAROLE KING SONG, OR IF YOU COULD ASK CAROLE KING A QUESTION, WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO ASK HER?   

+1 MORE ENTRY: COMMENT ON ONE OTHER CURRENT GIVEAWAY YOU HAVE ENTERED ON MY BLOG. IF YOU ENTERED MORE THAN ONE, YOU CAN COMMENT ON EACH ON SEPARATELY AND GAIN MORE ENTRIES THAT WAY 

+1 MORE ENTRY: COMMENT ON ONE WAY YOU FOLLOW MY BLOG. IF YOU FOLLOW MORE THAN ONE WAY, YOU CAN COMMENT SEPARATELY AND EACH WILL COUNT AS AN ENTRY

 

GIVEAWAY ENDS AT

6 PM, EST, JUNE 6

GOOD LUCK!