Rating: 
Summary: I love this woman ,her book ,and her music!
Review: I've always been crazy about Rosemary Clooney! I have all her albums and CD's---she deserves a long overdue Grammy or two! Her book written with Joan Barthel is wonderful--funny, engrossing and like her extraordinary singing--addictive! Highly recommended!
Rating:
Summary: The High Notes...the Low Notes... and Everything In Between
Review: In her closing night performance last October ('99) at the Regency Hotel in NY, Ms. Clooney offered that "Girl Singer" was written in a more disclosive voice than her earlier autobiography. She went on to admit that she could take that liberty since most of the folks she's writing about are no longer around to protest! The audience roared!Reading the well-crafted "Girl Singer" does not, however, leave you with the feeling that you are an after-the-fact voyeur to her well publicized tribulations of the past. While her frankness about personal and professional relationships is stunning, it is done with a complete lack of bitterness and histrionics. You are left convinced that difficult times aside, Ms. Clooney life has always centered around love of her family and her music. Her honest self-criticism is admirable. "Girl Singer" will leave you with the feeling that you just spend hours reading a diary you discovered by chance on a lonely bench in Central Park. You begin, not sure whether you should intrude so boldly upon someone's privacy but quickly find that you cannot put it down... all the time afraid it's owner might return looking for it and admonish you for being so nosy. Go ahead... read it. She left it there for you.
Rating: 
Summary: Life and times of a very brave woman
Review: Rosemary Clooney is a very brave woman and I'm glad she survived to write her own book. In someone else's hands, this long journey would have seemed too depressing. Her honesty and spirit lift this book.
Rating:
Summary: What a Goddess She Is!
Review: Rosemary Clooney was brave to write such a wonderful book. I appreciate her frankness and her ability to share her most intimate feelings, even though it's really none of our business. And she is so forthcoming in revealing her own errors in judgement. I cried, as I didn't want the book to end, just as I never want her to leave us. Her book is a treasure for which I learn how to live my own life. What an example of recovery and how to travel the road toward peace. Don't walk, but RUN and get this book!
Rating:
Summary: Sunday in the park with George's Aunt
Review: Rosemary Clooney's life wasn't all a picnic in the Park. Her autobiography is straightforward - like herself, it is not grandiose, but it is no shrinking violet, either. While reading this book, I also got "Songs from the Girl Singer: a musical autobiography " a 2 CD set. Like Girranimals, the similarly titled companion pieces have the same picture on the front so that the purchaser will know that they go together. Buy `em both, they won't disappoint! Her life and music are all here - without gloss or pretension. And from her debut with sister Betty, with a local Cincinnati big band, to her meteoric rise to solo national celebrity for "Come On-a My House," a song she never really liked, to sing with Bing in "White Christmas," to the ascension of Rock & Roll (which, she said at the time "wiped out music as we know it,") to her resultant (?) breakdown and triumphant "comeback," to her introduction to a new TV viewing generation as the Coronet Paper Towel lady, to her appearance with nephew George Clooney on ER, Rosemary never learned to read music! More pictures (including one of the Great Dane, Cuddles,) would have been nice, but the set is a treat. Get it! God Bless You, Rosemary. 5/23/28 - 6/30/2002
Rating:
Summary: Sunday in the park with George's Aunt
Review: Rosemary Clooney's life wasn't all a picnic in the Park. Her autobiography is straightforward - like herself, it is not grandiose, but it is no shrinking violet, either. While reading this book, I also got "Songs from the Girl Singer: a musical autobiography " a 2 CD set. Like Girranimals, the similarly titled companion pieces have the same picture on the front so that the purchaser will know that they go together. Buy 'em both, they won't disappoint! Her life and music are all here - without gloss or pretension. And from her debut with sister Betty, with a local Cincinnati big band, to her meteoric rise to solo national celebrity for "Come On-a My House," a song she never really liked, to sing with Bing in "White Christmas," to the ascension of Rock & Roll (which, she said at the time "wiped out music as we know it,") to her resultant (?) breakdown and triumphant "comeback," to her introduction to a new TV viewing generation as the Coronet Paper Towel lady, to her appearance with nephew George Clooney on ER, Rosemary never learned to read music! More pictures (including one of the Great Dane, Cuddles,) would have been nice, but the set is a treat. Get it! God Bless You, Rosemary. 5/23/28 - 6/30/2002
Rating:
Summary: 5+ stars for this autobiography!
Review: So few books have I ever come across and finished left me with a feeling of elation such as this one. Before I started the book, I read the customer reviews on Amazon. I decided that this celebrity autobiography would be just like any other childishly-written, self-indulgent and certainly embellished account of a human being who just happened to have their picture taken a lot and distributed to a lot of people in the world. It would be another book where yet another plain 'ol human being rambles on about how incredibly gifted they are, obviously placing themselves on a pedestal far above the rest of the abilities of the world. Even considering all of these prejudices, I read it anyway. Boy, was I ever surprised. There have been so few stories that I have ever read that managed to rate among "the very best" of my experiences. I am not sure what it takes to gain such a place of honor among my literary opinions. It just seems that some unidentified combination of elements, be it subject, mood, writing style, beginning, ending or theme somehow mix in just the right proportions. The cumulative effect seems to capture my attention and my praise. Rosemary's Clooney's "Girl Singer" is one of those stories. Rosemary's singing career made a big, loud splash in the industry. As time passed, she was brushed aside for newer and younger attractions in the business. We were all acquainted with those highly publicized downfalls in her career. Although she admits that these things really did happen, she also tells us a little more about the things that counter-acted those pitfalls... the triumphs and pleasures that don't find their way into the media. Dear reader gets the sense that one particular triumph that occurred in recent years seems to have completely counter-acted all that may have ever caused her grief in the past. According to Rosemary, sometimes fantasies do come true, and she is living proof of it. She surprises dear reader with this news, so I won't spoil it for you. I'm not exactly sure who did the writing for the story. Was it Joan Barthel, the "co-author" or Rosemary herself? Whoever that person may be, I must congratulate them on their ability to carry significant phrases throughout the story that together, would comprise the life and times of Rosemary. To attempt to describe this writing style would be futile and would give away one of the most enjoyable aspects of the book. I'll let you see for yourself! Come on' a my house, my house a come on... So go down to the bookstore and find out for yourself. Listen for the invitation that she sings: Come on' a my house, my house a come on... In the den, pull up that big, old chair across from her and let her tell you her story... it's enough to make you smile.
Rating:
Summary: Come on a my house... I make a you smile...
Review: So few books have I ever come across and finished left me with a feeling of elation such as this one. Before I started the book, I read the customer reviews on Amazon. I decided that this celebrity autobiography would be just like any other childishly-written, self-indulgent and certainly embellished account of a human being who just happened to have their picture taken a lot and distributed to a lot of people in the world. It would be another book where yet another plain 'ol human being rambles on about how incredibly gifted they are, obviously placing themselves on a pedestal far above the rest of the abilities of the world. Even considering all of these prejudices, I read it anyway. Boy, was I ever surprised. There have been so few stories that I have ever read that managed to rate among "the very best" of my experiences. I am not sure what it takes to gain such a place of honor among my literary opinions. It just seems that some unidentified combination of elements, be it subject, mood, writing style, beginning, ending or theme somehow mix in just the right proportions. The cumulative effect seems to capture my attention and my praise. Rosemary's Clooney's "Girl Singer" is one of those stories. Rosemary's singing career made a big, loud splash in the industry. As time passed, she was brushed aside for newer and younger attractions in the business. We were all acquainted with those highly publicized downfalls in her career. Although she admits that these things really did happen, she also tells us a little more about the things that counter-acted those pitfalls... the triumphs and pleasures that don't find their way into the media. Dear reader gets the sense that one particular triumph that occurred in recent years seems to have completely counter-acted all that may have ever caused her grief in the past. According to Rosemary, sometimes fantasies do come true, and she is living proof of it. She surprises dear reader with this news, so I won't spoil it for you. I'm not exactly sure who did the writing for the story. Was it Joan Barthel, the "co-author" or Rosemary herself? Whoever that person may be, I must congratulate them on their ability to carry significant phrases throughout the story that together, would comprise the life and times of Rosemary. To attempt to describe this writing style would be futile and would give away one of the most enjoyable aspects of the book. I'll let you see for yourself! Come on' a my house, my house a come on... So go down to the bookstore and find out for yourself. Listen for the invitation that she sings: Come on' a my house, my house a come on... In the den, pull up that big, old chair across from her and let her tell you her story... it's enough to make you smile.
Rating:
Summary: Girl Singer
Review: The most amazing thing about this book is its utterly non-judgmental tone---one feels that Ms. Clooney is truly at peace with the events and people in her past, and delighted to be in the present. Though it's obvious that her biological parents neglected her and her siblings (and her half-siblings as well), her life nevertheless unfolds as an engrossing story, peopled sometimes with family and friends who were perhaps not without their faults, but were utterly human. I must admit I did not always agree with her viewpoint; I would have preferred that she refrain from commenting on how her children felt about her apparently drug-related psychosis and its fallout,rather than stating that it didn't affect most of them very much. This, for me, was the one tear in the fabric of the book's complete credibility; it's not that I want to know about this, I just don't believe it could be true of any child. But the rest of it, particularly the childhood vignettes involving her, her sister Betty, and her brother Nicky, were compelling in their drama, tenderness, and especially their humor. I couldn't stop giggling at the pictures some of them presented. The whole book was a series of colorful mind-pictures, making the photographs almost unnecessary. And the details concerning the history of pop music in her time were woven in seamlessly, providing interesting tidbits without derailing the book's purpose.I've been a fan since childhood, but I think even non-fans would like this book for its candor, humor, and sense of the strength ( and challenges) a family can give.
Rating:
Summary: Illuminating history of a star's life and times
Review: This book delights on many levels! It's a must-read for any Clooney fan, full of rich detail and honest reflections on her life, both personal and musical. But it also works as an illuminating history of the eras in which she lived, from big band to the golden age of Hollywood to the rise of rock and roll to the resurgence of swing. Most of all, the voice her audiences love comes through loud and clear.
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