[.ca] Mariah Carey (ISBN 1550224441)

Marc Shapiro's book on Mariah:
This is a good, well-written current book on Mariah. it has good pics, and its fun to read. It's worth the money!! Buy it!!

Great Mariah Book.:
I got this book as a gift from a friend. It talks about mariah's life from when she was born until she started with the whole Glitter thing. This book has some nice full page color pictures but they could be better and some great other ones. In this book there is also her discography, videography, and has a list of all the awards she won. Every Mariah fan should buy this because it may have a bit of information you don't know. GREAT BOOK BY A GREAT AUTHOR.

Glossed Over:
Marc Shapiro's book on Mariah Carey is pretty well written with a few exceptions. There are a few misses. I felt that while he did pay specific attention to her beginnings and various stages of her careers, he rather mulled over her relationships with Tommy Mottola, Derek Jeter and Luis Miguel. He's explaining her start in her career then boom all of a sudden its just that she was in love with Tommy Mottola, and he describes their wedding and shortly their marriage from there after, then suddenly their break up, which he barely even covers. I mean yes of course their relationship was short lived and these things did happen rather quickly, but it would have been nice for a little more detail. He explains how Mottola became controlling at the end of their marriage, then suddenly they are just seperated. A few more details would have been nice too for the time spent on Derek Jeter or Luis Miguel, glossed over and didn't really delve into anything. His writing is good though, for the most part. The career notes are very well written, you really get a sense of what Mariah may be like (since this is just one author's version of what may or may not be the truth). He starts at the very beginning, background on Mariah's family, her childhood, what she did, her love for music. Moving along to when she moved to New York and how she found success. Although I found some of his information was a bit off track, which isn't the best when you consider a biography should be an accurate depiction of the person it's being written about. For example, he talked about her MUSIC BOX album and how there were three singles, "Dreamlover", "Without You" and "Anytime You Need A Friend". Yes they were singles, but what about "Hero"? That was one of her biggest hits, and it's pretty alarming that an author would forget such a fact. He only mentioned that she wrote the song and it ended up on the album, not that it was a hit song that changed many fans lives. Same goes for "One Sweet Day", that song was her biggest hit and had a huge global impact, but it was really just an afterthought in the book. He talked about her BUTTERFLY album as controversial in the sense that she was spreading her wings and doing music with a bit more R & B and hip hop, which was true, but it wasn't such a drastic change from her other music, an evolution that started with DAYDREAM in 1995. Her real hip hop and R & B music was truly realized when RAINBOW was released in 1999, which was a very collaboration heavy project, whereas BUTTERFLY only had two vocal collaborations, the other collaborations being of the producer sort. He also mentions a song on BUTTERFLY he quoted as being called "Shook Ones", last time I checked there was no song titled that, but there was a cover of Prince's 1984 song "The Beautiful Ones". Someone should get their facts straight. Nevertheless, it's decent enough I suppose. There are baring omissions but that's to be expected I suppose, until Mariah writes her own book. He did explain about media reaction to her music quite a bit, which was a nice touch. Overall it's an easy read, interesting, but there is definately room for improvement here.

Best Mariah Biography Yet!:
I am a huge Mariah Carey fan and I own just about every book and biography on her. This particular one by Marc Shapiro is by far my favorite of them all! It's so full of detail and has many many behind the music type stories in it that keep your interest to its fullest. Also there are many great pictures inside that are cool to look at! I like this book so much that I had Mariah sign it when I got the chance to meet her a couple of months ago. She said she didnt particularly like the book, but she'd sign it anyways. I think its because it goes so deep into personal issues that maybe she didnt have a say in what was being written since it is "unauthorized." Its still my favorite by far!

A Great Book !:
If you don't know anything about how great Mariah's story is .. then this book is for you, and if you know everything about Mariah's story except the little details .. then this book is for you too :) Buy it im sure you're gonna love it!