More Myself: A Journey

"This is a celebrity biography. It’s Alicia Keys talking about her life and she gets all sorts of celebrities, like Oprah Winfrey and Michelle Obama, to do these little interstitial moments. I have to say, I’m always a little bit nervous with celebrity biography. You want to know about their lives but, half the time, it’s not really that exciting. They haven’t really had that many struggles. But with Alicia Keys, first of all, I thought it was super-interesting. She was talking about her upbringing. Again, she wasn’t coming from a position of privilege, but she had been taught really well to stand up for herself. Here she is, becoming a celebrity, and ending up in these positions where it’s hard to speak up for yourself. I appreciated that on that journey she was taking us through what she had learned, and encouraging the listener to speak out, to take ownership of who you are and your needs at any moment. Plus, she has an amazing voice, speaking as well as singing. There is some singing in the book. I remember last year, with this book, she was one of the people that I wanted to listen to, whatever the text was, because her voice is really good. With author performers, oftentimes, they don’t really get all the subtleties. They don’t get all the emotional beats of a title. They might be more on one level than a professional narrator who puts a lot of up and down in the text and in the tone. Alicia Keys was really good at manipulating her voice so it didn’t sound as one note. Even in the quiet moments, it didn’t all sound the same. That’s really important for me as a listener, so that I don’t tune out. I really stay with listening to everything that she’s saying because she’s finding those vocal peaks and valleys. That’s a struggle for someone who does not narrate an audiobook on a regular basis. It’s not an easy skill. People want to read their own stories, but it doesn’t necessarily make for fantastic listening. In this case she did it. She had a great director, I’m sure, and it made a compelling listen for a number of reasons. Yes, I’m sucked into a story of a woman finding her own voice, absolutely. It helps when you are finding your own way in life—as opposed to dropping into it. If you’re the child of a Hollywood star, you don’t have a lot to get through and learn, necessarily. Alicia Keys had a lot of different things to learn. She obviously has a ton of talent and a ton of skill but it’s learning a whole new language almost, and about a whole new society. She’s done that very successfully. For me, not always. It’s great to hear Tina Fey or Rob Lowe reading their own story, because there’s enough humor in them, enough things of interest. A lot of times I find the memoir of someone I’m not that familiar with not very successful for me, as a listener. Maybe if I was more involved in liking that celebrity or in a particular topic. I do want some drama, I want some lessons learned. Oftentimes in Hollywood at least, I don’t know that there are that many lessons learned, but maybe I’m just jaded. But whether it’s fiction or nonfiction, I do generally prefer a professional narrator doing a title so I can get the full performance. I’m a big fan—both in print and with my ears—of thrillers. I like blood and guts and gore. It’s good for taking me out of my own life, on some level. I’m not a big reader of nonfiction at all with my eyes, so if I’m going down the nonfiction path I’m definitely going to turn to audio because the narrator helps me focus, I don’t skip over pieces as much. I’m an auditory learner so if you’re trying to teach me something, you’ve got to tell me."