I don't have this book yet but I've read the excerpts...

I truly love Barry and Barbara also. I've always loved Barbara, ever since I was a little girl, I wanted her to be my sister. I've always thought that she's just as beautiful on the inside as on the outside. It truly shows...

Heh heh, and Barry could be my brother. I love Barry's writing. It's personal and friendly, the feeling I get from it is that he's a very nice man. I love his voice also, as well as his acting. He is multi-talented...

Barbara definitely is BELOVED (and Barry too)...

I'm a fan, always have been. And hey! People may find it hard to believe, but I don't even have a single one of Barbara's movies or albums!

I was very poor and never could afford to buy much of anything (except for food, well actually, I always have bought lots of books). Recently though, my financial situation has changed (I'm very happy to say) and I plan on rectifying my dismal lack of a collection, having recently also purchased an absolutely awesome stereo system (finally)...

And I plan on buying Barry's book too!

P.S. I just can't finish this without adding that Barry was the best Pilate that there ever was...

There have been many Streisand biographies. She's accomplished so much in her life. Barry Dennen's sweet book MY LIFE WITH BARBRA is a slice of Streisand's life. It's also a snap shot of Mr. Dennen's life and contains many personal details about him. Dennen tells a good story and has an ear for dialogue. Of course, there is no way Dennen could remember the conversations he quotes verbatim - but I don't think he claims to. Rather, his book is a sort of "misty, water-colored" memory of the days in Manhattan with Barbra Streisand. He catches Streisand's cadences very well, though.

It's nice to hear about Streisand from someone who knew her personally. Everything I've always suspected was true - at least in her early career. Barbra was sweet and tough, ignorant and brilliant, self-absorbed and giving. She was very taken with her "look" and it's interesting to read about how she concentrated on her makeup and clothes so much.

The most fascinating part of the book is Dennen's recollections of some phone calls from the "adult" Barbra in 1992 and 1997. We see Barbra as we suspect she is: a little burdened with stardom; obsessed with the truth and trying to control how others tell it.

This book is great! At the end, I was most impressed that, despite the years that lapsed between Dennen and Streisand's love affair and friendship, Streisand still kept in touch. I suspect she is a loyal friend, despite her eccentricities.

I found this book to be very enjoyable. I have long been a Streisand fan and have read many of her biographies, but this one, I would have to say is one of the best. Dennen takes us thru Barbra's early years, when she was just starting out as an actress, and describes his part in pushing her toward being the greatest singer of our times. This book is very sweet and I definately recomend it to any Barbra fan.

This is really a (the) great book for the base of a Dylan book
collection. Each of the 112 pages comprising this paperback
has at least one photograph, and many pages have two or three!
In my mind the pictures alone are worth a binding of their own. They
include many of his co-workers, and famous peers. After looking
at all of them for the first time, you really get a "feel" for
the environment in which he has been working (living) for the
last 30 - 40 years.

The entire collection of quotes (quotes and pictures are all you get, folks)
are catagorized by a plethora of topics, which enables quick referencing,
so you really should learn ALOT about his PERSONALITY.
I say "personality" because the quotes are in
conversational mode, candid, ranginging from silly quips and
understatements to very sincere and thoughtful comments; the way
I imagine he shares with intimates. This is not a stilted,
unemotional, professional collection of aphorisms, and I feel better informed
as a result.

Bob Dylan fans will enjoy this book that features over 100 pages of Dylan quotes on subjects ranging from music, the 60's, drugs, love, his idols, songwriting, and more. Everybody knows that Dylan was a wily and occasionally malicious interviewee, and this book reflects that. I laughed out loud several times at his witticisms directed back at the hollow questiosn that were put to him. However, there are some very pointed answers that he serves up here as well, that seemingly give a real insight into his persona, his life, and his views. There are also a lot of high-quality pictures. My only complaint is that the book is a little short-you can easily read it all in one setting, though it's probably a book that you'll go back to time and again to see what Dylan offered up on a particular subject-it would have been nice, for instance, if it had a section where Dylan commented upon particular songs of his, such as was done in the Leonard Cohen book in the "In His Own Words" series. Still, Dylan interviews are always hard to come by, and this is the best copendium you'll find featuring them.

This book contains a compilation of Dylan's own words, transcribed from interviews, press conferences, radio, and TV shows. Complete with scores of pictures, In His Own Words is a must for any Dylan fan. Dylan dons persona after persona, and the results are quite entertaining.

This Book is about a king who lives in a castle. He has a baker called Adrian.The King always eats eggs. Adrian makes the king chicken eggs,goose eggs,duck eggs.Then he shouts More More More! The Next day he read in his Newspaper that a dodos egg was spotted on an island.So he told Adrian to prepare the boat.To get to The island.

Overall, I found the book to be well written and worth one's money if you are a fan, but, as one of his classic songs are entitled, "BEWARE! He may literally make you sick with his grandiose, egotistical, "I am music, I gave music life" persona. He truly believes he is the "Black Sinatra", or as he puts it, singers, before his arrival onto the music scene, were either "stupid", "leeches", or crybabies".

He outright tells Issac Hayes and Lou Rawls that they are not on his level as artists, not to mention that, according to this book, everyone from Muhammad Ali to Michael Jackson were living in darkness until he arrived on the scene and enriched their lives with his sacred wisdom and guidance- as if he was Jesus Christ. He even leads himself to believe that his deciding to do commercials in the 1990's lead to some sudden surge of black artists being offered commercial endorsements, citing B.B. King and Aretha Franklin- Oh Please Barry! Both Aretha's and B.B's respective careers have endured longer and achievements are far greater than yours. And by the way, they were singing jingles before you came on the scene.

The most sickening moment, however, has to be his comments in regards to the late, great, Marvin Gaye, whom he appears convinced he could have straightened out- And, of course, Marvin begged him to produce him!

Throughout the book, he makes numerous suggestions as to the many artists who have come to him asking him to produce them. Funny thing though, outside of his groups, Love Unlimited (Orchestra), he has never!

Not suprisingly, he also fails to mention that his big comeback hit, 1994's "Practice What You Preach", was actually written and produced by Gerald Levert. So Barry, that, my friend, was the key to the success of your album, "The Icon is Love". And boy, isn't it strange, after reading this memoir, you will have to ask yourself, "If everyone was worshipping Barry, who was listening to Luther? Just a thought.

Barry is much too full of himself- literally and philosophically. If you can stomach his overly inflated ego, you actually may enjoy this book!

Here is a man who was, for a brief moment, in the company of Malcolm X, got jacked around by his first record label and is able to shrug it off and learn from it, and pass along his wisdom and the benefits of his experiences both to his peers in the entertainment field and to the world at large through this wonderful, insightful, inspirational book. How refreshing it is to see such honesty in such a large package!

Update: the Maestro died tonight, July 4, 2003. Get this book, however you can get it, if you truly want to understand the drive it takes to come from nothing and make something of yourself. Iris Gross Georg

I have also enjoyed Barry's music since the 70's and I am glad to see how he shared such a warm story with us. You know, it only takes something that can change a person's life either for the good or bad, for him it was Elvis' "It's Now or Never" Read and enjoy!

A great book freaturing many great photos of Dylan during his first "prime". The photographs by Marshall and Kramer have been in print since the dawn of time, a big disappionment from those two photographers. Barry Fienstein was along for most of the 5/66 tour and his pictures are mostly brand new and very very exiting. I was a little disappionted by the lack of preformance pictures included, but that's a minor gripe. Overall an essential picture book for any Dylan fan, new or old.

Note: Barry Feinstein's pictures graced the booklet that went with the CD "Bob Dylan, Live 1966". He could have easily made a much, much more exiting book if all the "standard" pictures from Kramer and Marshall were replaced by more of Feinstein's unseen amazing photographs.

I agree with the other reviewer about this book. I've seen most of the work by Marshall & Kramer. Not to take away from them but the work by Feinstein was primarally new to me(except for the Live 66 photography) and i only wish there was more of his work. All and all, though, a great book of photographs of a true artist.

Easy to read with quite a number of colored pictures for you enjoyment. This is not a picture book but a pithy biography book. But will be shied by My Story My Dream. Of course, buy it if you are a completist, it's not a bad read after all :o)

This is a really good book. It tells about Celine's life in detail, and the photo's are also good.

I really like this book. I couldn't put it down. I took me only two days to finish it. It really was interesting.

This book was a disappointment. In the beginning of the book, the author himself admitted that Murray's management would not cooperate in the writing of a biography. Thus he was left with reading various books and articles to do his research. Much of the book quoted a biography written by David Livingstone in 1981. It was like reading Livingstone's book twice! I have been an Anne Murray fan for 20 years and reading this biography left me knowing only as much as I did before. This publication is also full of misspelled words and misprints! An individual that doesn't know much about Murray may benefit from this book but die-hard fans need not bother.

Before you buy, make note of page 11. "The management at Balmur Ltd., Anne Murray's company, as management so frequently does, when someone proposes a biography of their talent, informed me that 'Ms. Murray will not co-operate with any biographer at this stage of her career.'"

Barry Grills does his best. The book is half description of Springhill, Nova Scotia (Anne Murray's hometown), and half lengthy quotes from back issues of magazines and newspapers. As he says himself, ..."Anne Murray has always been an enigma."

If you've just discovered her talent, this is a good outline of her public life, up until the mid 90s. If you're already a fan, more than ever you'll want to go to Springhill, to see the Anne Murray Centre for yourself.

As for Anne Murray--she's still an enigma.

It depends on how you see this book for yourself. If you know everything about Anne, then this book isn't for you since it goes through the stuff all over again in detail. But if you don't know much about the Canadian Singer Anne Murray than this is a good book for you to have on your shelf. It talks about her private life, public life, on the stage, in the office, and in the studios. It gives you a detailed description of a woman the world fell in love with and continued loving for more than thirty years.