Learning to Sing: Hearing the Music in Your Life by Clay Aiken, Allison Glock Summary and Reviews
|
List Price: Our Price: $2.99 You Save: $5.00 (63%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.09 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of Learning to Sing: Hearing the Music in Your Life
Book Review: Singing and Writing for Success
Summary: 5 Stars
I am not someone who is generally overwhelmed by 'celebrity' and I think that this is what I find so endearing about Clay Aiken. The content of this book is very introspective and reflective but not in a self-obsessed way. I sat down with this novel and it took only a few hours to read. I felt as if I had sat down to a conversation with a good friend! Clay is very honest and real in his approach to both his music and his writing which is commendable in these 'celebrity' obsessed times. I would thoroughly recommend this read to all who see the reality of coming from obscurity and being launched into the public eye. It's as if Clay could have been your neighbour - a real person; from real beginnings. He remains grounded and I think that this is the biggest compliment he could pay to all who care for and support him - the type of idol that you can truly idolise!Book Review: Wonderful autobiography
Summary: 5 Stars
I was living in the USA when Clay was runner up in American Idol and was always a big fan of his. This is a superb, though way too short, autobiography of Clay Aiken. He reveals a great deal of his family background and is truly an inspiration to us all. A wonderful young man and a wonderful singer.Book Review: More than an autobiography. Inspirational.
Summary: 5 Stars
As a fan of Clay Aiken, runner-up of American Idol's second season and recently voted "US TV's most popular reality star", I was eager to read this prelimnary autobiography, if only to better understand where this young man has come from. Having read this, it transpires that, far from being a book for fans, this ought to be a book for every young teenager in this country.Aiken recounts his early life, which is plagued by troubles on the account of his father's drinking and violence, which forces his mother to shepherd him between many safe-places during his early years. We learn about the various people whom he has met and found inspiration in and also about the things that troubled him as a child.
What makes this book so powerful and of such wondeful relevance to young people today, is the manner in which Aiken describes his outlook on life, his philosophy on dealings with difficulty and his ability to overcome both disaster and dissappoint. He professes a message of inclusion, of determination, of passion and belief in one's self and of tollerance to others, no matter how hard such things may be to fathom. In some ways, what we have here is an adaption of a very Christian ethos through the autobiography of a celebrity, a very healthy and modern way to convey such a message.
The book tells us of Aiken's heartbreak, perhaps most powerful in the loss of his birth father, step-father and cousin/step-sister. His ability to overcome such hardships and in so celebrated a manner is testament to the resiliance and priniciples of this young man, a wonderful example.
I know it is difficult to persuade children to read, so perhaps introducing Aiken's CD - Measure of a Man - first, to develop a popularity with the artist, before introducing the book, might enable you to develop an interest in this wonderful young man.
This book is a wonderful read, very easily presented, very well-written with clarity and provides an excellent moral message which is so lacking in a world riddled with negative role-models.