Home: A Memoir of My Early Years

by Julie Andrews Edwards
Home: A Memoir of My Early Years
book data
848 ratings, 3.70 average rating, 350 reviews (more data...)
edit

published
April 1st 2008 by Hyperion

binding
Hardcover, 352 pages

isbn
0786865652    (isbn13: 9780786865659)

description

Since her first appearance on screen in Mary Poppins, Julie Andrews has played a series of memorable roles that have endeared her to generations. Bu

...more




Sign in to Goodreads to see your friends' reviews of this book.


topics  posts  views  last activity   
75 Books 2009: Kay's 75 56 115 7 days ago, 05:08AM  
The Next Best Boo...: OFFICIAL SPRING CHALLENGE - 2009 6462 7309 20 days ago, 02:57PM  
College Students! : * The REAL Official School Year Challenge 09 53 651 05/08/2009 04:56AM  
100+ Book Challenge: Heather's 100+ Books 2009 1 27 02/05/2009 08:18AM  

friend reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

other reviews (showing 1-20 of 1,609)

sort: default (?) | date
filters: all | text-only


Kay
03/09/09
Kay rated it: 4 of 5 stars

bookshelves: read-in-2009
Read in March, 2009
I'm not sure what I expected from this memoir. Ok, actually, I do. I expected to hear about how Miss Andrews emerged from a well-to-do family well-mannered and with expensive training to become the success that she has been. Why did I think this? Because when I was young, Julie Andrews was one of the two people who epitomized "class" in my mind. And I suppose quite naturally, I thought that came from a very good upbringing and high social status.

I've been proven wrong....more
Like this review?   yes   (4 people liked it)
  6 comments

Tracy
05/21/08
Tracy rated it: 2 of 5 stars

Read in June, 2008
I got this book from the library because I thought it would be fun to learn more about Julie Andrews. I wondered how she got started, etc. And her persona is so graceful, calm and assured - I wanted to see behind it a bit.

The problem is...you don't really. There was just no emotion in it and I just don't feel like a got a lot of insight into her. She did share quite a bit about her difficult childhood. But she shared it with exactly the same tone and pacing and matter-of-factness tha...more
Like this review?   yes   (2 people liked it)
  2 comments

Adela
04/02/08
Adela rated it: 4 of 5 stars

Read in April, 2008
recommended to Adela by: No one
recommends it for: people who like Julie Andrews, or autobiographies in general.
Julie Andrews' Home is a remembrance of her childhood and the early years of her career, up to the time she arrives in California to shoot Mary Poppins.

Most people tend to have a preconceived idea as to what Julie Andrews' life must have been like...she always seems so polite and proper, and of course she is so talented, that you assume her life was practically perfect in every way. Reading the first chapters of Home, you realize that this simply is not the case.

She tells...more
Like this review?   yes   (2 people liked it)
  1 comment

Tara
04/04/08
Tara rated it: 4 of 5 stars

Read in April, 2008
recommends it for: Andrews fans, autobio fans
Reading this reminded me of talking to a family member about stories of the past. She shares lots of fascinating stories from the early years, but fans of Mary Poppins, Sound of Music, and any other later work will be disappointed, because there is very little mention of those years. However, she warns you in the title that it is a memoir of the early years. The only thing missing is a bit more of her internal emotion, and though there were a few times where I felt like I was getting to know her...more
Like this review?   yes   (2 people liked it)
  2 comments

Vanessa
01/22/09
Vanessa rated it: 4 of 5 stars

Read in February, 2009
A spoonful of Julie helps the medicine go down! An entertaining and interesting read.
Like this review?   yes   (2 people liked it)
  1 comment

Heidi
05/31/08
Heidi rated it: 3 of 5 stars

Read in July, 2008
An avid admirer of the best voice on Broadway (and in movie musicals), I couldn't wait to crack open this book after being on the wait list for weeks. However, after reading this pleasant memoir, I closed the book with many more questions about what makes Julie Andrews tick than I had before I finished the first chapter. The strength in this easy read are the few times that Andrews delivers wonderful "Broadway in the making" tales of working opposite such greats as Rex Harrison and Ric...more
Like this review?   yes   (1 person liked it)
  add a comment

Chad
05/10/08
Chad rated it: 3 of 5 stars

As a lifelong devotee of Julie Andrews and having read many of her children's books, I knew fairly well what to expect in this, her first volume of autobiography.
She's charming and polite and as forthcoming as she can be, which is to say, not very forthcoming. There's crisp British distance between the events of her childhood and young adulthood, none of which was terribly storybook. The product of a one-night stand (which she didn't know until much later), Andrews dearly loved the man she...more
Like this review?   yes   (1 person liked it)
  add a comment

Jeanette
04/05/08
Jeanette rated it: 3 of 5 stars

bookshelves: 2008, nonfiction
Read in June, 2008
I really knew nothing about Julie Andrews before reading this book. I'd seen her musicals and a few of her movies and that was about it.
In this memoir Andrews tells the story of her early life going from a young vaudeville star in England to a Broadway celebrity.
For the most part, I thought it was an interesting book. While the book was written with the grace and dignity that Andrews has come to be known for I found it interesting to learn that she might not be as squeaky clean as th...more
Like this review?   yes   (1 person liked it)
  2 comments

Rosary
12/22/08
Rosary rated it: 5 of 5 stars

Julie Andrews' memoir of her early years is an amazing story of determination and a growing love of art. Ms. Andrews has a wonderful writing style--simple and clear--and her voice comes through quite clearly. While many memoirs gloss over the trials of life to focus on the triumphs, Ms Andrews pays attention to both the hardships of her World War 2 and Post World War 2 life as well as the joys and the triumphs. She also reveals the troubled nature of her home life. In other words, she doesn't ...more
Like this review?   yes   (1 person liked it)
  2 comments

Jennifer
06/15/08
Jennifer rated it: 2 of 5 stars

Read in June, 2008
I would recommend this book to Julie Andrews' fans or anyone interested in theater and performing. Some sections about the work involved in starting up and keeping up a musical were rather long. Other sections seemed like they had been included just to name drop and show that she personally knows lots of famous people. Overall, I just couldn't get into her life story. I don't know if it is her writing style or something else. I didn't enjoy the book as much as others seemed to have done. P...more
Like this review?   yes   (1 person liked it)
  add a comment

Elisabeth
07/01/09
Elisabeth rated it: 4 of 5 stars

Read in July, 2009
I too was really surprised by Ms. Andrews memoir--I'm not entirely sure what I was expecting, but I was pleasantly surprised. I guess I had an image of Julie Andrews being this very proper English lady who plays queens and nuns, and had no idea of her background. (Of course, she also played the role of a cross-dresser...) Learning about her childhood and adolescence, and the struggles she dealt with was very eye-opening. I enjoyed the honesty, candor, and humor with which she told the story ...more
Like this review?   yes  
  add a comment

Liz
05/31/09
Liz rated it: 5 of 5 stars

Read in June, 2009
As a child, some of my earliest movie memories were of seeing, and loving, Julie Andrews in both "Mary Poppins" and "The Sound of Music." That early initiation to this wonderful actress was the start of a life-long admiration of her and her work, so I was thrilled to be able to read a memoir about her early life and I'm happy to say that reading "Home" just added to my appreciation of Julie Andrews as both an actress and a woman.

"Home" start...more
Like this review?   yes  
  add a comment

Jane
04/24/09
Jane rated it: 4 of 5 stars

Read in April, 2009
If you have ever enjoyed watching Julie Andrews in anything, you'll love reading about the early years of her life and how she began developing her talent. She dodged many bullets in her youth--alcoholic and abusive step-father (nearly molested her at least twice), alcoholic and promiscuous mother, being paraded and essentially forced to work as a child prodigy, lacking a home base for many years, etc. I really liked reading about her life, though I couldn't help but feel she started to sound ...more
Like this review?   yes  
  2 comments

Megan
07/02/08
Megan rated it: 4 of 5 stars

Read in July, 2008
recommends it for: anyone
At times a bit sentimental and slow, this autobiography was still an interesting and heart-wrenching read. Plagued with emotional abuse and turmoil during her childhood, Julie Andrews found refuge and acceptance on the stage. I loved reading about her time on Broadway as Eliza Doolittle and Guenevere. I'm definitely hoping for a sequel!
Like this review?   yes   (1 person liked it)
  1 comment

Lorra
06/03/09
Lorra rated it: 3 of 5 stars (review of isbn 0786884754)

Read in June, 2009
I’ve been reading a memoir by Julie Andrews this week. For you youngsters, she played Mary Poppins and Maria in The Sound of Music. More recently she appeared as the queen of Genovia in The Princess Diaries. She is also an author who writes under the pen name of Julie Edwards. She wrote The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles and a book called Mandy.

I noticed that in talking about past places she has lived, Julie Andrews often mentions the names of the houses. I did some resear...more
Like this review?   yes  
  add a comment

Christina
05/08/09
Christina rated it: 4 of 5 stars

bookshelves: 2009
Read in May, 2009
While Julie Andrews is best known for her film career, this book is about her career before Hollywood made her a movie star. I had no idea Julie was one of the hardest working performers in show business, starting at the age of 9 in variety shows all over England, and responsible for her family's mortgage by the ripe old age of 16 (her mother made her stop her education at 15 to focus on her career).

I enjoyed reading about her British childhood and long road to eventual discovery ...more
Like this review?   yes  
  add a comment

Barbara
08/08/08
Barbara rated it: 3 of 5 stars

Read in August, 2008
recommends it for: Kim
It told about her background and culture. Even though it was written in 2008 it stopped in 1959. I would like to read a more update book of her present life.
I enjoyed reading about her show-business life and all her friends and relationships and family.
Like this review?   yes   (1 person liked it)
  add a comment

Mary!
05/22/09
Mary! rated it: 4 of 5 stars

Read in May, 2009
Like a lot of people I know, I remember Julie Andrews chiefly from The Sound of Music. This autobiography is true the "early years" - it covers from birth to when she's on a plane with her first husband and newborn daughter Emma to go see the storyboards and work on Disney's "Mary Poppins".

Written much in the same way Ms. Andrews speaks - that is to say, lyrical while more than a bit proper - this is a nicely paced and illuminating glimpse into the girl who became...more
Like this review?   yes  
  add a comment

Fiona
04/06/08
Fiona rated it: 3 of 5 stars

Read in April, 2008
i just met her (at a signing) and have a place in my heart for sound of music (maternal ideal) as well as her amazing voice in all her films....lovely lady. i am liking learning her roots...
Like this review?   yes   (1 person liked it)
  add a comment

Debby
06/03/09
Debby rated it: 4 of 5 stars

bookshelves: non-fiction
Read in April, 2009
Julia Elizabeth Wells was born in pre-World War II Britain to a vaudevillian pianist, Barbara, and a teacher father, Ted Wells. With her mother's divorce and remarriage to tenor Ted Andrews, Julia Wells becomes Julie Andrews, and Julie has an amazing voice. At 12 she started singing professionally, at 13 she did a command performance for the Queen and at 18 she starred in her first Broadway show, The Boy Friend. This is her recollection of the tumultuous years of her childhood and twenties an...more
Like this review?   yes  
  add a comment


« previous 1 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 80 81


recent status updates | recommend it | blog it

Home: A Memoir of My Early Years (Audio CD)
Home: A Memoir of My Early Years (Paperback)
Home: A Memoir of My Early Years (Thorndike Press Large Print Biography Series)
Home: A Memoir of My Early Years (Hardcover)
Home: A Memoir of My Early Years (Paperback)








groups with this book

Brentwood Library
The Village Book Club, Scotia NY






Mandy (Julie Andrews Collection) by Julie Andrews Edwards
The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles (Hardcover) by Julie Andrews Edwards
Dragon: Hound of Honor (Julie Andrews Collection) by Julie Andrews Edwards
Little Bo (Hardcover) by Julie Andrews Edwards
Simeon's Gift (Julie Andrews Collection) by Julie Andrews Edwards

More…