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39th out of 40 books
—
10 voters
Piece by Piece
by
Tori Amos,
Ann Powers
I choose to fight my battles through my music . . . I was born a feminist. And then at age five, when my strict Christian grandmother punished me, I realized, I’m not penetrating here. I’m just pissing people off. So I had to find another way to penetrate. I had to redefine what that word means. That word now is really about an opening, an entering into a separate space. A...more
Paperback, 368 pages
Published
December 10th 2008
by Broadway
(first published 2008)
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I love Tori Amos' music and have for years. I have nmet her and found her very inspiring and lovely. She is a bit odd though.
This is a great biography and it is clear that she finds inspriration in many well researced places. However, she goes off on a lot of tangents and some of them are hard to follow.
It is nice to see a full picture with interviews with many people in her life. I also liked the biographies of some of her best known songs.
A good read for fans but a little much for the everyday...more
This is a great biography and it is clear that she finds inspriration in many well researced places. However, she goes off on a lot of tangents and some of them are hard to follow.
It is nice to see a full picture with interviews with many people in her life. I also liked the biographies of some of her best known songs.
A good read for fans but a little much for the everyday...more
After I read Patti Smith's memoir earlier this year, I was determined to read Tori Amos' book again because Tori has had such a critical influence on my development--and in a way, still does. While Amos is not as good as a prose writer as Smith, Piece by Piece relies on Tori's strength. Tori, for example is an amazing interviewee, and the book is structured as an amalgam of interview, reflection, comment and metaphor. I've never read a book quite like it, but the collaboration between Amos and j...more
Tori Amos offers some of her insights into the music industry, social trends, and life in general. The book felt a bit convoluted at times, but it really does have some remarkable stories and revelations about Tori and her Tori-verse. I agree that Ann Powers could have done some more wrangling when it came to the editing, especially on the topic of archetypes, which came up again and again. If you can get through the more repetitive parts, you're in for some fascinating stuff, and helpful advice...more
I used this book extensively when I started my own book project this past summer. It's exhaustive. She wrote it with Ann Powers, one of my favorite cultural critics, and it's a candid look at her life as it influences her musical process. As you might expect there are many kooky discussions of mystics, Mary Magdalene, and goddesses. You get a really good sense of Tori as a person through this book.
I loved Tori Amos when I was in high school, but this book was hard to take. In fact, I can't even remember if I finished it. It was almost like reading an unedited, disorganized, self-obssessed diary -- and not a well-written diary at that. I was looking forward to the promised insights into what her songs are about, but she only discussed her most recent work (which I'm not as into).
If Tori Amos lived in her own universe (which in some ways, she does) I would love love love this book and would think the way she sees the world works out really well. Invoking pantheons of various cultures and being strong and weird and all of that stuff is pretty cool in some ways, and it helped her songs make more sense, the way she sees her creative process. Or at least let me know that I was more or less getting them all these many many years.
But Tori Amos lives in the real world, like the...more
But Tori Amos lives in the real world, like the...more
Man, what a pain! This is a tough call. I'll go with the 2 stars and call it even, I guess.
Unfortunately, I feel like I need to talk about my Tori feelings first. Curse it!
Before reading this, I correctly worried I would find it all so annoying that I'd be sad. But I picked it up because I conducted an experiment where I re-listened to every Tori song that I've had since high school, which I can't say is every song? But is a few hundred. I just shuffled them around for days. I wasn't allowed to...more
Unfortunately, I feel like I need to talk about my Tori feelings first. Curse it!
Before reading this, I correctly worried I would find it all so annoying that I'd be sad. But I picked it up because I conducted an experiment where I re-listened to every Tori song that I've had since high school, which I can't say is every song? But is a few hundred. I just shuffled them around for days. I wasn't allowed to...more
Remarkable study/autobiography of a remarkable musician/woman. Wickedly dark humor throughout, and a razor-sharp intelligence. No doubt other Tori fans saw this coming, but I often found myself struck with how many life threads and literary commonalities between the woman and her fans (namely, this one). I always knew she writes somewhat autobiographically in her songs, but I had no idea of how much she borrows from other people's lives as muse, and the way in which she writes about her close fr...more
there were moments when i felt conflicted about this book, put-off. the archetypes stuff becomes heavy-handed because it is just so overused. which i think is the failure mostly of ann powers, for not offering different types of insights in her italicized interjections.
that said, this was exactly the right moment for me to read this book and i feel that i got a lot out of it. it's a sort of inner monologue. tori's discussions of creativity, of what it means to be a creative woman in the 21st ce...more
that said, this was exactly the right moment for me to read this book and i feel that i got a lot out of it. it's a sort of inner monologue. tori's discussions of creativity, of what it means to be a creative woman in the 21st ce...more
So it won't surprise anyone if I say I had high expectations for this book. For the most part, they were met, although there were times when I was still craving more detail about where the songs came from and what inspired them. But that's the one thing Tori's probably never going to go into detail about, so we'll just have to keep figuring it all out for ourselves.
Interesting side note: In recent interviews Tori has been saying how she felt like The Beekeeper sort of ended up like a collection...more
Interesting side note: In recent interviews Tori has been saying how she felt like The Beekeeper sort of ended up like a collection...more
Probably would get 5* if I was more of a fan of her work, this made me want to get as much of her back catalogue as I could and listen to it all. Friends have recommended her but I've resisted to this point and though reading a bit about her might be useful and interesting, and it was. This is the kind of biography where you actually should know more about the music than I did and I would have loved to have had some more pictures, particularly of album covers discussed in the text. Still quite a...more
This is the book that I have probably, uh... abused the most. I've written in the margins, I've highlighted and underline passages, I've dogeared the pages...
I'm a huge Tori Amos fan. Little Earthquakes came out when I was 2, and my mom got a copy of it the year after, so I grew up with her music. Since this book was released, I've found various passages completely relevant to my life at the time, and it's great fun to go back to see what I've highlighted and try to remember how I must have fel...more
I'm a huge Tori Amos fan. Little Earthquakes came out when I was 2, and my mom got a copy of it the year after, so I grew up with her music. Since this book was released, I've found various passages completely relevant to my life at the time, and it's great fun to go back to see what I've highlighted and try to remember how I must have fel...more
Jan 12, 2013
Sonja Isaacson
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
biography-memoir
This book is under 400 pages and took me about 10 weeks to get through. Ugh! I kept complaining about it and trying to avoid it. But now it's done.
I think she is a very intelligent person. But she is a much more spiritual person than I, and she incorporated religious figures from many different cultures and parts of the world. I rather wonder if in her day-to-day life she makes as many references to goddesses and Mary Magdalene as she puts in her book.
I think a lot of what bothered me about the...more
I think she is a very intelligent person. But she is a much more spiritual person than I, and she incorporated religious figures from many different cultures and parts of the world. I rather wonder if in her day-to-day life she makes as many references to goddesses and Mary Magdalene as she puts in her book.
I think a lot of what bothered me about the...more
This book has really made me realize the amount of talent that Tori Amos has. I started listening to her music because my older sister bought me a CD in 1997- and have enjoyed her work, but this book really made me start listening to older stuff, newer stuff and really realize the strength, the smarts and the determination that Tori has to be a creative singer, songwriter, performer. She spends a great deal of her time perfecting her art, her songs, her sound- I just really enjoyed reading this....more
Tori Amos is probably my favourite artist, all genres, and I've listened to her since I was 13 years old, so to say her music has been a big part of my life is an understatement. Nevertheless this book sat, unread, on my bookshelf for a couple of years until I picked it up, and when I did I got almost immediately stuck. I don't think it's the Tori-speak, I have years of experience reading that after all, and once I got passed the first half of the book or so I found myself engrossed in it. I thi...more
Ok...I read this book the day it came out...as a matter of fact I went to the book signing at book people in Austin. All I know is I may not be right about the date i read it but I can say it was during hurricane katrina she came to book people in austin and when the book came out. I know bc I spent hours in line talking and forming a few relationships with refugees that last till this day. Ok, if you know me youre not surprised I'm reviewing this book you know my love of my favorite pianist and...more
I've gone from owning a couple of her CD's over the years to becoming more intrigued of her creative process. Thanks to a dear friend for sharing her box set I have become a routine listener. After reading Tori's book and engrossing myself in her music I think she may have just singlehandedly knocked out all of my top favorite live performers. This woman was born to create music and relay messages from a spiritual realm. Yes, her music is that deep, that moving and some may even say that disturb...more
Rather than writing a traditional autobiography, Amos narrates her life story by ruminating and reminiscing about events from her past. It progresses along a fairly linear path, but it's much more introspective story than you'd normally find in a standard factual biography. Frankly, I wouldn't expect anything less from Amos.
She discusses her pretty convoluted philosophies, encompassing feminism, ancient Sumerian goddesses, gnosticism, Mary Magdalene, and and the plight of Native Americans--all...more
She discusses her pretty convoluted philosophies, encompassing feminism, ancient Sumerian goddesses, gnosticism, Mary Magdalene, and and the plight of Native Americans--all...more
An amazing and insightful, emotionally charged autobiography by one of the most talented female artists of our generation.
I had no idea Tori Amos went through such pain, yet as a classically trained pianist, she was performing in NYC lounges as a teen.
Her art encompasses the pain she has experienced as a young girl, but her intellect and creativity expresses it in (most times) a fairly subtle, humble way.
I'm a big fan of Tori's music, she's an introspective, subversive person, and this book g...more
I had no idea Tori Amos went through such pain, yet as a classically trained pianist, she was performing in NYC lounges as a teen.
Her art encompasses the pain she has experienced as a young girl, but her intellect and creativity expresses it in (most times) a fairly subtle, humble way.
I'm a big fan of Tori's music, she's an introspective, subversive person, and this book g...more
A friend asked me to write a review of this, expecting that this autobiography would be a scathing tell-all like Mommy Dearest. It's far from that. While Tori does share initmate details of her life and career, she does not really name names or attacks anyone maliciously. She does provide a lot of insight into the creative process, the role of feminism on musicians, native american beliefs, the music industry, Mary Magdalene--it's a wide gamut in a relatively short book. She also goes into painf...more
Piece by Piece is one of the most amazing books I have ever read. It is one of those books that has the potential to forever alter one's outlook on the world. Tori has an ability to articulate the artist's connection with the Creative Source that is imperative for any artist, no matter what her medium, genre, or trade to study and take heed of in order to cultivate a healthy, enriching connection to her art and to the art of others. Like Francesca Lia Block, Tori has a way of writing about her o...more
I like Tori Amos, and I like reading Tori's words. You expect her to be a little off, a little weird, and a little vague, and that's okay because for her, it works. But for some reason, Ann Powers, the journalist co-author, comes off like she's trying to out-Tori Tori. I don't expect Powers to be overly critical, but I wasn't ready for this level of wannabe asskissery.
It's brilliant when Amos is talking about herself, her personal development, and her life in the business. If you're familiar wi...more
It's brilliant when Amos is talking about herself, her personal development, and her life in the business. If you're familiar wi...more
Oct 01, 2007
Nicole
rated it
1 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
No one!
Shelves:
nonfiction,
autobiographybiography
This might be the worst book I've ever read. The only reason I even gave it ANY stars is because Tori Amos co-wrote it, and I think maybe it wasn't her but her co-writer who can't put a sentence together worth reading. Anyone who knows me, even a little bit, knows how obsessed, and I mean OBSESSED, with Tori Amos I am. I have pictures of her. I have her autograph framed and hidden in the back of my closet. It's my special secret. I don't want just anyone knowing I have such high regard for someo...more
3 likes · like · see review
I love Tori's music. Though I didn't love this book, I especially enjoyed reading about what she learned from her Native American grandmother.
Maybe the co-authorship is what kept it from working as well as I wanted it to, or it could also be that Tori works best in the more fanciful realm of her songwriting.
Maybe the co-authorship is what kept it from working as well as I wanted it to, or it could also be that Tori works best in the more fanciful realm of her songwriting.
So Tori Amos's music is very near and dear to my heart. This book certainly had it's fluffy/spiritual moments that I wasn't terribly into. But, as a musician, I gleaned some really interesting insight into the recording industry and being a touring musician. Definitely worth reading if you are a musician.
I waffle between loving this book and feeling sort of "meh" about it. It's really hard to take in large doses. Sometimes I felt like I stumbled into the babblations of one of those crazy people who try to bum cigarettes off you on the streets of Santa Cruz. Other times, I am fascinated by the thought process behind creating such amazing songs. She reminds me a lot of Alice Walker, with her talk of how the "girls" come to her and how she is a channel for them to come to life. The times she truly...more
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I've always been a fan of Tori Amos' music, but after reading Piece by Piece I'm simply in love with her as a person. Her spirit truly shines through in this book, and I feel like I understand her music better because of it. So much love <3
Jan 12, 2009
Lori
added it
There are some interesting moments in this non linear path of Tori's musings. Overall, the theme lends itself to exploring archtypal energies and sonic births. It is good to read if you are a composer, writer, or simply a fan of Tori.
less an autobiography & more like a book of lessons from tori. but don't worry, not didactic. lots of cool shit about goddesses and mythology and feminist healing. also artistic process and maintaining fierceness in the straight world.
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Tori Amos (born Myra Ellen Amos) is an American pianist and singer-songwriter. She is married to English sound engineer Mark Hawley. Together they have one child, Natashya "Tash" Lórien Hawley, born on September 5, 2000.
Amos was at the forefront of a number of female singer-songwriters in the early 1990s and was noteworthy early in her career as one of the few pop performers to use a piano as her...more
More about Tori Amos...
Amos was at the forefront of a number of female singer-songwriters in the early 1990s and was noteworthy early in her career as one of the few pop performers to use a piano as her...more
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“What girls do to each other is beyond description. No Chinese torture comes close.”
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“A guitarist or a drummer can get a cold and still play; I get a cold and sound like a wet mitten trying to sing you a love song. Charming.”
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Jan 09, 2009 06:18am