Ms. Kelley interviewed 850 people for her unauthorized biography of Oprah, and the majority of the people she talked to were people that Oprah has slighted over the years and thus, they did not have very flattering things to say about her. Unfortunately, one is left to wonder about their truthfulness and of course, Oprah is not given the chance to present her point of view in the situations that are presented. Nevertheless, the book is a fascinating read and we learn a lot about the "real" Oprah. She is, of course, a very respected and successful business mogul and very driven to succeed. The chief concern in her life is her show and her image and she is very protective and controlling of everything that surrounds her Harpo empire. Oprah is very hands on in every aspect of her business. There are many examples of how she goes about keeping it altogether; the successes as well as the failures.

The book is laid out-very loosely-in chronological order as Ms. Kelley progresses through Oprah's career, which is one of my chief complaints with the book. She will use examples in the 1980s to illustrate a point, then switch to something that happened 10 years later to reinforce her argument, which is confusing at times. She also lists her sources by chapters at the end of the book which makes fact checking difficult. As to the truthfulness of her sources, one has to keep in mind that out and out distortions would open up Ms. Kelley to lawsuits from Oprah for she would not hesitate to file a lawsuit to protect all aspects of her personal and professional life and she certainly, has the resources to do so. In the end the reader is left to judge for themselves whether Oprah is portrayed accurately in the book and Ms. Kelley is a master at producing books that look at the side other than that which is projected to the public. All in all Ms. Kelley's book presents another side to the public image of Oprah and worth reading in my opinion.