Anna's review
Elizabeth by J. Randy Taraborrelli
Taraborrelli did a great job of telling how Elizabeth Taylor became a star, and what made her become who she was as a person. Decently written, although it relies heavily on published quotes from other materials.
At times, it felt like Taraborrelli was making excuses for her poor decisions, and the fact that the author is a huge Elizabeth fan certainly came through, which makes me doubt some its credibility. One really annoying thing is that the author references photos of Elizabeth in the text on multiple occasions (photos that illustrate some point he's making or some timeline he's describing), but doesn't include those in the center photo pages in the book... why talk about a photo if you aren't going to show me?
Overall it was a good, entertaining read.
At times, it felt like Taraborrelli was making excuses for her poor decisions, and the fact that the author is a huge Elizabeth fan certainly came through, which makes me doubt some its credibility. One really annoying thing is that the author references photos of Elizabeth in the text on multiple occasions (photos that illustrate some point he's making or some timeline he's describing), but doesn't include those in the center photo pages in the book... why talk about a photo if you aren't going to show me?
Overall it was a good, entertaining read.
You know, I thought of Taraborrelli's respect for Elizabeth as more as a reason for him to write the book, and motivation for his research, rather than a factor of the accuracy of his writing. I think that he really wanted the reader to understand Elizabeth, and so he presented both sides.
