Dirty Blonde: The Diaries of Courtney Love

by Courtney Love

A multi-textual memoir chronicling the life of one of our most potent pop icons

Groundbreaking rock musician. Award-winning actress. Perceptive songwriter and author. Mother. Wife of a rock god. Fashionista and trendsetter. Provocateur. In each and every one of these roles Courtney Love has demonstrated a wholehearted commitment to her art, and an intense drive and a lust for life that have made her a star and a celebrity icon—but have also led her into some unwise, uncharted, and even dangerous territory. Simultaneously candid and enigmatic, Love has a mordant wit and vivid intelligence matched in intensity only by the extraordinary life she has led, from a bleak early childhood through great fame and terrible heartbreak to the present day. By turns exhilarating and unsettling, this is a story told for the first time in Dirty Blonde.

Composed of an astonishing and eclectic collection of deeply personal artifacts including personal letters, childhood records, poetry, diary entries, song lyrics, fanzines, show flyers, other original writings, and never-before-seen photographs, Dirty Blonde leads us through the unimaginable highs and the despairing lows of one of the most compelling and creative figures in the world of popular culture. Through these diaries we see Love’s accomplishments, her mistakes, her history, and her bright future in a whole new light. From her upbringing in Oregon through her years living in Japan, New Zealand, and London, from her career highs with Hole and as a Hollywood leading lady to her personal heartbreak and struggle, Dirty Blonde is Love laid bare—a wholly fascinating portrait of a fierce and insightful woman with an unblinking worldview and a determination to express herself no matter the cost.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, Memoir, Biography, Biography Memoir, Journal, Pop Culture

292 pages, Paperback

First published October 31, 2006

About the author

Courtney Michelle Love (born Courtney Michelle Harrison) is an American rock musician and Golden Globe-nominated actress. Love is best known as lead singer, songwriter and lyricist for the now-defunct alternative rock band Hole and for her two-year marriage to late Nirvana lead singer Kurt Cobain. Rolling Stone has called Love "the most controversial woman in the history of rock".

Reviews

[Jade · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well, this is going to be a long review. I have a very complicated relationship with Courtney Love (ya know, in my mind). I was a fan of hers before I was a fan of Nirvana. I loved her fierce honesty and fire, her talent and her quick mind. I thought she was beautiful and amazing in the most non-traditional way. Her music made me feel powerful and understood. I love Nirvana as well and unlike many Nirvana fans, did not consider her a "yoko" (totally offensive term by the way) and the downfall of Kurt Cobain.
I was young and going through a lot personally when Kurt died and I was very tied in to that entire situation. I grieved for a musician and man whom I adored and for the wife and child he left behind. I admired Courtney even more for even being able to survive the holocaust that her life became. I started to become disenchanted with her when she began having plastic surgery (that seemed to go against everything about her that I loved--acceptance of all types of beauty, fighting public opinion on what a woman should be and being proud of who you are) and then became more disenchanted when hearing of the issues between her and her daughter, Frances Bean. I am not a mother myself, partially due to my reverence for it--I just don't think I would be good enough--but then who is? Her drug, alcohol and emotional problems, I understood--anyone who knows anything about her life, knows that it's been a more than tough one--most people would not be able to survive it.
I was impressed by her acting (she's a revelation in People vs. Larry Flynt) and understood her being enthralled by Hollywood--anyone who's had trouble being accepted would understand what it's like to be invited to the cool kids table. But her struggles with being a good parent to Frances is probably what alienated me most--I could never understand how much pain she was going through but I felt so much that Kurt trusted her to be strong for herself and Frances and that it was a type of holy duty. That was terribly judgmental of me. Like so many others, I viewed Kurt in a more hallowed light than I should have. I read his journals and then recently Heavier than Heaven, his best biography. I learned so much then--so much I should have at least considered. Anyone who reads that book and still "blames" Courtney for Kurt's issues is blind. Kurt was on a death trip well before he met Courtney and was no softie--he gave as good and worse sometimes than he got. His pain was certainly overwhelming and I understood so much after finishing both the journals and that biography why he could not stay. And it was not Courtney's doing--as many who truly knew them will say, he was here longer because of Courtney and Frances.
I was at the library the other day and came across this book. Despite my disenchantment with Ms. Love, I am still at heart fascinated by her. I picked up the book and upon opening it, immediately put it in my bag to check out. The inside resembled my own journals--full of photos, postcards, drawings, everything but the kitchen sink--and I felt my heart touched again by the girl inside the lioness. I decided I would read it--not expecting it to change my attitudes or anything, just because I couldn't not read it.
I got owned--it sent me directly back to loving Courtney. First, I have to express my admiration for her honesty--she's as unflinching with herself as she is with others. The journals start when she is a young girl and continue until the publishing of the book in 2006. It is filled with song lyrics, poetry, art and memories. It touched me so very much--this girl, even in her youth burned, burned, burned with art, pain, intelligence, ambition and vulnerability. So much is explained--her plastic surgery (something I take issue with in anyone besides someone who needs it for reconstruction or to ease a medical problem)--the abuse she's taken for so many things--her weight, her nose, her breasts--everything cruelly criticized by everyone--I can understand now--I would not give into it myself, but it's understandable for a person who has been seriously abused their whole life and made to feel as if they could never be pretty enough or talented enough. Her entries on her looks are so heartbreaking at times. Someone so very strong who can be reduced to a sad little girl by the comments of others. The virago who is as soft as a kitten inside and has as Carrie Fisher describes it in her foreword "rampant empathy", who also fights as fiercely as an animal when cornered or when her loved ones are threatened. A girl with disinterested and self absorbed parents who never appreciate her for her gifts or originality. A woman criticized and vilified by people who know nothing of her background or inner life but judge her nonetheless--myself included. I was seriously schooled.
Her intelligence, her kindness, her love of both Kurt and Frances, her talent, her brains--it's all here. I understand once again why I admired her so much and I am very happy to be reunited with that affection. Is she flawed? Hell yeah. Are we all? Hell yeah. It does not make us less worthy of understanding. And for the many conspiracy theorists who think she had Kurt killed (perhaps one of the stupidest things ever put forth--it destroyed her life) I challenge you to read this and the book Heavier than Heaven and still hold onto that belief. If you do, you probably deserve to be in your bunker with your assault rifles waiting for the gub'ment to come take yo' land. Read the letter to Kurt that Courtney wrote in 2006 after a run in with one of Frances's teachers--even after all the time that has passed her pain is palpable. Imagine finding your soulmate and the only person you feel ever understood you--imagine that joy--and then imagine having them cruelly taken away by their own hand--imagine it if you can--I think you can't--because it's too huge to truly understand without having experienced it firsthand. Therefore, we cannot judge. I want to say publicly that I am sorry for joining the sheeple in my judgments about Courtney. I should know that I generally don't agree with public at large and that it deserved more investigation.
Happy to have you back, Courtney--I hope the world is a bit kinder to you than I have been.

[Hanaa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really don't know what people are talking about. Sure this may not be everyone's cup of tea, but it's definitely worth reading. You see rare photos, first drafts of songs, letters, and her suicide note. I mean, she's a fascinating person. I personally this book is great, the series of journals and random papers throughout her life, seeing her change. It's pretty cool, and I really don't care what anyone else says, I like Courtney, and I've been waiting for this book for such a long time. People are so harsh on her, calling her a 'nut-job' or an 'unfit parent.' She had some serious demons in her past, she got into a lot of shit, yes, but now she's a sober mom who's clean and finally getting her life back to normal.

[Mischenko · Rating 4 out of 5]

Please visit www.readrantrockandroll.com to see this review and others.

Dirty Blonde: The Diaries of Courtney Love is a book written by Courtney Love who beyond author, is also a singer and actress.

First I'll start by saying that if you don't like Courtney Love, then don't read this book. It's for fans or for people that want to understand and know more about her. I've been a fan since my teen years and personally love the book. It's a scrapbook like mess and that's why I love it.

From childhood and beyond it's full of color photographs, letters, school reports, diary entries, and other documents including her own artwork.

The absolute only thing I would change is some of the entries which are very difficult to read, but then they would have to be modified from originals.

Regardless, for me, it's a keeper...

4****

[Gabrielle (Reading Rampage) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you, Andrew, for lending me your copy of this book while I hunted down one of my own! I really appreciate the trust required to lend a book, especially one like this one.


Oh, the controversial Miss Love. It’s very difficult to have neutral feelings about Courtney, and I have found that most people either adore her or hate her guts, and I often find myself disagreeing with both camps. She’s a complicated and nuanced person, underestimated by some, vilified by others, dismissed by too many as simply ‘the widow of’. My feelings about her have evolved over the years, but at this point, I have to say that I have great respect and admiration for her. She went through a lot, and while she did not always handle things skillfully, her resilience is admirable.

This book is a collection of snippets from various journals and documents that she has collected over the course of her very eventful life and laid out in that chaotic collage style that she was always fond of. Obviously, it’s curated: but she still included quite a bit of revelatory material in there. I think it helps to know a little bit about her before digging in, but a read-through of the Wikipedia page about her should suffice to put some elements of her diaries into context.

That said, you cannot walk away from this book thinking this woman is an idiot. She is clearly incredibly sharp, but intense and unfiltered. That can certainly come off as abrasive, but it’s hard to miss the blatant sexism when she is called out for doing things male musicians and actors get away with Scott free. I have no idea what the inside of her relationship with Kurt was like, but I tend to think well of men who love so-called ‘difficult’ women: it takes guts, courage, and deep compassion to love someone who is passionate and messy, and not all men have that in them.

I think one of the things that rubs some people the wrong way with Coutney is that she always refused the 2-dimentional roles people wanted to push on her. She was never going to be just a musician, just a mom, just a wife (and eventually a widow). Reading Nirvana bios, it becomes clear that Courtney thought that she would be the one with a successful music career before ‘Nevermind’ became the global hit it turned into, and while it is obvious that she was head over heels in love with Kurt, there’s also no doubt that she eventually realized marrying him was something that would color the way people saw her for the rest of her life; she would be impossible to separate from him for the rest of her life – and I don’t think she had planned that.

The deep insecurities she wrestled with her whole life broke my heart, as well as how badly she wanted to be the best mom she could for Frances and that her addiction and other demons got in the way of that. I cannot imagine the depth of her regrets.

Of course, I listened to all my Hole records as I flipped through this book. Those albums are so good, still to this day, so distinct. Babes in Toyland are similar in some ways, but they are really two different sides of the same coin of feminine rage, expressed in a way few people had dared before. Hole’s music sounds a bit cleaner, especially ‘Live Through This’ and ‘Celebrity Skin’, but the bite is just as strong and sharp.

Courtney said on her social media that she had put the finishing touches to a proper memoir after procrastinating for years; who knows if it will ever come out, but I will read it if and when it does. This is an fascinating glimpse into her mind and life; obviously, if you don’t like her, don’t bother reading this, but if you enjoy her work, this is absolutely worth a detour.

[Tanya · Rating 3 out of 5]

My relationship with Courtney Love and Hole is as old as my relationship with Nirvana, but much more complicated. I related to Hole with a fierceness that my love for Nirvana never reached—and yet Courtney always seemed so difficult to like. I realized many years later that my impression of her was formed exclusively on her lyrics, which I loved, and what I read about her in the media, which I didn’t much care for. It dawned on me that the public likes to crucify Courtney for the same traits that Kurt is venerated for, and that this was rooted in sexism, and her refusal to be reduced to the rockstar’s wife, and later the grieving widow. She loved Kurt (just how much is clearly apparent in these pages), but she refused to be defined through this relationship, to be nothing more than a chapter in his tragically short life. She's loud, sexual, opinionated, contradictory, aggressive—all things society teaches women not to be. People didn't like that, and you got conspiracy theories ranging from "Kurt wrote all her songs" to "she had him killed". It always boggled my mind that the same people who regard her as an unintelligent, talentless, gold-digging bimbo somehow also think her cunning enough to get away with murder. There may be plenty of justified reasons not to like Courtney, but none of them are ever what the media used in their anti-CL propaganda. The public has always loved to hate her.

I first read these “diaries” after having seen Hole live twice in the span of about half a year. It wasn’t really Hole, it was Courtney and some blokes, but the live performances were raw pain and anger, and just what I needed at the time. Their music recently started calling to me again, so I picked these back up. Above, I put diaries in quotes because this doesn’t feel like diaries in the way that Kurt’s did—they are clearly edited for public consumption, and it’s more of a collection of thoughts, lyrics, pictures, magazine cut-outs and correspondence without much context—a messy scrapbook of her life, with handwriting sometimes so rushed or carelessly jotted down that it’s almost impossible to decipher. It spans from her teens to the time shortly after her darkest, drug-consumed years.

She's deeply insightful, and while these glimpses into her inner world won't provide much in "hard facts" as far as biographical data goes, they shed a light on Courtney the person, not the character. Her thoughts, fears, hopes. Many of her choices (e.g. plastic surgery, which I always felt was against everything she stands for) will make sense after reading these pages, and break your heart. She's walked through hell many times over, yet has learned to face her demons and grieve and heal herself while the whole world loudly watched and judged—it's remarkable that she made it out the other side. An admirable hurricane of a woman.

[Casey Kiser · Rating 5 out of 5]

an intimate look into Courtney's genius and hot mess of a rock n roll life. i love this book. it's all over the place with journal entries and random personal pics, along with photo shoots. Courtney is completely unapologetic and bathes in her fame with the middle finger up and is undeniably one of the most honest performers, even today. Her performances are memorable, bold and exciting. But Courtney is not for everybody. Her book is like a window into her scattered mind and those who are not fans will be less than impressed. But I would live through Courtney any day!! She's a true Rock Star.

[Ocean · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've had an odd "relationship" with Courtney Love.
I used to loathe her, as an early teen I bought into all the conspiracy theories surrounding Kurt's death (because I didn't know enough about the situation, marriage, careers of these two people to make my own opinion + was young + had internalised misogyny A LOT + like a lot of people couldn't understand why someone like Kurt wasn't still alive..)
I've grown a lot since then and a couple of years ago maybe I decided to give Hole a second chance and became absolutely infatuated with Courtney.
I can see bits of myself in her while still aspire to be as great and successful as her. This woman is a force of nature, a survivor and there are few in the industry who are so ready to openly show their cracks and with so much dignity.
Of course she is a legend and a genius, and while I love Baudelaire and Poe if you ask me who my favourite poet is, she immediately comes to mind.

I received this book for my birthday and devoured it since. It's a collection of diary entries and alongside come photographs, copies of letters, postcards etc.. I've got the hardcover edition and it's a lot bigger and longer than I had imagined.
This is not a replacement for a biography. If you start reading this without knowing much about her life, while I'm sure you could still enjoy reading her words, I don't think you would quite grasp the essence of her personality. A lot is missing of course, I personally would have loved to read more about the time she spent -stripping etc- abroad with her friends as a teen. For fans however, I think this is great and helps to understand her and the way she thinks, writes etc better.
For me I'd say, it confirmed everything I already knew about her, how incredibly smart she is, how resilient and yet sensitive (in the best of ways).
We get to read about her love for her daughter, which is a part of her life she usually keeps more private (understandably).

She kept it really classy though, if you are looking for celebrity gossip, horrible details about her life, as a child, as a widow, single mum etc, it's not in there! I think both out of respect for other, herself and for privacy.

As someone that writes a lot and dabbles in poetry, I found it really interesting to see the evolution of songs, some we do know as the public, where just a few lines stuck and the feel changed completely or bits of writing jotted down at different times that got mixed together later on.. Aborted pieces. etc..

It's also a very well edited, a truly beautiful book to have on display.

Personally I think I've fallen even more in love with this wonderful lady, this is certainly a book I will go back to, I think it holds a lot of wisdom.

Edit/// TL;DR: would recommend to all fans, helps you dive a little further into her mind and work. beautifully edited.

[Tlingit · Rating 1 out of 5]

Yeah. I don't like her. I tried to read through this but it's not really reading material. It's childish and wasn't interesting to me.
I like reading about Courtney Love in other books. Why do I not like her? Not sure. Maybe it's because she looks and acts white trash to me. I assumed her life was interesting, I assumed that she has a strong female character and maybe that is why she irritated me. I thought maybe because I liked Kurt Cobain's music and blamed her for his death that I was jealous of her. I thought that maybe we were very similar. That's what I thought. MAybe something of those thoughts are true. Personally I don't really care. Maybe I'm just mad because she's motivated even though she seems to be one hot steaming mess.
I like her album Live Through This. I can relate to many of her lyrics which is why I so wanted to admire her. I don't though. I enjoyed her as Althea Flynt. She looked like she was born to play that part. Her life seems interesting but this is not the medium for me to enjoy the story of her journey through her career.
Maybe I'll try an autobiography or biography.
Oh yeah, I really didn't finish it. I just looked at the pictures and perused anything I found kind of interesting. Her handwriting is annoying to me too.

[Moira · Rating 1 out of 5]

'Read' this -- if it is a 'book' which one can be said to have 'read' -- in forty-five minutes in an air-conditioned bookstore, escaping from a heatwave. The only worse notes-on-cocktail-napkins-masquerading-as-a-memoir celebrity 'book' I read this year was Carrie Fisher's (who, perhaps not coincidentally?, provides a really awful introduction to this volume). A real journal, or even a ghosted memoir or an as-told-to book, from Courtney Love would be welcome -- imagine the tales she could tell about Nirvana, grrl rock, her own drug addiction and recovery, the compromises she's obviously made in a bid for mainstream success....but this is little more than a collection of lists, photographs, a few letters, lyric notations, and scribbles. At least the similar volume assembled from Kurt Cobain's scrawls gave you a glimpse of his artistic process. Neither of these books are diaries at all, only get-rich-quick schemes ('"Diary" on a book always sells,' one editor says in the critical analysis of them, A Book of One's Own).

[alli · Rating 3 out of 5]

Would of been better if I could actually decipher her handwriting! But I really enjoyed Courtney's pre-Kurt diary entries. As terrible as it is to say, it was so interesting to see her hopes and dreams for her life before Kurt and Frances. I really loved her entry about what she was going to teach to her children, even though it was bittersweet because you could really see that Courtney wanted to be a good mom but did not accomplish it. What I got out of the entries was that Courtney's writing style is scarily similar to Kurt's - minus the references to vaginas and heart shaped boxes, etc., she loves Kurt and Frances so much it was sometimes painful to read, and there was so much lost potential and brilliance in Courtney that was never made public. An interesting read altogether, though I would have found it helpful if she included text alongside her scrawl so we could fully understand the creative genius that was Courtney Love.

[Blair · Rating 2 out of 5]

As a long-time Hole fan (I adored them when I was younger, and Live Through This is still one of my all-time favourite albums), I couldn't resist the opportunity to snap this up for a bargain price. As it happens, I'm glad I didn't pay full whack for it; the book is mildly interesting, but it's really very insubstantial, despite being so big and heavy. It's always interesting to see the personal notes of a celebrity you've admired, but it was a very quick read, and ultimately I didn't particularly feel that I'd learnt anything new about Courtney.

[Cydni Perkins · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was extremely interested to hear Courtney's side of her own crazy story, and that's why I bought this book. It wasn't really what I expected. I appreciated that she wrote an introduction to explain what it was about -- a collection of old journal entries, scrapbook pages, photos, and scanned-in pages of difficult-to-read, handwritten poetry. The introduction was the only part of the book she actually wrote specifically for the book -- the rest was presented exactly as it had been written or assembled originally. I was fascinated to read her journal entries and look at her scrapbook pages. That part was wonderful, interesting, and amazing. I loved looking at her pictures and hearing her observations about her band, and her feelings about allegations that Kurt had helped write her most successful album, an accusation that was meant to disempower her as an artist and a musician. All of that was really great.

The poetry...not as much. It was a struggle to read it from the scraps of torn-off pages and the backs of napkins and stained notebook pages, and after the task of reading it was accomplished, it turned out to be not very good. I gave up on the poems halfway through and stopped trying to read them. I knew I could be missing a gem of great poetry somewhere, but I decided that all the good poems had already been turned into song lyrics and this was just the sludge left over. The poems read as exactly what they were -- the incoherent ravings of an alcohol- and drug- and angst-addled mind. It was interesting at first to peek into her thoughts, but it got old after awhile, reading what amounted to bad schoolgirl poetry.

Her introduction had been coherent and informative, and I wanted more of that. I knew this artist was capable to creating really interesting work if she would just focus her energies. I wanted something that made more sense, or that held together better. The journal and scrapbook entries were scattered bits and pieces of her life, and it was often difficult to figure out where we were in her timeline and what was going on around her. The thoughts were so scattered and disjointed that even though I did gain a few insights into Courtney's thought process, the insights only pointed to the general assumption that she is a drug-crazed wash-up who can sometimes get it together long enough to create something interesting, then she sinks back into the haze. Maybe this is all there is to understand about Courtney, but I wanted more. I wanted her to string the pieces together and tell a story. Four or five more coherent essays about what was happening might have done the trick and brought this book from an interesting mess to something that really got her point of view across.

[Laura · Rating 1 out of 5]

Horrible, illegible, don't even bother opening it.

[Alicia · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is pretty. Other than that, not much new ground is covered.

[Mark Farley]

I was both enamoured and disappointed at the same time by Dirty Blonde and despite my incorrigible love and desire for the release of this magnificent project, I would only seriously recommend this to die hard fans of this fascinating woman (something I happen to be more than qualified for a long time to be), but as a noted expert on all things Courtney, I really wasn't surprised at how little this actually contained, despite my love for what the content amounted to.Courtney is a notoriously guarded and protective individual, regardless of her overbearing quest for grandeur, this really is not "Diaries" in the conventional industry Michael Palin (to give a recent example) sense. This is more of a collection (and random one at that) of scraps, notes, lyrics, art and poetry which in the literary sense has moments of sheer torture, beauty and desire. She touches on loss, forlorn contempt, anger and wit while tossing in pop culture references and showing classic Courtney name-dropping moments of brilliance and often rambling coherently about paradigms and feminism and the after effects the likes of Patti Smith has had on the world and seemingly giving away her secrets in the process yet (as always) she rarely gives away very much at all.So many parts are lonely and self depreciating in its rhetoric and then Courtney will burst out the next page with expletives and middle fingers, but that's Courtney. We don't get an insight to what I'm sure is a very interesting and eventful day to day life. Present day or 2006 is just a litter of new lyrics bar a thank you note promoted from a show of support to Lindsey Lohan. I mean, honestly. But compared to the only other authorised tome, Poppy Z. Brite's sanctioned memoir that was more spin than investigative and starved of any critique, this seems positively revelatory to us and as much as Courtney is feuding with her mother and openly attacks her attempt at fame in her name saying that she knew she would do it in the end, Linda Carroll's memoir Her Mother's Daughter seems certainly more of an account than what Courtney has produced and maybe she has failed by being so guarded or maybe she is sitting on the can of juicy secrets (if there are any) until she really cannot afford but to let them all go and you do get a sense of who do you believe? Having been in contact with both parties in the past, I cannot say. They were both very nice to me so maybe it is just a case of deep underlying family resentment?So... Courtney. Yes, the woman is a survivor. Yes, the woman writes beautiful prose and lyrics and the end product is wonderful to look at for what is essentially a cornucopia of unintelligible (in parts) scribblings and Courtney has some pretty shocking handwriting which is sometimes very hard to read. Despite this, the book is lush and gorgeous in its hardback form. What there is in terms of content is searching (again in parts), seductive, definitely up for interpretation and does give away the odd secret. Mostly the musings are heartfelt and tortured and I was more than captured and fulfilled by this.The earlier journals from her time in Portland and specifically her sojourn to Europe in the early 80s where she befriended Julian Cope in Liverpool and went to school in Dublin are very insightful. This period and the chronicle of her time with Kurt really enrapture and have you wide eyed and entertained but it is her earlier childhood writing that they truly fascinates. Such an ability and creative wonder in someone so young is remarkable and definitely showed her fans that she possessed that genius so young she always talked about.That (if nothing else) was worth buying this book for but I still was left craving for so much more. Hopefully now she was back on track, she will be coaxed into sharing more of what is nothing but sheer talent and intrigue. A confusing insight into the mind and soul of a contemporary cultural icon. Despite how Courtney aggravates and frustrates me as a fan with her art, she will forever be my dirty blonde.

[Katherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Honestly, this book is basically just a scrap journal of her life, followed by random poems and thoughts and photos. It's all crammed together. And I'm not complaining, it's just gonna take me a while to figure out what the hell I'm even reading cause we all know Courtney, and she's anything but organized, but we love her :)

My point is have patience, and lots of time to sort out what your reading.

[Shannon Hedges · Rating 1 out of 5]

I love her music, but this book wasn't what I expected. There are pictures and lyrics, but nothing of depth. I expected more substance.

I'm glad I only paid $1 for it.

[Pervinca · Rating 2 out of 5]

I discovered this book on my recommendations after reading Kurt's Journals. I like Hole as much as i like Nirvana, so i decided to give it a go.

This book, as well as Kurt's, is made of scans, meaning everything is written in Courtney's handwritting, which is pretty legible and adds a sense of autenticity, although towards the end of the book it gets more harder to read.

Now, what i liked the most about this book was the visual aspect of it. It was all made of little notes, there are loads of collages and drawings, photos, tickets, etc, everything annotated by Courtney, and its visually very appealing.

However, the begining of the book is a bit dull. Courtney writes in a very chaotic way that perfectly resembles her personality- if you've ever read her instagram posts, you know what i'm talking about. What i mean is that most of the book is made of very little fragments of text, and sometimes is very hard to conect them and therefore feel a sense of cohesion within the book. While this fragments are interesting and some of them have very beautiful quotes others make no sense and it makes it a bit hard to have continuity. For example, in Kurt's journals, most of the pieces, while not connected to the others, made self within themselves, you knew how he was feeling or what is he talking about, even if the next piece was about a completely different topic. Here it's a bit more chaotic and there are fragments within the same page that don't seem to be connected whatsoever.

Another part of the fragments are Courtney ranting about anything. With those i have a hate-love relationship. On one hand, i know what she's doing, for i do it myself: writing everything that crosses your mind as soon as it crosses your mind, without redacting it or giving it order, just to blow off steam, to share your feelings. And in doing this sometimes you are not specific- sometimes you just want to let go of your feelings and, in case anyone finds this piece of writing you just made, you want them to know how you feel but not necesarily who or what makes you feel that way.
Some of this pieces were wonderful, but in others not knowing what she's talking about makes it a bit hard for me to connect with them.

As the book goes on, she has longer pieces, which are the ones I enjoy the most. It's great to know how she feels and thinks about what's going on around her, being 100% transparent about how she feels. The middle was my favourite part, i wish the rest of the book was like it. You can learn more about her character and thoughts here, and you definitely can see how much she loved Kurt and how much she loves her daughter, and also how she is living her life.

Towards the end of the book, we get lots of despair poems or compositions. While i liked some of them, others were a bit chaotic and hard to read.

I think if i was a bit older and had lived through all of that, i may had been able to know what she was talking about in more fragments, even if those that didn't seem connected. Sometimes she writes about who she has seen or met or even fucked, but i don't know most of those people.

Overall, it is an okay book. I enjoyed reading it and liked the visual aspect of it, but i was expecting it to be a bit more redacted (like Kurt's Journal is). While i wanted to know more about Courtney, the book was a bit shallow in that sense: you get to know more about the way she thinks but not so much about her opinions on certain topics. In my opinion, there are some fragments that could have been deleted from the book and it wouldn't matter whatsoever, since they were so irrelevant- brutaly honest, as Courtney is, but still not revealing anything really.

I think this would be a great book for people who share Courtney's chaotic way of thinking. For me, it made it a bit harder to connect with her- but perhaps it was due to my expectations, since i did feel that connection with Kurt's Journals and was kinda expecting the same thing with this book.

That being said, she does mention a couple of times in the book that she doesn't want her diaries published and that she only wants her poems and compositions published, which may explain why the content of the book is what it is. I was expecting more personal thoughts and experiences.

[Leo ౨ৎ · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don’t think there has ever been a woman who was more misunderstood than Courtney love .oh I admire her so much

[núria · Rating 3 out of 5]

é sempre estranho ler diários mas gostei. Esta é a minha queen

[Ni · Rating 1 out of 5]

When I picked this book up, I had already set my expectations low... evidently they were not low enough. Seriously and with all personal feelings aside, this book was pretty hard to swallow and impossible to comprehend. I understand that this is supposed to be a diary of sorts and that journals are meant to be personal and often are not understood by others but one would expect that after being edited and composed as a "book" (one with a cover price of $35) that it would at least make some sense to other human beings. The events in the book are out of chronological order and the writing is (more often than not) illegible. I doubt that any of it makes sense anyway... what I could read were mostly angst riddled rants that repeat themselves over and over again. There were several photographs of Kurt throughout the book but I could only find his named mentioned twice. (One must ask, was this more an act of sentiment or sale?) The book does have a couple saving graces which include early concept art, family pictures of Kurt, and a few classy photos of Courtney herself.... which are rare to come by these days.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

this lady has been chasing fame a long, long time. i learned a lot about courtney, but there are other areas i wish she would have spent more time on; like her relationship with kurt, his death, and her battle with drugs.
what she does let you in on is her love affair with music/fame, her love for frances, and her feminist perspective.
i began my obsession with courtney and hole the moment i heard "miss world" on the radio when i was 14. i couldn't get enough. i love her music and her even though she's a complete freak.
you also get to see a lot of old pictures and see how pretty she once was before she plastic surgeried herself out. but no matter how hot you are, why would you put yr bare ass on the cover of yr book?

[Chantay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Through all her venues Courtney Love has committed her, mind, heart and soul to her art. Her varying triumphs and emotional turmoil has lead her to be a rock musician, an actress, an idol, an icon, a star and a celebrity. Both engaging and raw, Love's life is compelling. Her wit and intelligence lead you through an extraordinarily interesting life.

I adore Courtney! She's the manifestation of my spirit. The fierce bitch, the raging warrior, the Queen of all my heart. Reading this opened up another vulnerable part of Courtney to me, when you think you have her pegged she turns it around and makes you rethink your ideals about her. Her memoirs are filled with her times at Hillcrest and her life throughout growing and creating her band. I love her...

[HeavyReader · Rating 2 out of 5]

What does it mean to read a book? Is it enough to look at every page? Do you have to look at, see, read, internalize every word?

I ask because I did NOT read every word in this book. I probably would have, as Courtney seems to be an adequate writer, except I had a hard time reading her handwriting. You know, since it's a diary, it's handwritten. Courtney's handwriting is very cute girl junior high style, all bubbly and curvey. I just couldn't force my brain to decipher it.

But I did look at every page of this large, large (coffe table size to be sure) book. I looked at every photo and read as many of the words as I could stand to look at.

Does that count?

[L · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not a huge Courtney Love fan, but unlike many of my friends, I definitely don't hate her for any reason. I find her quite interesting and was curious about this book, but not enough to spend more than $5 on it. Therefore, it was the perfect choice when I found it on the Urban Outfitters sale table for $9.90 on one of their "50% off all sale items" days. (Who wants/can afford to buy any of the crap they sell full price anyhow?) I've only leafed through and read a handful of her entries, and it's pretty much exactly what I expected. As a long-time diarist and fan of pop culture, I'll probably pop it open from time to time. Definitely worth $5 but not much more.

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

I know, Courtney isn't everyones cup of tea and she creates a stir anywhere she goes but I for one love her music and admire her rags-to-riches story...who doesn't want to be, as she sings in her infamous '94 hit, Doll Parts, "The girl with the most cake"? Dirty Blonde is an inside look at her very own journals and drawings, plus loads of pictures(her daughter with Kurt is so gorgeous!), I also love the foreword from her friend and neighbor, fellow bad girl Carrie Fischer. I may not like everything I read about Courtney or her hard life ways, But shes the kind of person I hate to love, but do and she'll always be an inspiration to me with her lyrics.

[Cindy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Courtney Love is such a fascinating woman. She has a way of thinking that matches no other. This book is more half written songs or poems than journal diaries, but in art the soul is revealed. If you are looking to get her opinions on Kurt or Frances look somewhere else; those thoughts are too sacred to reveal here. She mentions them just enough for us to understand how much of her heart belongs to them.
I greatly enjoyed reading as she stumbled, but every time she shined I wanted to throw her a party. I know many people do not like her but she is one of my idols and this book is sure to show you why.

[Stephanie🌙🪐🛸 · Rating 1 out of 5]

If you are interested in Courtney Love's story, this isn't it. This is just a scrap book of random things written in her hand writing (which is not legible and hurt my eyes to make out). It takes all of 45 minutes to read this book and I didn't really learn anything I didn't know about her already minus reading a few poems. I heard Courtney has had a rather interesting childhood and even more interesting life as a rock star. I am disappointed this book had such very little insight being that her song lyrics do. I am off to find a proper biography, I was just hoping to hear the words from the horses mouth.

[Theresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

What to say about this? Its more poetry/lyrics than diary, but that is very telling as well. I find Courtney endless fascinating. She is the rocker girl that never quite gets it right and can't decide if she even cares. That's a lot like me too. I was sucked into every entry that spoke about Francis. I really want those two to have a good relationship. The gossip always seems against that wish.

I haven't followed enough celebrity gossip to know who the man she's talking about is, maybe I'll google that. Maybe it's more than one guy, but it seems like a complicated love/hate one.

The pictures and memorabilia(as only Courtney would collect) are awesomely entertaining.

[Jasmin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really, really liked it.
It's better when you listen to Hole songs. Especially Samantha.
For the poetry parts, I needed to hear Courtney's voice and get her rhythm of speech, so it really helps to listen to her.
For all my Germans out there: get the English version. the translation sucks. (That's the star off.)
It is a very intense read and it wants alls yout attention. So you should be prepared to give it. There's a lot of handwriting-printed parts which feel very personal and you can't help but feel connected and very close to CL, like a friend, and trust me, everytime she mentions Kurt I want to cry.