My Name Is Barbra

I wish I could give this 10 stars.

3.5*

That was a long read. I can't say I was a big Barbra Streisand fan before, but I knew she just had to divulge a few juicy secrets and some interesting insights and boy was I right. The man in her life are something that deserves a mention alone (Pierre Trudeau, Marlon Brando just to name a few). The most interesting bit however was the realisation of why is she considered to be so attractive and feminine. Robert Redford put it best: “Barbra???her femininity brings out the masculinity in a man, and her masculinity brings out a man???s femininity, vulnerability, romanticism, whatever you want to call it.”

I would give it 4-4.5*, but the book is quite repetitive (talking about the same issues over and over again) and she appears to be a bit too full of herself at times.

My late mother adored Barbra Streisand so I read this book in her memory. Or rather, I skimmed through it, pausing when Babs talked about a movie I liked or an interesting affair. The memoir should have been half as long, but that would have required that La Streisand relinquish some control. Which, as demonstrated repeatedly, she does not do. I think the most telling anecdote in the whole book is when she rewrites several of Stephen Sondheim's lyrics for an album. Stephen F*cking Sondheim! Only the greatest Broadway composer and lyricist of the 20th century!

Recommended if you want to read about hundreds of other times she was right and other people were wrong, design and fashion described in excruciating detail, and letters from famous people praising her to the rafters.