by Jewel
First published 2015
Jewel chronicles her journey from an unstable Alaska homestead to global stardom in this candid memoir. The New York Times bestselling poet and multiplatinum artist reveals how she learned to yodel at three and performed in honky-tonks and biker bars as part of her parents' act. She describes the trauma and abuse that marked her family life, her acceptance to Interlochen Arts Academy at fifteen, and her time as a homeless eighteen-year-old living in her car in San Diego. A radio DJ's decision to play a bootleg of her song changed everything, leading to unprecedented top-ten requests for an unsigned artist. By twenty-one, her debut album Pieces of You had gone multiplatinum. Jewel examines the financial troubles, family conflicts, and personal insecurities that complicated her success. She reflects on Alaska's natural beauty, confronts her childhood pain, and explains how songwriting and poetry became her lifeline through repeated crises.
Genres: autobiography, non-fiction, biography-memoir, music
Vibes: emotional-atmospheric, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: coming-of-age, overcoming-adversity, rags-to-riches
Setting: Alaska, San Diego
Period: 20th-century, 21st-century
387 pages · Hardcover · Blue Rider Press
Content warnings: abuse, addiction, child-abuse, domestic-violence, emotional-abuse, physical-abuse