Marc Shapiro

Beatles Wives: The Women The Men We Loved Fell In Love With
by: Marc Shapiro
Riverdale Avenue Books
2021
*** ( 3 stars)
#netgalley #BeatleWives
Thanks to Netgalley, Riverdale Books and Marc Shapiro for sending this ebook for review.
Through extensive research and archives, Marc Shapiro has definately given us a look into the lives of the loves of the Beatles. To see beyond the famous names of the Beatles, and turning the attention on thier wives. Included are nine chapters, each one about one of the wives of one of the Beatles. Cynthia Lennon, Maureen Starkey, Patti Boyd Harrison/Clapton, Linda Eastman McCartney, Barabara Bach, Yoko Ono, Olivia Harrison, Heather Mills and Nancy Shevrell. They share their lives and time as a Beatles wife culled from previous interviews and articles that have been previously published, but never before culled to give us a story. The only remaining first generation Beatle Wife, Patti Boyd Harrison/ Clapton is still my favorite Beatle wife. This was a fun read, personable, and a nice inside look into the way these women romanced, and, also, influenced their husbands legacy. Recommended.… (meer)

Beatle Wives by Marc Shapiro is a light read but one that fills a void. Well-written and mostly even-handed, this will entertain and either fill a few information gaps or bring back things you'd forgotten.

First, I know there is a temptation, especially for those of us who grew up on The Beatles, to run out all of our Beatle credentials. When we first heard them, which of them we may have met, how many of the volumes of books, good and bad, we've read. Fine, yes, I qualify on all counts as a big fan, enough said, who cares.

This book is less about being full of startling new information (did anyone reasonably expect that?) than it is about bringing together all of the little quotes from various sources, almost exclusively as footnotes to the stories about the band, into one (or several) coherent narratives. Shapiro succeeds quite well at this. Many of us have probably heard or read most of the separate pieces of info. But most of us couldn't have given useful biographical sketches of most of the women. Thus the void this book fills, they are front and center even in the sections that highlight what one of the band members did.

I enjoyed learning and/or being reminded of things and looking back at those years from a different perspective. I was particularly interested in learning what some of these women did once they managed to escape the craziness of Beatlemania, well, to the extent an ex-wife of a Beatle can escape it.

I would recommend this to Beatle fans who are more interested in reading about the wives and less concerned with posturing as Beatle know-it-alls. I would think that for those who only know the group from their music as oldies that this would be an interesting glimpse behind the scenes (so to speak) of what superstardom was before the advent of social media. The things that could be kept secret and the news that spread considerably slower.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.… (meer)

I loved Jenni Rivera. I love her music. To me she was a strong Latina. She empowered women. She gave the impression she really cared about her fans. This book confirmed that. I felt that it gave a true accounting of Jenni. Jenni Rivera, like all of us, was not a perfect person. The book does not try to make her one. She was someone who made mistakes but got back up and kept going. This is what I took from her music. I was happy to see that in this book about her. I would recommend this book to not only fans of Jenni but to those curious about who she was. It is an interesting and fast read.… (meer)