I've been a fan of Janis Joplin's music for a long time but didn't know much about her life (aside from her tragic death of a heroin overdose at age 27). This book was incredibly detailed, but at times, I felt myself skimming over some of the text because it all felt a bit dense.

There was a great deal of focus on her parents and her childhood in Port Arthur, Texas and the years she struggled to find her purpose in life. Her career was all too brief and it definitely left me wondering what she could have accomplished if she'd lived even just a bit longer. However, what I thought would be the most fascinating part of her story is her death and how her music impacted generations of musicians who followed in her footsteps. This felt completely glossed over to me. I would have much preferred more examination of this aspect of her life versus her many boyfriends or childhood grades.

Overall, this book would be a good read for anyone who's interested in the birth of rock and roll music or in the 1960s music scene. The amount of research that went into this book is insane. But the writing just wasn't as riveting as the woman herself was.

An open and honest look at Janis’s life. Love her music and the author did an amazing job with this biography.

I grew up listening to her music. So, when I saw this book I knew I needed to read it.

It’s a great memoir of her life and it’s filled with details I did not know prior to reading he book. One will never forget her raspy voice.

Highly recommend this book!!

A surprisingly solid read. I'd also recommend it to anyone interested in the subject matter, but I wouldn't consider it a necessary purchase for a library.

First, allow me to thank NetGalley, the publishing house, and the author for allowing me an ARC copy in exchange for an honest review.
I am a huge fan of Janis Joplin. I have my mothers LP in the record player as I type. I actually haven't read anything about her life yet so was pleased overall with this book. There's too much micro detailing about song setlists that she sang in coffee houses and her phrasing technique when singing. Technical details that made my eyes glaze over a bit. But overall I love her free spirit and don't give a damn attitude about what is proper and "correct". I would love to have a drink of Southern Comfort with her. It was so sad how lonely and emotionally tortured Janis was growing up, and she actually fell into singing by accident. But so thankful she did. I wish her story had not ended alone in a motel room. I wish she hadn't been such a tortured soul but perhaps that is what made the music.

Heartbreaking informative. I have always been intrigued by the stories of successful people whose lives ended abruptly, and while they achieve many things, their full potential was never realized.

Holly George-Warren provided a backdrop of the time when conveying the life of Janis - detailing aspects of her life that showed her genius but also the darkness she was battling. I enjoyed learning more about Janis and the parts of her life that informed her music and life.

I stopped reading at 20%. I love Janis but this book is nothing but random quotes from every person who had the slightest encounter with her at some point in her life.

I absolutely loved this! I felt like the author captured the essence of Janis. The information was clear and organized as well as luring.

I have to say, my Dad was such a big fan of musician Janis Joplin, and I wanted to read this story of her life as a tribute to them both.

I wasn’t too familiar prior to reading, about her life story, I only knew her infamous songs. I thoroughly enjoyed reading about her life in Texas and how she was such a rebel who played by her own rules.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Simon and Schuster for the free copy. All opinions are my own

Received a copy of this ebook in exchange for an honest review:
Janis Joplin has always fascinated me as a musician and as a women, she was ahead of her time and yet faced the same issues that so many performers of that day had and was ultimately cut short. Reading this gave me an insight into Janis in a way I had never explored before now.

LOVED this biography of Janis Joplin's life. First off, I love her music and artistry and I was so interested to learn about her as a person. So much of her childhood, personal relationships, and her entry into stardom is revealed. She was such a misunderstood young woman that sought to make her life her own, and she was able to through music. Amazing read, and would definitely recommend.

Read: 03/05/2020

Though I didn’t get the chance to download this book directly from NetGalley, I did want to thank the publisher and Netgalley for the opportunity and being chosen to read this.
I definitely was looking forward to read Janis, but unfortunately I missed my chance.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this. I will be posting a full review to Goodreads, Amazon, and Instagram.

Being a Texan and music lover, I thought I would love this biography of Janis Joplin. I have tried to read this book on and off for three months and I am giving up. It it just too dry to read. It’s disjointed and not very interesting. Hopefully I will go back and try to read it again someday as it does interest me, but for now I am putting it away.

Following her breakout performance at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967 Janis Joplin catapulted to stardom. Although it seemed like Joplin was an over night success, she cultivated her voice and singing style from an early age, mimicking classic blues performers such as Bessie Smith. But Joplin was plagued with a dark outlook on life that she held at bay with substance abuse.

In Janis: Her Life and Music, biographer Holly George-Warren thoroughly records the ups and downs of Joplin’s short life. Although Joplin perpetuated a myth of being a misunderstood and neglected child, her parents doted on her and accommodated her creative interests. Their influence showed in Joplin’s voice, which she inherited from her mother, and an intellectual curiosity and love of reading, which she learned from her father.

Janis (digital galley, Simon & Schuster) recounts Joplin’s rich life, from her youth in Port Arthur, Texas to her rise to fame in San Francisco with Big Brother and the Holding Company. While in high school in Port Arthur she frequented nearby Louisiana clubs where she heard R & B and “swamp pop music.”

After high school Joplin enjoyed fits of creative genius and her talents shone when she went to college in Austin, where she fell in with like minded musicians. But Joplin had recurring problems with drug and alcohol abuse and at times resorted to dealing and turning tricks to earn cash. Her journey eventually led to San Francisco where she explored her music and a wider array of drugs. She eventually joined Big Brother and the Holding Company, a band that, although not up to Joplin’s level of talent, helped launch here to stardom.

The well researched Janis gives performers, family and friends an opportunity to recount stories from Joplin’s life. With melancholy I read about her remarkable voice and performances that left audiences stunned, wondering what may have been. Joplin said she turned to heroin when “her feelings tormented her.” Unfortunately her life came to an end in 1970 with a fatal overdose.

This is the best book I have read on Janis, and I have read them all! Absolutely brilliant, it delves directly into what made Janis, Janis. A must read for all lovers of her music. Thank you NetGalley and Simon and Shuster Publishing for the galley. And thank you to Ms. George-Warren for writing this incredibly wonderful book! I have to say after reading this book, I feel I know Janis personally. Todays stars go to college and are educated in how to achieve status in rock and/or broadway. The artists in the 1960's just didn't have that knowledge. They were not educated in how to achieve and maintain success. Look at how many wonderful and talented artists died in the 27 club...Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, Janis, Tim Buckley, and more. They were doing what they knew by the seat of their pants. Thanks again for this book. Its makes me incredibly sad for all of them. Just think if they knew how to handle things, where they'd be today!

I am not a Janis Joplin fan by any means, but am a rock biography fan. I was constantly drawn to the riveting photo of Janis Joplin on this book's cover, and finally caved in to request an arc of this biography. Sometimes I enjoy reading a biography of a person I know next to nothing about, as is the case here.

This is a 400-page extensive biography tracking Janis Joplin's youth through her death in 1970 at the age of 27. She grew up in Port Arthur, Texas to parents Dorothy and Seth Joplin and with younger siblings Michael and Laura. She was sensitive, a deep thinker, avid reader, painter, and rebel/wild child. She connected with her father on an intellectual level having serious philosophical conversations with him. However, their relationship was inconsistent and sometimes they drifted apart. She displayed an early uninhibited nature by playing sports topless as a pre-teen in the street with her young male friends. She was always a square peg and was often teased and picked on in school. As a teenager in high school she was incessantly marked as being loose with the guys, even though she was actually a virgin. After so long being falsely accused of this, she eventually threw up her hands and adopted promiscuous ways.

Janis did go to a psychiatrist and psychologist while living in Port Arthur. She latched onto alcohol early on. Her parents couldn't keep her tethered to a cookie cutter normal lifestyle as they would wish. Janis would try attending various colleges on multiple occasions, but then drop out. In desperation, her mother came up with the idea of Janis attending a business school to learn accounting and typing with the goal of becoming a keypunch operator. Janis actually excelled with this and was sent to live with her mother's sister in Los Angeles where she found a job. However, Janis was lured by the easy atmosphere at Venice Beach, and later, San Francisco. Not only was she artistic in the way of being an amateur painter, but possessed other creative gifts such as her love of reading (which lent to her practice of letter writing) and the orgasmic release she felt from singing. Janis idolized soul singers such as Bessie Smith, "Big Mama" Thornton and Otis Redding, and began dabbling in performances at various locales.

Janis was very bold and courageous, taking risks to try to realize her dream of becoming famous. Everywhere she performed the audience would be blown away by the force of her performance. By all accounts, she left every bit of herself out there with each performance. One concert goer stated that she held back clapping after a couple of encores because she just didn't know how much more one person could be expected to give. Once she met up with the band known as "Big Brother and the Holding Company", they enthusiastically welcomed her into the fold. She considered herself part of this band, but everyone else focused particularly on her. Eventually, as the band catapulted to fame, journalists would only wish to interview Janis rather than the other members of the band.

Janis jumped into bed with fellow band members and enjoyed an endless array of other spontaneous intimate trysts- many with other music or entertainment celebrities. Unfortunately, one of her guitarists introduced her to heroin, which she became addicted to; it numbed her emotional pain. At one point before fame hit she dreamt of getting married with all the accoutrements like the white picket fence. As she was content for awhile biding time in her Port Arthur, Texas home with her parents and siblings, she focused on acquiring items for her marital home, while she waited in vein for a marriage that never came. She was betrayed by a man who lied about his financial, medical and romantic status, as he would continually produce excuses for stalling the marriage as he communicated from many miles away in New York.

The Big Brother and the Holding Company backing band was deemed sloppy and insufficient to Janis's lofty singing standards, but she considered them family and stalled divorcing herself from them. However, eventually the writing was on the wall and record executives demanded the change in order for Janis to achieve ultimate success.

I was muddling through this book until about a third of the way and actually considered abandoning it, but am very glad that I stuck with it. I became mesmerized by her fearless attack on life, where "anything goes" was the rule of the day. Janis even had several female intimate relationships, along with the plethora of heterosexual ones. Her heroin problem caused some people to leave her, but sometimes they would come back when Janis promised she was clean. She would have periods of abstinence from it, but there was always the alcohol. It was ultimately a hit of china white heroin (three times as strong as what she would usually use) that did her in, when no one was around to save her. This was a fascinating account of a supernova so intense that it couldn't help but burn out too soon. My favorite personal touch in the book was excerpts of her many letters written to her family. Her sister Laura Joplin provided access to these and many other artifacts such as Janis's performance clothing. Laura Joplin actually has her own book comprised of these letters called "Love, Janis" which I hope to one day read. However, this is a quality biography which I truly enjoyed. Even though I'm not a fan of her music, I still intend to check out some of her performances described in this book, since it clearly impressed so many others.

Oh Janis. We all know her music, we all love her, and we all think we know her. Reading this book helps provide so much insight into who she was that perhaps we can say “we know a little bit more about her now.”

This is not only a biography great for her fans, but great for anyone who loves the biography genre. Janis was a force to be reckoned with who came from a tough beginning in life. She gave the world a beautiful peek into her soul with her music, then she was gone too soon.

I loved this book and wish I could read it brand new all over again, but will have to read it all over again just now as brand new in my mind haha

I have always loved Janis Joplin's singing, I didn't really know much about her though. This book was very in-depth and informative, I appreciate her music all the more now that I have read this detailed look into her life. I thought the book was very well balance for a biography, lots of information but never dry or boring, it did a great job of describing the time and places of Joplin's life.

This book breathes life into the familiar rock star trope of hard work , success, drugs and death. You really get to know Janis and equally important the milieu in which she thrived particularly the avant garde San Francisco of the mid to late sixties. I grew up with Janis’ music but had no idea of where she came from and what type of person she was. I know now.