Thank you Grand Central for the gifted book that I read partnered with the library audio.

The voices of Loretta and her peers are part of the soundtrack of my childhood. But I never knew too much about their back stories. Which made this read fascinating. Loretta Lynn was a bride at 14 and had 4 kids by 18, was a grandmother at 29 and also became a country music legend. Listening to Sissy Spacek narrate this audiobook felt very much like Loretta herself was just sitting in a rocking chair and telling me her story. It feels a bit all over the place, but that also feels just right. After I finished the book I told someone, Loretta Lynn may be one of the most naïve celebrities that there has ever been. She is very honest about her lack of schooling, her complicated marriage, and the things that have taken her by surprise as she has navigated her career. This book felt a bit like a time capsule into yesteryear as it is definitely a relic of when it was originally written (1976). Loretta is an interesting mix of old fashioned and progressive in her views, especially for the time in which she had them. This book was updated, but I would also be interested in seeing a sequel to this book to read Loretta's take on her life from the 70s until today.

Though I've seen the movie countless times I've never the read the autobiography that inspired the movie. Though I'm familiar with the song and the song and Loretta's music made up the soundtrack of my childhood. You could basically say I've been a Loretta Lynn fan since before birth. So I knew that it was time to read the book and I got to say while the movie was good it didn't do the book justice, its so much better.

This book was amazing!! I remember watching the movie when I was a little girl and after that I was obsessed with Loretta Lynn and her music. This was a must buy and I had to rewatch the movie!!

Loretta Lynn was born in the hills of Eastern Kentucky and lived a very poverty-stricken life before coming into fame. Although the book was originally written in 1976 when Loretta was 41, you can still get a glimpse of that life of being a coal miners daughter through the way her story is told.

Now, I'm a Kentuckian myself and I do have a specific accent/dialect, but I do not speak the way Loretta speaks in her book. Don't get me wrong. I guess I can if I try hard enough, but for the most part I don't, or I think I don't. I feel she continued to speak like this way at 41 came from her being raised during that specific time period and being mildly educated as well, so I had to keep that in mind as I was reading. Then again Loretta is authentic and I appreciated her delivering this in her book.

In her memoir she talks about how she came into fame and it wasn't an overnight sensation. Loretta put in a lot of hard work, pounding the pavement from show after show, and her husband, Doo, put in a lot of hard work as well. She talks about the country singers that inspired her when country music was just getting started.

Thank you to Netgalley and Grand Central Publishing for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review. I enjoyed and appreciated learning about a legend from my home state in addition to some Kentucky heritage as well.

Coal Miner's Daughter
by Loretta Lynn; George Vescey
Grand Central Publishing
Biographies & Memoirs
Pub Date 16 Feb 2021


I am reviewing a copy of Coal Miner’s Daughter through Grand Central Publishing and Netgalley:


Coal Miners Daughter was Reissued for the 40th Anniversary of the Oscar-winning, Sissy Spacek-starring film of the same name. The Coal Miner’s Daughter tells the astonishing journey of Loretta Lynn’s road to become one of the original queens of country music. Loretta grew up dirt poor in the mountains of Kentucky, she was married when she was only thirteen, came a Mother a short time after. When she was twenty four her her husband, Doo, gave her a guitar as an anniversary present.




Soon after Doo gave her the guitar as a gift , she began penning songs and singing in front of honky-tonk audiences, and, through years of hard work, talent, and true grit, eventually made her way to Nashville, the Grand Ole Opry, eventually securing her place in country music history. Loretta's prolific and influential songwriting made her the first woman to receive a gold record in country music, and got her named the first female Entertainer of the Year by the Country Music Association.





If you are looking for an inspiring biography about one of Country Music’s greatest female artist of all time, I highly recommend Coal Miner’s Daughter.



I give Coal Miner’s Daughter five out of five stars!


Happy Reading!

When I was younger, I would often stay with my great aunt on a weekend and she would play the oldies on this crackly little radio in her kitchen. Jim Reeves, Eddy Arnold, Nat King Cole, Patsy Cline, and, of course, Loretta Lynn.

I was always fascinated with Lynn. The fact that she was married at 14 (!) and that she clawed herself up from rural poverty. She could not read or write very well, so she just picked up a guitar and started singing her songs, learned them by heart. When I first heard “The Pill” and pictured this 5’2 southern housewife singing about her sexual freedom, divorce, and faking orgasms to a very conservative 1970s bible belt, I thought she was a hero.

I learned a more nuanced picture over the years. Some of her beliefs are strongly feminist, while others are quite jarringly dated. More recently, to my dismay, she’s been an outspoken Trump supporter. I know I don't get to be surprised that a country singer from rural Kentucky supported Trump, but I can still be disappointed.

Still, her life is quite unbelievable. Because she couldn’t read or write well, she recorded this book on tapes, and George Vecsey transcribed it, leaving in a lot of her vernacular. It feels like Lynn is talking directly to you, which is probably why some others found it badly-written. I really enjoyed the style, though. It added a unique flair that was all Lynn.

This memoir was hard to put down, and it helps a lot that Lynn has just had a very eventful life. Married so young, having six kids, losing her best friend Patsy Cline in a plane crash, and being a seemingly down-to-earth person thrust into the chaos of fame.

She had a lot of radical views for the time and place she was performing in. Some of her views country singers would not dare voice even today. Take this:

I don’t think I could have an abortion. It would be wrong for me. But I’m thinking of all the poor girls who get pregnant when they don’t want to be, and how they should have a choice instead of leaving it up to some politician or doctor who don’t have to raise the baby. I believe they should be able to have an abortion.


She wrote a lot about women and what it's like to have to deal with shitty husbands who cheat and come home drunk. Still, though, she does defend her own husband, Doolittle, a lot in this book, and I'm not sure he deserves it. I know it was a whole different time, but I found it harder to forgive him.

Lynn also spoke out against women who would drag each other down to get to the top. She believed women should work together and make space for each other, instead of treating each other as enemies:

I can remember Patsy Cline and Kitty Wells standing up for me when I came along. So Olivia Newton-John, when you come to Nashville, you give me a call, and I’ll help you any way I can. There’s room for all of us, honey.


I've been meaning to read this book for years, and I'm glad I finally did it. A fascinating portrait of a very fascinating artist.

A real classic ! I’m excited to see a new edition of this, I had read an old paperback as a kid but had wanted to read it again. A real glimpse into a way of life not many know anymore. A slice of the American dream.

I read this many many years ago, and this felt like comfort. Lovely book.

Thanks to author, publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book. While I got the book for free, it had no bearing on the rating I gave it.

This book is a reprint of the 1976 original autobiography of Loretta Lynn. There is additional new information at the back of the book. It also shows that there were a lot of differences between the movie (at least what I can remember of it) and what indeed occurred.

I must admit that I didn't really know anything about this artist until I watched the movie back in the 1980's. I have always love "Coal Miner's Daughter" and the movie, so I took a chance with this book. I'm so glad I did because it shows a deeper side of Loretta, her music, and her relationship with Doolittle. I can't always s get behind Loretta's outlook on marriage, but then again, I'm not an 88-year-old woman who was born before the depression and married at 13!

I love looking at the lives of the people in the hollers, how they survived, and how they Loretta dealt with them as she rose in the record industry.

I recommend this book to anyone who loves that intense country music, who wants to learn more about the industry at that time, or wants to know more about some other artists that Loretta adored...or even liked the movie!

*ARC supplied by the publisher, author, and NetGalley. Thank you.

I actually read this book a long time ago for a project that I did on Loretta Lynn. I loved this updated version to celebrate our country queen. Her story is one of extremely humble beginnings to a humble adulthood which is beautiful. She is a country music icon and I love this book. I can't wait for the new edition to hit stands.