Tori Amos: Piece by Piece

I bought this book when it first came out and haven't had the occasion to re-read it since, but it contains great insight to both Tori's personal life and the music business. I love the way it is written (dialogue style because the interviewer and interviewee were communicating through email) and really enjoyed the anecdotes about certain songs.

This is an excellent book. Not only do you get perspectives from Tori herself, but also from those closest to her, and Ann who presents a very different view. It was enlightening and emotional to read about her three miscarriages, particularly her second most traumatic and most heart renching. She also provides insight into her break up with Atlantic Records. Finally, she provides insights into songs and the music industry that are unique and enlightening, including tips to the budgeoning musician. But she also provides wisdom for those of us struggling to understand life and constantly working on developing ourselves. There are several places I recorded exceprts into my journal to reflect and meditate on. A very good read.

You'd think the life of a talented famous musician would be easy and full of luxury. While Tori enjoys her life, she works INCREDIBLY hard!! She describes constantly writing songs, even if it's just a few words, or a few bars of melody. She does this wherever she is. Plus she deals with the record labels, the lawyers, the touring, the book writing, raising a daughter.... She is an amazing woman; someone who sees the world and thinks about it differently than most. Every song has a deep meaning to her, and she views them as "Sonic Beings" that she, the instrument, brings to the world. From the book, I can tell she is a good friend to everyone in her life. She treats her crew as best as she can, and she gives her musicians the liberty to play as they feel, not as she commands. She can also be tough as nails when there is something threatening her music or her tour. While, as a Christian, I may not agree with her theology, I found it so interesting how she drew power from various archetypes and "gods and goddesses". If you love Tori's music, and you want to know where it all comes from, and what circumstances in her life influenced it, you MUST read this book. I couldn't put it down. I finished it in 3 days. Some paragraphs I read 4 or 5 times. Her last record label said she was getting "too old". I hope she's still up there on stage, or at least putting out music when she's 80!!!

Covering different topics, Tori discusses Mary Magdalene, motherhood, the music business, etc. It's not written in the traditional novel format. It is divided into chapters by topic, but each chapter is written in paragraphs either narrated by Tori, or by Anne & Tori, or by those who know Tori. When reading this book, I felt like I was sitting around a table with these people just having conversations. Very laid back and honest...Includes beautiful pictures, some colour, some black and white.I would recommend this book for any fellow admirers.

Quite a journey it was,reading Tori's new book. A great and powerfully enlightning one I must say. Wow. First let me say that I feel I know a lot about Tori, being that she is my absolute favorite artist.I like every Tori fan have my sacred collection of albums, feel natural euphoria at her concerts, and have a fervent devotion to her and her work. I also have the same sun sign, fertility issues, and way with truthful words that disturbs people sometimes. Also concerning the fertility issue I think this book would be great in a women's studies course. It is an exceptional profile of inner emotions of not only a physical self, but emotional one. It is powerfully feminine and brutally honest feminine. It is her masculine side acknowledged that makes the feminist side of it even that much more powerful. That's a whole other review though. So.--- She is a rarity in music. She is iconic without being ms. popular, she is visionary and superbly talented in a music world that doesn't value that. My god, that is a definite atrocity. People seem to connect to her energy, especially "strange little girls", girls like myself who are in touch with art, both sides of sexuality, and are quite literate. Why does that make us strange???!!! Anyways-so I felt I would be able to understand her every word like it was my own. As chapters flew I was shocked to find maybe I didn't really know as well I had previously thought. At first it felt weird, then it became refreshing, after that just thrilling. What I'm trying to get at, is it served it's purpose. Like Ann Powers states it is not an autobiography. It really is more a glimpse inside Tori's soul, her essence. That is one of the best gifts a fan could receive. It is deeper than a autobiography/bio. It is something to treasure. I wish more women were tapped into the creative undercurrent like Tori. Just becasue we can't see it, doesn't mean it isn't there. She is too honest for modern day people. She confronts what many don't and she begins to look like an alien freak to even the freaks. That is unfortunate, but also telling, for she is a shaman of sorts, if only(unfortunately) to the wine drinking, myth-loving, knowlege-seeking, sexual, perversely great men and women who adore her. Every time she speaks, even a sentence holds more education, wisdom, and history than George Bush and all who voted for him could even conjure in a thesis. AND-you get 348 pages of this. Buy it and pass it on......