CW: trauma
The Meaning of Mariah Carey by Mariah Carey with Michaela Angela Davis is a celebrity memoir that shares the life of Mariah Carey, and I learned a lot about Mariah and her childhood in this book that I didn't know about her before. This was the January pick for The Stacks Book Club on the podcast, and I'm really glad that I got to listen to the conversation with Chelsea Devantez because it was so interesting. The Spare conversation in the middle is also super interesting for all of my royal family fans out there!
I don't read a lot of celebrity memoirs, so this is a book that I wouldn't have picked up myself without the podcast. However, I found that this one was well-written by the ghostwriter and told the story of Mariah in a way that I wanted to keep reading. It starts from Mariah's childhood and goes up to present day, which is the beginning of 2020, as that is when the book was published.
I didn't know that Mariah Carey had faced such a traumatic childhood and first marriage with Tommy Mottola. As I was reading, I was in disbelief because seeing all of the manipulation Mariah endured from Tommy and his controlling behaviors toward her was shocking, honestly. I learned a lot about Mariah, and I have such a greater appreciation for her now that I didn't have before.
Mariah's struggle with race and identifying as Black was something I found really interesting. I found that seeing how Mariah leaned on her dad's side of her family and how she wanted to lean on her Blackness, but her white classmates would call her the N word and didn't include her because of her identity was something that Mariah was constantly grappling with.
I *loved* all of the songs that were inserted into the book. I didn't listen to the audiobook, but Mariah narrates it and sings the songs while she reads it, which must be such an amazing listening/reading experience. I also liked seeing what was happening behind the scenes of her greatest albums and the inspiration behind some of her songs. My favorite was learning that "All I Want for Christmas is You" was simply Mariah wanting to have a "normal" family Christmas and being entranced in the magic of the holiday season.
Have you read The Meaning of Mariah Carey? I'd love to start a conversation in the comments section!
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