I picked this up at a thrift store 15 years after the one and only time I saw Ani live (1997). Though not an obsessive fan, I had somehow managed to acquire a ton of her albums in that time span, and her wordplay and scrappy wit have always impressed me. So I really wanted to love this book, but the author is an unabashed fanboy who freely admits to not writing objectively about her. It gets almost comical at times. Then again, there's lots of factual information about the hard road she's tread, especially in her early years in blue-collar Buffalo, NY. Definitely skim the book before buying to make sure it's up your alley. (And uh, I'm a guy an all, but I find it odd that a guy wrote this biog about a very feminist singer / songwriter / record label owner.) ( )