Product Description

The long-awaited songbook of poems and lyrics, penned by one of the most acclaimed music artists of her time, Alicia Keys, is finally here for her throngs of fans. When she burst onto the scene, Alicia's years of intensive classical piano study and musical schooling paid off with over 12 million copies of her two albums sold, a huge international fan base, and an arena tour with female musical contemporaries, Beyoncé and Missy Elliot. Her talent has been rewarded with nine Grammy Awards (including Best New Artist), four American Music Awards, two MTV Video Music Awards, a Billboard Award, and two Soul Train Awards.

Though Alicia has been very vocal through her career, there were always "delicate thoughts" that she never before imagined she'd share with anyone else-until now. Alicia Keys opens the journals and notebooks that she has kept throughout her life, documenting her growth as a person, a woman, and an artist, and reveals her heart to her fans in return for all the love they have shown to her and her music.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #392599 in Books
• Published on: 2004-11
• Released on: 2004-11-04
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 192 pages

From Publishers Weekly
No doubt Keys has a fascinating story to tell—raised by a single mother, she's a classically trained, New York born-and-bred neo-soulster with two multiplatinum albums and five Grammys to her name—but she merely hints at it in this gathering of poems and lyrics. With their themes of loneliness, confusion, wonder and desire, most of Keys's free-verse poems could be the cris de coeur of any American 20-something: "Sometimes I feel/ like I don't belong anywhere/ And it's going to take so long/ for me to get somewhere/ Sometimes I feel so heavy-hearted/ but I can't explain/ cause I'm so guarded." But other poems hint at her world travels, her budding sense of social justice and her concerns about stardom ("When gone is the glory/ When gone is the shine/ Is gone the whole/ Of your fortune and pride?"). Nearly half of the book consists of lyrics from her two albums, Songs in A Minor and The Diary of Alicia Keys; while they make a nice complement to the poems, the words feel a bit flat without the blaxploitation beat of "Heartburn," say, or the impassioned vocal delivery of "Fallin.' " For the Keys completist, however, this will be a compelling book of rock ephemera.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From School Library Journal
Adult/High School–Keys has sold millions of copies of her CDs and has won multiple Grammy Awards. Here, she shares the lyrics from these discs, as well as a collection of poems from her journals and notebooks. After several of the poems, she offers readers glimpses of her mindset and inspiration for her writings. Sadly, these poems read like what they are–journal entries from a young woman–and they don't have great insight or clever wordplay. (There's no "moon/June" here, but there is "cry/die" and "cry/goodbye" and "cry/fly.") Even her song lyrics, so powerful when accompanied with lush piano arrangements, come across as banal when unadorned with instrumentation. However, both their creator and their subject matter will give these simple selections immense appeal with a teen audience. The writer talks about insecurities, personal growth, loneliness, and love–good, bad, long-distance, and unrequited. These topics are the stuff of creative writing projects. Like Ashanti's Foolish/Unfoolish (Hyperion, 2002), Keys's poems will attract her fans and perhaps encourage them to explore poetry.–Jamie Watson, Harford County Public Library, MD
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review
...Keys gives your heart a tug without the subsequent eye roll. -- Marie Claire, December 2004

Customer Reviews

Mediocre Poetry and Lyrics Have More Power When Sung
I am an Alicia Keys fan. I love this girl, so I was VERY excited when this book came out. However, her poetry is of the level of things I was writing about when I was 13. The thoughts are often shallow musings pretending to be deep. "Something in your eyes/Is tortured", sounds almost promising, right? Then she continues on with "something is wrong (ya think?)/And it's hurting me." DAMN, Alicia, you had me thinking I would get some deep thoughts for a second there. The metaphors she uses are often trite and some just plain don't work. Also, it's great to have the lyrics to her songs in book form, but without her delivery and fiery piano playing, these lyrics lose their luster. Alicia has writing of greater caliber than this in her head, for proof just check some of her "journal" entries at her official site. I don't know what went wrong with this book. At least it wasn't as bad as T-Boz''s "Thoughts".

Buy It If You Choose
I wasn't really a big Alicia Keys fan when she came out back in 2001 but when I seen her last year in concert she blew me away & I start getting more into her..She is very talented however I felt like her book could have been better..Even tho I haven't finished reading the whole thing from what I have read her poems seem to be okay..Its nothing special about them in my opinion..Like when I'm reading something I expect to feel what the person is going through reading Alicia's poems I didn't feel that..Her poems are good & shes a great writer just expected a lil more from this book & I still don't get why she put her lyrics from both of her albums in the book that just didn't make sense to me, but buy it if you choose its not a bad book just not really to exciting either overall I give it 4 stars..

The Soul of Alicia Keys...
I have been looking forward to the release of this book, and I have to say that I was one of the first people in the bookstore when this book came out. It was WELL worth the wait. You can really relate to and feel all the emotion that Alicia put into her poems and lyrics. With the explainations of what she was going through at the time and the way she put her words together, you almost feel as if you are there with her. This book is worth every penny I paid for it. This book grabs you in right at the introduction. In this book, she lets you into her most personal and private thoughts & feelings. You think you know, but you have no idea... This is the real Diary of Alicia Keys.

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