From This Moment On

Shania has done a phenomenal job documenting her life story. On the audio cds, she reads the opening and closing chapters. Always warm and genuine, it's great to listen to her read her own words. After reading the book & also listening to the audio cds, I do think the cds have had some minor details omitted. There were just a few little things I remembered reading in the book that I don't recall being read out on the cds. *It's just a few minor details - nothing much. If you get the book, the main, extra bonus is that you get many beautiful photographs. If you choose the audio cds, the added bonus is getting to hear The One-and-Only Shania read - & you can listen whilst driving etc! Or, just buy both like I did. As for the story itself, it has had a significant impact on my life, it is a 'life-changing' book in many ways. Shania/Eileen/Woody (or "Shanileen" lol, just made that up), has shown her purity, honesty, bravery & integrity throughout the whole of this book. I'm so glad she wrote it herself - & not some music industry hobknob guessing & assuming info. She must be so proud of this wonderful, highly impactful & inspiring book. It rocks. Now if you'll excuse me, I gotta go figure out a way to get to her show in Vegas. ...perhaps a lamington sale? chook raffle?...pony rides? ;-) Mrs. Janine Paynter - Adelaide, Australia.

Before reading this book, I didn't know too much about Shania(or Eileen) Twain except 3-4 of her hit songs. Picked it up because of the outstanding reviews and I enjoy reading biographies of people I don't know too much about to gain different perspectives about them and their professions/lifestyles. Having read about the lives of so many people, I can honestly say Shania's biography is one of the most touching, heartbreaking and heartwarming ones I've ever read. She is truly a survivor and shows what it really means to have perseverance. She went from someone I knew nothing about to one of the most respected people in the world to me. Honestly it doesn't matter who you are, what your background is, this book is 100% worth picking up and reading through, and re-reading as a reminder and to give you hope that if you ever come across hard times in your life that things will get better in big ways. Keep on keepin' on Shania! You are a true role model in every meaning of the word! ***edit: additional comments*** I just recently found out about and watched Shania Twain's miniseries on Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) called "Why Not?" This is the perfect documentary to watch if you have already read the book. It's also only six 1 hour episodes, so not very time consuming. It basically follows her around for the last half of the 2010 year and the beginning of the 2011 year. Shania is on a journey to find her voice again and overcome all her demons and fears from the past about going on stage. It's very touching and heartwarming, and makes me respect her even more. I will definitely be going to watch her show at Ceaser's Palace in Vegas when it is out. If you have read this book, I highly recommend you to watch this 6 hr documentary as well!

I devoured this book. The book is riveting and so well written. The honesty with which Shania writes about her life is searing and eye opening. This is a woman who has survived a lot of hardships, but has come out stronger on the other side. I had no doubt that this book would be thoughtfully written, as she is a talented song writer. Her writing is matter of fact and not salacious in any way, but very revealing. I found it very disturbing to read the other reviews that criticized her way of writing about her parents with such compassion, though she grew up with poverty, abuse and too much adult responsibility thrust upon her at an early age. Family relationships are complicated and filled with a lot of gray areas, even if you consider your family to be "typical" or "normal". I think she handled herself unbelievable well as a child given the unstable and dysfunctional environment she was born into. And it is clear that though she knows her parents were not perfect, she loved them nonetheless. All of these people who are critical of her for this need to ask themselves if they were able to turn off the love they feel for people in their lives who mistreated, neglected, manipulated or even abused them in their lives. If they are honest with themselves, they will admit that these people are probably still part of their lives in some capacity. Whether it is a friend you can't rely on or a parent who knows all the right buttons to push and mean words to say to make you feel guilty about something in order to control you or a sibling who constantly takes advantage of you. And the list goes on and on. I was also quite impressed with the way she explained the inner workings of the music industry and how she was able to come to terms with her success once she became famous. This was illuminating for me as I read how well she articulated her feelings without coming across as "poor, famous celebrity". Many regular people like me have this idea that once you are rich and famous, you have MORE freedom and anything that you have to give up in the way of being a "regular person" is a small price to pay for money, accolades, adoration, special treatment, glamour and anything else positive that comes with it. When I read the part in the book about what a daily itinerary was like for her when promoting her album I was in disbelief. Or the schedule that she kept while working and touring. I have to admit that when I see my favorite artists performing or see them giving interviews, I picture it all as them having fun doing what they do 24/7. I had no idea about all the hard work, loneliness, isolation and sacrifice that comes with trying to get famous and then stay on top. What real problems could these people possibly have? Well it turns out that they have the same problems we do mixed in with ones we could not even imagine or fathom how to deal with. And pressure that we will never know. No wonder so many Hollywood marriages fail. No wonder there are so many certifiably crazy, drug addicted out of control celebrities out there. It is a miracle than anyone famous can keep a firm grip on reality. And I think that is why it is so endearing to learn about someone you admire who is famous continually striving to keep their life as normal as humanly possible. It is hard to have compassion for someone that you feel has a life that is much easier that yours. Easy is a relative term. But as we have seen countless times with many famous, beautiful, talented and adored celebrities, NONE of these things make you exempt from the pain that life brings on all of us. Getting through life unscathed is impossible. When reading this book, I was also watching Shania's show "Why not?" on OWN, which really delves into the breakdown of her marriage, the betrayal she experienced and how she was getting her life back on track. When I saw her emotions as opposed to reading them on the page with regard to her marriage breaking up, I was able to better understand how this kind of betrayal nearly broke her. Everyone thinks that they would never be blindsided by such a thing. Some people know in their gut that they are being lied to and some people are really so out of touch with their lives that they never see it coming at all. Most people believe that they would immediately leave and never look back. Most people believe that they would not want the person who betrayed them back. The point is you don't have any real idea what you would do when faced with such pain and how low your mind can take you in order to escape going through the pain. The harsh criticism she is receiving is unfair and unwarranted. None of us have all the answers so why should she? She is figuring things out as she goes along just like everybody else and she is beyond brave and truly open for showing this, because she believes that any negative response she will receive from doing this pales in comparison to the insight it will give to other people. I applaud her strength for doing this b/c I would not have the courage to let other people who I don't know or trust see my struggles, insecurities and human frailty. This book will help people understand who Shania really is as well as help people who will identify with certain aspects of her life. Even if you are not a fan of Shania, I think anyone who is introspective and curious about life and how you can move forward with hope even after terrible things have happened will enjoy this book. It made me look at a lot of things from a different perspective for sure. I think Shania can be extremely proud of this book, her life and her career. I am so glad that she is experiencing happiness in her life and I look forward to seeing what she does next.

love it!

Shania Twain sin duda es de más más reconocidas cantantes de la historia, este libro narrado desde su perspectiva nos cuenta los inicios de Eileen (su nombre real) al cabo de sus primeros años. Nos relata la historia de abuso que sufrió de niña, el maltrato de su padre hacia sí madre, la pobreza que vivieron y la tragedia de perder a sus padres y hacerse cargo de sus hermanos menores después de esto. Cuenta detallamente la historia de como fue descubierta y su camino al éxito al lado de su ex esposo Mutt Lange, así como detalles de su matrimonio y las razones que la hicieron terminar dicha relación . Esperaba más detalles de capítulos de su historia y el éxito de sus discos, tal vez anécdotas divertidas en tour y demás, o ultimada mente la razón por la cual perdió durante un tiempo su voz. Esta bien escrito pero siento que hubo detalles que en realidad no fueron necesarios y otros más interesantes que dejo fuera. Libro completamente en inglés. Llego sin daños por parte de Amazon.

Amazing story of an incredible woman. Its extremely well written, can't put this down. Its heartbreaking and beautiful at the same time. How she found such strength and compassion through so much. I knew she was poor growing up, but didn't know it was that bad. She is truly inspiring.

I have been a fan of Shania Twain ever since I first heard Any Man of Mine. I think I found her more relatable and any other celebrity because like me she grew up in Northern Ontario. Her childhood stories of bitter cold winters, walking in knee deep (or deeper) snow, the old tongue on metal that is a rite of passage of any Canadian. What appealed to me the most was her stories of tree planting as I grew up on an MNR (Ministry of Natural Resources) tree nursery, right around the same time that the Twain family were running their business. Hearing the stories and even seeing the pictures brought back memories of several yellow school buses full of people coming from all over to harvest trees to be shipped out to be planted in the forest. Reading these stories made Shania feel less like a star and more like a real person to me. I found it brave to of her to write so honestly about her life. It wasn't always pretty, and was often nasty, but in the end she did triumph. I found this book hard to put down at times because it was so engaging. Even though we all know the story, it was nice to hear the events coming from the person who actually lived through them and not just second or third hand stories passed on. I admire her courage for writing this story, and her courage for getting through the tough times in her life and I found inspiration in it for my own times of difficulty that made it a most enjoyable read.

For someone to come from such adversity and then to become so successful is truly inspiring. She is such a lovely person and I thoroughly enjoyed her remarkable story.