Age Group:
Adult

Genre:
Autobiography, Canadian, Non-Fiction

Summary:
In her revealing autobiography, multi-million dollar recording artist Shania Twain takes readers back to her humble beginnings in her hometown of Timmins, Ontario. Twain chronicles her earliest years, beginning with her troubling, poverty-afflicted childhood and following her slow but progressive rise to fame.

Twain is raw and unapolegetic, sharing with the reader her parents’ abusive relationship, the often horrific conditions her and her siblings lived in, and the untimely death of both her parents in a tragic car accident. Twain even shares with us the betrayal of her 14-year long marriage to Mutt Lange and how she learned to love again. A Canadian icon, Twain’s memoir is as much a celebration of her struggles as it is of her huge and unexpected international success.

My Thoughts:
Enthralling from the start, Shania’s earliest years are the most captivating in From This Moment On. And wow, what a childhood it was! Living with domestic violence in substandard conditions and being moved from house-to-house, Shania shares with us a life of instability, poverty and deep dysfunctionality. Shania certainly worked like a dog for her much earned success and unlike many other pop artists, did not reach fame until her late twenties.

The first half of this book is certainly the best and it was hard to put down. Twain is a surprisingly good writer. The feel of Canadian culture, especially those cold Canadian winters, really hit home with me. I felt the book did lag a little in the second half, when Shania starts experiencing mainstream success, but overall this did not detract from the readibility of the book.

Fans of Shania and her music will certainly be interested to learn more about the life of this Canadian icon. Borrow From This Moment On from your local Vaughan library today!