Marilyn & Me : Sisters, Rivals, Friends

Rating:
Summary: Revealing book!
Review: I really enjoyed reading this Book,Marilyn as seen from another's perspective, in this case a young Susan Strasberg.
It wasn't hard to understand how Susan could feel at once so jelous and insecure around marilyn, yet seek her approval and friendship. Ignored by her own parents in favor of her surrogate sister Marilyn, Susan recounts all her conflicting emotions during that time in her Life.
I found her recollection of her affair with Richard Burton equally interesting, as well as a closer Look at Paula Strasberg and her relationship with marilyn.
This is a good read for any Marilyn fan...a different Look at the Legend.

Rating:
Summary: A Look at Marilyn and Me
Review: This book contains many of the essential keys to understanding Marilyn Monroe. Although told through the eyes of another actress, it focuses more on Marilyn rather than Susan Strasberg. The best part of the book, to me, was how they first met. It also shows that Marilyn Monroe was in a way a normal woman with many insecurities and sometimes just as scared as all of us sometimes are. It was good that someone so close to her could write a book looking back at not only her as being a legend, but someone we could relate to. I have read many books on Marilyn Monroe, but I don't think any of the books I read so far actually helped me to understand her point of view as this book did.

Rating:
Summary: Better than most MM biographies
Review: Why do I like this better than most MM biographies? Strasberg actually knew MM. So many authors, like Norman Mailer among many others, didn't even know her and that makes their biographies debatable in terms of accuracy. Sometimes Strasberg does go into too much depth about her complex feelings about MM, but there are antedotes that have never been published before. Now that Stasberg is sadly deceased, this book becomes even more valuable because this is her last words on MM. However, I do think "Conversations with Marilyn" by Weatherby is a much more revealing book; Weatherby also knew MM. (See my review of that book if this interests you.)