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Unfinished: A Memoir
Goodreads Choice Award
Nominee for Readers' Favorite Memoir & Autobiography (2021)8 hours, 31 minutes
In this thoughtful and revealing memoir, readers will accompany one of the world’s most recognizable women on her journey of self-discovery.
“I have always felt that life is a solitary journey, that we are each on a train, riding through our hours, our days, our years. We get on alone, we leave alone, and the decisions we make as we travel on the train are our responsibility alone. . . .”
A remarkable life story rooted in two different worlds, Unfinished offers insights into Priyanka Chopra Jonas’s childhood in India; her formative teenage years in the United States; and her return to India, where against all odds as a newcomer to the pageant world, she won the national and international beauty competitions that launched her global acting career. Whether reflecting on her nomadic early years or the challenges she has faced as she has doggedly pursued her calling, Priyanka shares her challenges and triumphs with warmth and honesty. The result is a book that is philosophical, sassy, inspiring, bold, and rebellious. Just like the author herself.
From her dual-continent twenty-year-long career as an actor and producer to her work as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, from losing her beloved father to cancer to marrying Nick Jonas, Priyanka Chopra Jonas’s story will inspire a generation around the world to gather their courage, embrace their ambition, and commit to the hard work of following their dreams.
In this thoughtful and revealing memoir, readers will accompany one of the world’s most recognizable women on her journey of self-discovery.
“I have always felt that life is a solitary journey, that we are each on a train, riding through our hours, our days, our years. We get on alone, we leave alone, and the decisions we make as we travel on the train are our responsibility alone. . . .”
A remarkable life story rooted in two different worlds, Unfinished offers insights into Priyanka Chopra Jonas’s childhood in India; her formative teenage years in the United States; and her return to India, where against all odds as a newcomer to the pageant world, she won the national and international beauty competitions that launched her global acting career. Whether reflecting on her nomadic early years or the challenges she has faced as she has doggedly pursued her calling, Priyanka shares her challenges and triumphs with warmth and honesty. The result is a book that is philosophical, sassy, inspiring, bold, and rebellious. Just like the author herself.
From her dual-continent twenty-year-long career as an actor and producer to her work as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, from losing her beloved father to cancer to marrying Nick Jonas, Priyanka Chopra Jonas’s story will inspire a generation around the world to gather their courage, embrace their ambition, and commit to the hard work of following their dreams.
256 pages, Audiobook
First published February 9, 2021
962 people are currently reading
16976 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,275 reviews
November 6, 2022
I was excited when I heard the news that the lady whose ambition was world domination and who excelled in almost everything she did was going to write a memoir. Did she live up to all our expectations?
Priyanka Chopra is a name that needs no introduction. She won the Miss World completion in 2000 and successfully built a career in Tinseltown and its Indian avatar without a godfather. She was recently in the news due to her marriage to the American singer Nick Jonas. It was almost impossible to succeed for a young girl in the Indian film industry at that time without any godfathers, as the Hindi film industry was in the cruel hands of nepotism. Almost everyone on the silver screen was related to one another. Priyanka, with her sheer determination and hard work, carved a space of her own.
What I liked in this book
There were some areas which require special mention. Some parts of Priyanka's childhood are mentioned touchingly. The way she felt about loneliness when she was sent to a hostel at a very young age is something that most of us will relate to. How she discussed bullying that she had to endure when she was studying in Massachusetts and how she mentioned the effects of bullying on children's psychology are also something praiseworthy. The topic of racism and how people made fun of her dark skin color, and how she dealt with them are also areas worth reading. Her courage to acknowledge and discuss her disappointing music career is also applaudable.
The part I liked the most in this book is the chemistry between the author and her parents. She wonderfully portrays her relationship with her parents. How she dealt with her father's final days and how she dealt with the depression are also discussed in detail in this book.
Dramatic and problematic parts of this book
If I write all the problems in this book, the Goodreads 15,000 word limit won't be enough for this review. So I will try to point out some vital things which I didn't like in it.
1) The author's attempt to make her story a sob story
Priyanka Chopra was born in Jamshedpur. But that doesn't give her the liberty to call herself a small-town girl who made it big despite the obstacles in a rag to riches sort of way. Both her parents were physicians in the Indian Army. Being a Doctor myself and also born in a family of Doctors, I clearly know the privileges Doctor's children have in India. Her family was posted in most of the big cities in India like Delhi, Chandigarh, Ambala, Lucknow, Pune, etc., and her childhood was in these big cities. Moreover, she went to some of the best schools in India. At the age of 13, she shifted to the USA and also had a great education there.
How can we call her a small-town girl despite her living in the big cities for most of her life, having education from the best institutions, and enjoying all the privileges? Is it to get the reader's sympathy or make herself the hustle culture pioneer for showing everyone that she made it big without any privileges (when she clearly had many). The number of prerogatives she had in her early life due to being a prodigy in an affluent family was very high compared to any other average Indian child.
I am not saying that she was profligate with her privileges. In fact, she indeed grabbed all these opportunities with both hands and made the most out of them, unlike many others who squandered it. The problem lies where she promulgates in a way that she was a girl from a rustic small town who made it big despite all the difficulties without getting privileges.
The author's prosaic attempt to craft a sob story has made this memoir a plaintive one with a plethora of platitudes. But don't expect her to make it poignant to any extend.
2) Her modeling career
This book is expected to become a bible for all the youngsters who plan to make it big in the modeling career and the beauty pageants. But sadly, there is a high chance that it will work the other way around and demotivates them and make them discard their modeling career as a whole. It is because the author was neither honest nor revealing anything new about her modeling career.
Priyanka tells us that she always wanted to be an aeronautical engineer and modeling was never under the radar. She mentions that her mother and her brother sent her modeling pictures to the Miss India competition. If she never wanted to be a model, then how did her mother get her modeling photos? How many aeronautical engineering aspirants in India who don't have any ambition in modeling will take modeling photos? This shows us that Priyanka wanted to be a model and famous from her early days itself, but she was not ready to acknowledge it honestly in this book. Moreover, she doesn't tell us in-depth about her journey to become Miss World. There is nothing new written here apart from what we already know from the magazines, the internet, and her interviews.
What went wrong here?
There are two possible explanations.
1) The author's poor writing skills restricted her from expressing herself truly.
2) She might have had time constraints and wanted to finish the book soon before the deadline, which restricted her from going into depth about one of the significant achievements of her career.
Whatever the reason may be, the author missed a golden opportunity to inspire the younger generation by showing them the right path to success. She instead sounded like a silly teenage school girl proclaiming that she topped the exams just because of her extraordinary brainpower and never did any hard work when actually she studied for more than 10 hours a day. This approach will harm the younger generation than helping them.
3) Her acting career
There were many Miss World's and Miss Universe's from India. But nobody had a successful movie career after it, like Aiswarya Rai and Priyanka Chopra. So when a memoir comes from Priyanka, we expect a lot about her silver screen journey. But, this part is the biggest disappointment of this book. Apart from mentioning a couple of bad experiences from a Director and a Producer, a few of her movie experiences, and some good deeds from Hrithik Roshan and Salman Khan, there is no other vital information about her journey in the Hindi film industry discussed in this book. She knows that if she writes about her movie career in depth, she will have to disclose many things that might hurt many people and affect her future career. But nobody forced you to write this memoir, Priyanka. If you are writing one, you will have to give at least some new information which others don't already know. There are many controversies that should have been addressed, like her relationship with a superstar, which garnered a lot of criticism. You could have told the youngsters vividly how to carve a career in an industry inflicted with nepotism. But you didn't do it either. If you are a person who wants to be an actor in the future and is looking for inspiration from this book, you are going to be hugely disappointed.
It was funny to read that she never wanted a career in Hollywood, and it was her manager who had LA connections that made her act in Hollywood movies.
4) Priyanka Chopra and Doctors
If you ask me the biggest controversy the author had to face in the early part of her acting career, my answer will be the plastic surgery controversy. There were a lot of speculations regarding it. The author is trying to mention about it in this book. She also says that she lost many movies in the initial part of her career due to it. In this book, she admits that a Hindi film mogul visited her in the initial part of her acting career and told her to undergo plastic surgery. She says that he also gave the details of a Doctor in LA who was an expert on it.
It was widely purported in the media that defect in Priyanka's nose was due to the ramifications of a plastic surgery that went wrong. The putative reason for that was the pictures of her circling in the media before and during the Miss World pageant and after it. There was a drastic difference in her appearance, and the whole media rebuked her for this at that time.
The author says that it was due to nasal polyps surgery which went wrong, and the Surgeon accidentally shaved the bridge of her nose, and her nose collapsed. It is difficult to believe that an experienced surgeon who performed such an uncomplicated surgery on the Miss World at that time had such an uncommon complication. There is a better probability of it being a Pollybeak deformity due to loss of support to the nose tip while doing plastic surgery for the nose for cosmetic enhancement. If what the author telling is accurate, a vital question arises of why she didn't give the public this explanation at that time when they called her "Plastic Chopra" and why she didn't sue the Doctor. No matter how many times you try to reiterate what you wrote in this book regarding it, people won't believe what you are telling if you cannot convincingly put forward what you are trying to convey.
Her tumultuous relationship with the Doctors didn't end there. She is mentioning a surgery that her father had to undergo. She says that her mother, who is also a Doctor was there in the whole part of the surgery, and she reported that the surgery went beautifully. A junior Doctor had nicked his intestine with some rubber tubing. Within a week, her father developed peritonitis which was misdiagnosed as pancreatitis. The Surgeon was not willing to acknowledge his mistake. There are so many problems with the chain of events she described and the way she told here. This whole scenario is a very rare thing to happen. But if what she is mentioning is true, then her father might have been very unlucky to suffer all these.
There is a portion where the author is threatening to go public about the Surgeon if her father dies under his watch and if he doesn't sign the permission to fly to take him to a better hospital outside India. This whole situation should have been dealt with more maturely by Priyanka and her mother, who is also a Doctor.
In another part of this book, we can see a radiologist repeatedly missing a liver tumor even after multiple scans. So tumor had grown and spread and became stage 4. This was indeed the fault of the radiologist. This shows the problems with the medical system in India and the need to revamp Medical education to avoid Doctors' complacency.
5) Her marriage
If you are someone born of Indian origin, I request you to skip this portion of the book as there is nothing new written which we don't already know. For the people from the west, she is trying to mention some events to tell them more about Indian culture during this section of her marriage with Nick Jonas. But she failed miserably in conveying anything relevant. A two-minute incredible India ad will give you more information about Indian culture than what she has written here. The narration takes a total shift from here onwards, and we will feel like we are reading an article about a page 3 party in some tabloid. She tries to talk about the glamour and extravagance in a subtle manner. But it will still irritate the reader. It is sad to see that some parts of this memoir feeling like some architectural magazine trying to describe different rooms in her new house in the USA. This is not what we expect from a memoir from someone like Priyanka Chopra.
6) Some other problems with this book
There are many other problems in this book that should be discussed. I am mentioning some of them below.
* Her initial opinion about beauty products was controversial. The reason why she initially became a brand ambassador of a skincare brand and later changing her total opinion about skincare products is a debatable topic.
* Her concept of relationship and breakup.
* The way she dealt with the uproar after the controversy of Hindu terrorism in the third season of Quantico by saying that she was neither the writer nor the producer.
* Her complicated concept of ethics and networking in the entertainment industry.
Rating
2/5 One word of advice to all the celebrities reading this review. Just because many people love you due to your various roles in movies or your modeling career, or your social media influencing power doesn't mean that they will love everything you do. Writing a memoir is a different ball game. Your smartness and confidence won't help you much in writing a book. If you don't have enough writing skills, I humbly request you to find an author who is mature and has good writing skills with an excellent previous track record. If you are reticent on the subject of controversies that you had to face in your career in your memoir/biography, I request you not to attempt to write a memoir as there is a high chance that it will backfire and will affect your overall image in your society just like what happened to the author of this book.
Memoirs should be honest, straightforward, and deep enough to understand the person. This book is neither intriguing nor inspiring to anyone. It seems like a self extolling precipitous PR stunt by the author to gain further momentum for her Hollywood career. If you are a Priyanka Chopra fan, you can go for this book as there are some elements in it that you might enjoy. For others, there are plenty of better memoirs available there.
Priyanka Chopra is a human being who learns well from her mistakes and tries to correct them if she gets opportunities. I am sure that she will be writing another memoir later as there is still a lot left in her career. I hope she will correct her mistakes and pen down an extraordinary memoir next time. I still love Priyanka Chopra, the actor, but I don't think I can tell the same with Priyanka Chopra, the writer.
Priyanka Chopra is a name that needs no introduction. She won the Miss World completion in 2000 and successfully built a career in Tinseltown and its Indian avatar without a godfather. She was recently in the news due to her marriage to the American singer Nick Jonas. It was almost impossible to succeed for a young girl in the Indian film industry at that time without any godfathers, as the Hindi film industry was in the cruel hands of nepotism. Almost everyone on the silver screen was related to one another. Priyanka, with her sheer determination and hard work, carved a space of her own.
What I liked in this book
There were some areas which require special mention. Some parts of Priyanka's childhood are mentioned touchingly. The way she felt about loneliness when she was sent to a hostel at a very young age is something that most of us will relate to. How she discussed bullying that she had to endure when she was studying in Massachusetts and how she mentioned the effects of bullying on children's psychology are also something praiseworthy. The topic of racism and how people made fun of her dark skin color, and how she dealt with them are also areas worth reading. Her courage to acknowledge and discuss her disappointing music career is also applaudable.
The part I liked the most in this book is the chemistry between the author and her parents. She wonderfully portrays her relationship with her parents. How she dealt with her father's final days and how she dealt with the depression are also discussed in detail in this book.
Dramatic and problematic parts of this book
If I write all the problems in this book, the Goodreads 15,000 word limit won't be enough for this review. So I will try to point out some vital things which I didn't like in it.
1) The author's attempt to make her story a sob story
Priyanka Chopra was born in Jamshedpur. But that doesn't give her the liberty to call herself a small-town girl who made it big despite the obstacles in a rag to riches sort of way. Both her parents were physicians in the Indian Army. Being a Doctor myself and also born in a family of Doctors, I clearly know the privileges Doctor's children have in India. Her family was posted in most of the big cities in India like Delhi, Chandigarh, Ambala, Lucknow, Pune, etc., and her childhood was in these big cities. Moreover, she went to some of the best schools in India. At the age of 13, she shifted to the USA and also had a great education there.
How can we call her a small-town girl despite her living in the big cities for most of her life, having education from the best institutions, and enjoying all the privileges? Is it to get the reader's sympathy or make herself the hustle culture pioneer for showing everyone that she made it big without any privileges (when she clearly had many). The number of prerogatives she had in her early life due to being a prodigy in an affluent family was very high compared to any other average Indian child.
I am not saying that she was profligate with her privileges. In fact, she indeed grabbed all these opportunities with both hands and made the most out of them, unlike many others who squandered it. The problem lies where she promulgates in a way that she was a girl from a rustic small town who made it big despite all the difficulties without getting privileges.
The author's prosaic attempt to craft a sob story has made this memoir a plaintive one with a plethora of platitudes. But don't expect her to make it poignant to any extend.
2) Her modeling career
This book is expected to become a bible for all the youngsters who plan to make it big in the modeling career and the beauty pageants. But sadly, there is a high chance that it will work the other way around and demotivates them and make them discard their modeling career as a whole. It is because the author was neither honest nor revealing anything new about her modeling career.
Priyanka tells us that she always wanted to be an aeronautical engineer and modeling was never under the radar. She mentions that her mother and her brother sent her modeling pictures to the Miss India competition. If she never wanted to be a model, then how did her mother get her modeling photos? How many aeronautical engineering aspirants in India who don't have any ambition in modeling will take modeling photos? This shows us that Priyanka wanted to be a model and famous from her early days itself, but she was not ready to acknowledge it honestly in this book. Moreover, she doesn't tell us in-depth about her journey to become Miss World. There is nothing new written here apart from what we already know from the magazines, the internet, and her interviews.
What went wrong here?
There are two possible explanations.
1) The author's poor writing skills restricted her from expressing herself truly.
2) She might have had time constraints and wanted to finish the book soon before the deadline, which restricted her from going into depth about one of the significant achievements of her career.
Whatever the reason may be, the author missed a golden opportunity to inspire the younger generation by showing them the right path to success. She instead sounded like a silly teenage school girl proclaiming that she topped the exams just because of her extraordinary brainpower and never did any hard work when actually she studied for more than 10 hours a day. This approach will harm the younger generation than helping them.
3) Her acting career
There were many Miss World's and Miss Universe's from India. But nobody had a successful movie career after it, like Aiswarya Rai and Priyanka Chopra. So when a memoir comes from Priyanka, we expect a lot about her silver screen journey. But, this part is the biggest disappointment of this book. Apart from mentioning a couple of bad experiences from a Director and a Producer, a few of her movie experiences, and some good deeds from Hrithik Roshan and Salman Khan, there is no other vital information about her journey in the Hindi film industry discussed in this book. She knows that if she writes about her movie career in depth, she will have to disclose many things that might hurt many people and affect her future career. But nobody forced you to write this memoir, Priyanka. If you are writing one, you will have to give at least some new information which others don't already know. There are many controversies that should have been addressed, like her relationship with a superstar, which garnered a lot of criticism. You could have told the youngsters vividly how to carve a career in an industry inflicted with nepotism. But you didn't do it either. If you are a person who wants to be an actor in the future and is looking for inspiration from this book, you are going to be hugely disappointed.
It was funny to read that she never wanted a career in Hollywood, and it was her manager who had LA connections that made her act in Hollywood movies.
4) Priyanka Chopra and Doctors
If you ask me the biggest controversy the author had to face in the early part of her acting career, my answer will be the plastic surgery controversy. There were a lot of speculations regarding it. The author is trying to mention about it in this book. She also says that she lost many movies in the initial part of her career due to it. In this book, she admits that a Hindi film mogul visited her in the initial part of her acting career and told her to undergo plastic surgery. She says that he also gave the details of a Doctor in LA who was an expert on it.
It was widely purported in the media that defect in Priyanka's nose was due to the ramifications of a plastic surgery that went wrong. The putative reason for that was the pictures of her circling in the media before and during the Miss World pageant and after it. There was a drastic difference in her appearance, and the whole media rebuked her for this at that time.
The author says that it was due to nasal polyps surgery which went wrong, and the Surgeon accidentally shaved the bridge of her nose, and her nose collapsed. It is difficult to believe that an experienced surgeon who performed such an uncomplicated surgery on the Miss World at that time had such an uncommon complication. There is a better probability of it being a Pollybeak deformity due to loss of support to the nose tip while doing plastic surgery for the nose for cosmetic enhancement. If what the author telling is accurate, a vital question arises of why she didn't give the public this explanation at that time when they called her "Plastic Chopra" and why she didn't sue the Doctor. No matter how many times you try to reiterate what you wrote in this book regarding it, people won't believe what you are telling if you cannot convincingly put forward what you are trying to convey.
Her tumultuous relationship with the Doctors didn't end there. She is mentioning a surgery that her father had to undergo. She says that her mother, who is also a Doctor was there in the whole part of the surgery, and she reported that the surgery went beautifully. A junior Doctor had nicked his intestine with some rubber tubing. Within a week, her father developed peritonitis which was misdiagnosed as pancreatitis. The Surgeon was not willing to acknowledge his mistake. There are so many problems with the chain of events she described and the way she told here. This whole scenario is a very rare thing to happen. But if what she is mentioning is true, then her father might have been very unlucky to suffer all these.
There is a portion where the author is threatening to go public about the Surgeon if her father dies under his watch and if he doesn't sign the permission to fly to take him to a better hospital outside India. This whole situation should have been dealt with more maturely by Priyanka and her mother, who is also a Doctor.
In another part of this book, we can see a radiologist repeatedly missing a liver tumor even after multiple scans. So tumor had grown and spread and became stage 4. This was indeed the fault of the radiologist. This shows the problems with the medical system in India and the need to revamp Medical education to avoid Doctors' complacency.
5) Her marriage
If you are someone born of Indian origin, I request you to skip this portion of the book as there is nothing new written which we don't already know. For the people from the west, she is trying to mention some events to tell them more about Indian culture during this section of her marriage with Nick Jonas. But she failed miserably in conveying anything relevant. A two-minute incredible India ad will give you more information about Indian culture than what she has written here. The narration takes a total shift from here onwards, and we will feel like we are reading an article about a page 3 party in some tabloid. She tries to talk about the glamour and extravagance in a subtle manner. But it will still irritate the reader. It is sad to see that some parts of this memoir feeling like some architectural magazine trying to describe different rooms in her new house in the USA. This is not what we expect from a memoir from someone like Priyanka Chopra.
6) Some other problems with this book
There are many other problems in this book that should be discussed. I am mentioning some of them below.
* Her initial opinion about beauty products was controversial. The reason why she initially became a brand ambassador of a skincare brand and later changing her total opinion about skincare products is a debatable topic.
* Her concept of relationship and breakup.
* The way she dealt with the uproar after the controversy of Hindu terrorism in the third season of Quantico by saying that she was neither the writer nor the producer.
* Her complicated concept of ethics and networking in the entertainment industry.
Rating
2/5 One word of advice to all the celebrities reading this review. Just because many people love you due to your various roles in movies or your modeling career, or your social media influencing power doesn't mean that they will love everything you do. Writing a memoir is a different ball game. Your smartness and confidence won't help you much in writing a book. If you don't have enough writing skills, I humbly request you to find an author who is mature and has good writing skills with an excellent previous track record. If you are reticent on the subject of controversies that you had to face in your career in your memoir/biography, I request you not to attempt to write a memoir as there is a high chance that it will backfire and will affect your overall image in your society just like what happened to the author of this book.
Memoirs should be honest, straightforward, and deep enough to understand the person. This book is neither intriguing nor inspiring to anyone. It seems like a self extolling precipitous PR stunt by the author to gain further momentum for her Hollywood career. If you are a Priyanka Chopra fan, you can go for this book as there are some elements in it that you might enjoy. For others, there are plenty of better memoirs available there.
Priyanka Chopra is a human being who learns well from her mistakes and tries to correct them if she gets opportunities. I am sure that she will be writing another memoir later as there is still a lot left in her career. I hope she will correct her mistakes and pen down an extraordinary memoir next time. I still love Priyanka Chopra, the actor, but I don't think I can tell the same with Priyanka Chopra, the writer.
January 17, 2023
Awed 🙌
***I. Am. Literally. Blown. Away***
She's my queen! One of the people I will always look up to because of her work ethics and the person she is.
Reading this memoir has changed my way of thinking and it's going to affirm some strong beliefs in myself. That's how amazing this book is!
This memoir is damn wholesome, life-changing and uplifting. It's liberating, it's gigantic, it's crushing and it's brilliant!
✍️ Some highlights:
*Upbringing and open-minded parents and family
*Frequent changing of schools
*First boyfriend story (damn hilarious!)
*Bullied, she faced racism and discrimination
*She struggled in the patriarchal Bollywood industry
*Proud of her who is a UNICEF ambassador and her private self-funded organization for girls and children for their basic education, health care and to make them aware about the ill-effects of childhood marriage
*Her take on love and relationships
Just pick up this book. As I said, it's moving and so well-written. You will get to see some of the harsh facts of life. It's just not all glitter and gold for those who's a shining star now✨
***I. Am. Literally. Blown. Away***
She's my queen! One of the people I will always look up to because of her work ethics and the person she is.
Reading this memoir has changed my way of thinking and it's going to affirm some strong beliefs in myself. That's how amazing this book is!
This memoir is damn wholesome, life-changing and uplifting. It's liberating, it's gigantic, it's crushing and it's brilliant!
✍️ Some highlights:
*Upbringing and open-minded parents and family
*Frequent changing of schools
*First boyfriend story (damn hilarious!)
*Bullied, she faced racism and discrimination
*She struggled in the patriarchal Bollywood industry
*Proud of her who is a UNICEF ambassador and her private self-funded organization for girls and children for their basic education, health care and to make them aware about the ill-effects of childhood marriage
*Her take on love and relationships
Just pick up this book. As I said, it's moving and so well-written. You will get to see some of the harsh facts of life. It's just not all glitter and gold for those who's a shining star now✨
February 23, 2021
girl, don't yell.
May 3, 2022
The more memoirs I read, the more I understand that they are difficult to write. There is a balance which needs to be struck between outlining celebrity achievements in an authentic manner, without descending into preachy stuff or bragging. As with many, this book while interesting in parts, fails there.
The coverage of the book is very good – starting from Priyanka Chopra’s childhood, right up to her marriage to Nick Jonas. Her parents were successful doctors, who later adjusted their own life priorities to enable Priyanka’s modelling and subsequent film career. There is coverage of her student life (including years in the US) and how she quite casually entered the Miss India contest, and later went on to win the Miss World contest (the same year in which Lara Dutta won the Miss Universe crown). The later sections describe her entry into films with Tamizhan (a word difficult to pronounce, but strangely despite having acted in the movie – she pronounces it as Tamizaan) and other Hindi films. There are suggestions of misconduct & exploitation but she stops short of going any further. The last section covers her romance, marriage to Nick Jonas, and the work her foundation does.
I listened to the audiobook narrated by Priyanka Chopra herself. The book is peppered with the standard fare you find these days in self-help / motivational / biographies – ‘finding your own way’, ‘never giving up’, ‘sheer determination’ etc which are very boring. The sections where she discusses her relationship with her parents, especially her dad (including his illness), her entry into modelling & films are reasonably well narrated. There is this conscious attempt throughout to paint a goody-goody achiever image which feels very unauthentic. Some controversies find passing mention – her plastic surgeries, edited photos, the stupid Quantico episode etc and she plays it very safe while talking about them. The romance & subsequent marriage has this feel of reading a romance novel with a complete lack of natural telling.
Overall, though there are a few interesting segments, they are only few. So, a book best skipped would say.
My rating: 2.75 / 5.
The coverage of the book is very good – starting from Priyanka Chopra’s childhood, right up to her marriage to Nick Jonas. Her parents were successful doctors, who later adjusted their own life priorities to enable Priyanka’s modelling and subsequent film career. There is coverage of her student life (including years in the US) and how she quite casually entered the Miss India contest, and later went on to win the Miss World contest (the same year in which Lara Dutta won the Miss Universe crown). The later sections describe her entry into films with Tamizhan (a word difficult to pronounce, but strangely despite having acted in the movie – she pronounces it as Tamizaan) and other Hindi films. There are suggestions of misconduct & exploitation but she stops short of going any further. The last section covers her romance, marriage to Nick Jonas, and the work her foundation does.
I listened to the audiobook narrated by Priyanka Chopra herself. The book is peppered with the standard fare you find these days in self-help / motivational / biographies – ‘finding your own way’, ‘never giving up’, ‘sheer determination’ etc which are very boring. The sections where she discusses her relationship with her parents, especially her dad (including his illness), her entry into modelling & films are reasonably well narrated. There is this conscious attempt throughout to paint a goody-goody achiever image which feels very unauthentic. Some controversies find passing mention – her plastic surgeries, edited photos, the stupid Quantico episode etc and she plays it very safe while talking about them. The romance & subsequent marriage has this feel of reading a romance novel with a complete lack of natural telling.
Overall, though there are a few interesting segments, they are only few. So, a book best skipped would say.
My rating: 2.75 / 5.
February 15, 2021
Unfinished by Priyanka Chopra Jonas is an excellent memoir about a hard working woman with many talents.
Unfinished gives the reader a brief story of Priyanka Chopra Jonas’s life and how she became the successful independent woman she is today. I’ve been a fan of Priyanka since watching the premiere of Quantico. I didn’t know much about her life before acting in the US besides that she was an actress in India. I learned so much about her and Indian culture by reading Unfinished. It is common in India for people to live with other family members growing up. Priyanka lived with multiple aunt and uncles even living in the US for a few years in high school. Priyanka discusses being bullied in the US which eventually was the reason she moved back to India.
Priyanka is the first person in her family to go into the movie industry. Both of her parents are doctors and she was planning on being an aeronautical engineer before entering a beauty pageant. She explains her career through pageants, acting, singing and then acting in the US. I enjoyed hearing about Priyanka’s experience with Quantico since that is how I discovered her. She discusses the loss of her father. Chopra discusses a conversation when she told her friends what she was looking for in a partner and how that related to meeting Nick. I enjoyed hearing about her and Nick since I am a longtime fan. She discusses meeting Nick, their relationship leading up to their wedding and adjusting to being a married couple. Family is discussed throughout Unfinished showing its importance to Priyanka. Priyanka is very independent and hardworking focusing on multiple careers. Priyanka shared a lot and was very honest but wasn’t afraid to say she was keeping some things to herself especially with her relationship. Unfinished shows the most important things to Priyanka are family, friends, and her careers. I felt like I learned a lot about Priyanka by reading Unfinished and can’t wait to follow her through future success.
I listened to the audiobook narrated by Priyanka and read the book. I enjoyed both formats. I love Priyanka’s voice and it was special hearing her story in her voice. The book has pictures that are interesting to see. I enjoyed both formats so don’t have a strong preference.
Thank you Random House, Ballantine Books and Penguin Random House Audio for Unfinished.
Full Review: https://justreadingjess.wordpress.com...
Unfinished gives the reader a brief story of Priyanka Chopra Jonas’s life and how she became the successful independent woman she is today. I’ve been a fan of Priyanka since watching the premiere of Quantico. I didn’t know much about her life before acting in the US besides that she was an actress in India. I learned so much about her and Indian culture by reading Unfinished. It is common in India for people to live with other family members growing up. Priyanka lived with multiple aunt and uncles even living in the US for a few years in high school. Priyanka discusses being bullied in the US which eventually was the reason she moved back to India.
Priyanka is the first person in her family to go into the movie industry. Both of her parents are doctors and she was planning on being an aeronautical engineer before entering a beauty pageant. She explains her career through pageants, acting, singing and then acting in the US. I enjoyed hearing about Priyanka’s experience with Quantico since that is how I discovered her. She discusses the loss of her father. Chopra discusses a conversation when she told her friends what she was looking for in a partner and how that related to meeting Nick. I enjoyed hearing about her and Nick since I am a longtime fan. She discusses meeting Nick, their relationship leading up to their wedding and adjusting to being a married couple. Family is discussed throughout Unfinished showing its importance to Priyanka. Priyanka is very independent and hardworking focusing on multiple careers. Priyanka shared a lot and was very honest but wasn’t afraid to say she was keeping some things to herself especially with her relationship. Unfinished shows the most important things to Priyanka are family, friends, and her careers. I felt like I learned a lot about Priyanka by reading Unfinished and can’t wait to follow her through future success.
I listened to the audiobook narrated by Priyanka and read the book. I enjoyed both formats. I love Priyanka’s voice and it was special hearing her story in her voice. The book has pictures that are interesting to see. I enjoyed both formats so don’t have a strong preference.
Thank you Random House, Ballantine Books and Penguin Random House Audio for Unfinished.
Full Review: https://justreadingjess.wordpress.com...
December 10, 2021
Priyanka Chopra Jonas is a commendable actor and doing some great work with UNICEF, but writing a book requires much more than she had right now. One needs to delve deep, which she didn't. If you have been following her for a long-time, watch most of her interviews, then you're not going to find something life-changing in her memoir.
If someone starts reading non-fiction and looking for easy recommendations, this one is for you. Pick this book wisely; otherwise, you'll get disappointed. I hope that if Priyanka Chopra Jonas wrote a second memoir after some decades, she would not hide the real her.
Read the detailed review/rant here - Books Charming
If someone starts reading non-fiction and looking for easy recommendations, this one is for you. Pick this book wisely; otherwise, you'll get disappointed. I hope that if Priyanka Chopra Jonas wrote a second memoir after some decades, she would not hide the real her.
Read the detailed review/rant here - Books Charming
February 21, 2021
Awed 🙌
***I. Am. Literally. Blown. Away***
She's my queen! One of the people I will always look up to because of her work ethics and the person she is.
Reading this memoir has changed my way of thinking and it's going to affirm some strong beliefs in myself. That's how amazing this book is!
This memoir is damn wholesome, life-changing and uplifting. It's liberating, it's gigantic, it's crushing and it's brilliant!
✍️ Some highlights:
*Upbringing and open-minded parents and family
*Frequent changing of schools
*First boyfriend story (damn hilarious!)
*Bullied, she faced racism and discrimination
*She struggled in the patriarchal Bollywood industry
*Proud of her who is a UNICEF ambassador and her private self-funded organization for girls and children for their basic education, health care and to make them aware about the ill-effects of childhood marriage
*Her take on love and relationships
Just pick up this book. As I said, it's moving and so well-written. You will get to see some of the harsh facts of life. It's just not all glitter and gold for those who's a shining star now✨
***I. Am. Literally. Blown. Away***
She's my queen! One of the people I will always look up to because of her work ethics and the person she is.
Reading this memoir has changed my way of thinking and it's going to affirm some strong beliefs in myself. That's how amazing this book is!
This memoir is damn wholesome, life-changing and uplifting. It's liberating, it's gigantic, it's crushing and it's brilliant!
✍️ Some highlights:
*Upbringing and open-minded parents and family
*Frequent changing of schools
*First boyfriend story (damn hilarious!)
*Bullied, she faced racism and discrimination
*She struggled in the patriarchal Bollywood industry
*Proud of her who is a UNICEF ambassador and her private self-funded organization for girls and children for their basic education, health care and to make them aware about the ill-effects of childhood marriage
*Her take on love and relationships
Just pick up this book. As I said, it's moving and so well-written. You will get to see some of the harsh facts of life. It's just not all glitter and gold for those who's a shining star now✨
November 9, 2021
I went into this because I didn't want another long gap in my reading. Audible made sense and I prefer only memoirs in that format. I thought this would be easy to go through and considering I already don't like her much, I was pretty sure I would give this a 1 star.
It was not a hate-read and I am not a hater. I used to like Priyanka Chopra till a few years ago, when her confidence didn't use to come across as cocky. I mean she was pretty, could act well in an industry filled with talent-less people and made sense for her age, most of the times, when she spoke.
Now though I still find her pretty, her work no longer interests me. She doesn't sound stupid, but what she talks about has failed to evolve with her age. She comes across as pretentious and superficial. And her accent doesn't help. (Audible was not a great choice I guess)
However, despite all of this, I did end up liking few portions of this memoir - her journey to win Miss India and Miss World was definitely intriguing, and portions on how she handled her father's demise, etc. Hence, the 2 stars.
Apart from this, most of what she has written is already known to people who have followed her career, especially people who know her from her Indian film industry career. The book is more about what happened and less about what she felt about it. It is a carefully created narration where she has managed to list down all her laurels (though she claimed this was exactly what she had not done) without getting into any controversial details about her equations with her colleagues, her exes, etc. Obviously she has an entire team to make sure she doesn't run into controversies, refer to her latest Guardian interview fiasco.
For a person of such stature and so much influence, in my eyes, she has failed to make any meaningful contribution to this world. She is even a bit of a hypocrite to post "I can't breathe" while having failed to call out any of the horrible things that is happening in her own home country. She is the kinds who would meet the PM when she had a chance and invite him to her wedding while failing to address what the PM does. Did she mention about her pro-war tweets while being a UNICEF ambassador in this book? I must have missed it if she did. So, what makes it possible to have zero empathy and no spine?
I guess when you are an extremely privileged person since your birth who has always had an extremely supportive, not just immediate but extended, family, when you get opportunities to study at La Martiniere and in the US during your growing years, when you get a Paris trip to get over some verbal bullying, when you are genetically blessed to be 5'7'', pretty and to top it all when you get amazing opportunities (that you no doubt work hard for) to get success at 17 years of age, it must not be possible to have your blood boil over the daily injustices in the world. It must be very difficult to relate I guess.
But, then, I don't know what to learn from this memoir. That if you already have all the above advantages and many more, you have a chance to make all your dreams come true, if you also work hard and have some talent? Sure!
Also, if I have to hear one more time about her love for adventure, the unknown and her appetite for risk-taking, I might just barf!
It was not a hate-read and I am not a hater. I used to like Priyanka Chopra till a few years ago, when her confidence didn't use to come across as cocky. I mean she was pretty, could act well in an industry filled with talent-less people and made sense for her age, most of the times, when she spoke.
Now though I still find her pretty, her work no longer interests me. She doesn't sound stupid, but what she talks about has failed to evolve with her age. She comes across as pretentious and superficial. And her accent doesn't help. (Audible was not a great choice I guess)
However, despite all of this, I did end up liking few portions of this memoir - her journey to win Miss India and Miss World was definitely intriguing, and portions on how she handled her father's demise, etc. Hence, the 2 stars.
Apart from this, most of what she has written is already known to people who have followed her career, especially people who know her from her Indian film industry career. The book is more about what happened and less about what she felt about it. It is a carefully created narration where she has managed to list down all her laurels (though she claimed this was exactly what she had not done) without getting into any controversial details about her equations with her colleagues, her exes, etc. Obviously she has an entire team to make sure she doesn't run into controversies, refer to her latest Guardian interview fiasco.
For a person of such stature and so much influence, in my eyes, she has failed to make any meaningful contribution to this world. She is even a bit of a hypocrite to post "I can't breathe" while having failed to call out any of the horrible things that is happening in her own home country. She is the kinds who would meet the PM when she had a chance and invite him to her wedding while failing to address what the PM does. Did she mention about her pro-war tweets while being a UNICEF ambassador in this book? I must have missed it if she did. So, what makes it possible to have zero empathy and no spine?
I guess when you are an extremely privileged person since your birth who has always had an extremely supportive, not just immediate but extended, family, when you get opportunities to study at La Martiniere and in the US during your growing years, when you get a Paris trip to get over some verbal bullying, when you are genetically blessed to be 5'7'', pretty and to top it all when you get amazing opportunities (that you no doubt work hard for) to get success at 17 years of age, it must not be possible to have your blood boil over the daily injustices in the world. It must be very difficult to relate I guess.
But, then, I don't know what to learn from this memoir. That if you already have all the above advantages and many more, you have a chance to make all your dreams come true, if you also work hard and have some talent? Sure!
Also, if I have to hear one more time about her love for adventure, the unknown and her appetite for risk-taking, I might just barf!
Want to read
April 19, 2022You mean to tell me that Priyanka Chopra Jonas wrote a book and you expect not to read it? Y'all out of your minds.
I love Priyanka Chopra Jonas. I think she's a fabulous actress, she's gorgeous, and broke every little girl's hearts when she married Nick Jonas.
I love Priyanka Chopra Jonas. I think she's a fabulous actress, she's gorgeous, and broke every little girl's hearts when she married Nick Jonas.
April 16, 2021
It's written for Americans and not for Indians. I guess Priyanka wanted Americans to know about her past achievements so she wrote a marketing book that lists all her accomplishments. It's definitely not a biography by any means. She is constantly boasting about her achievements and about how awesome she is that it gets tiresome to read. It read like a resume that she wants to pitch forward to Hollywood directors.
I ended up skimming through many chapters. She has 1 chapter about her beauty pageant and 1 chapter about her 12 years in Bollywood and she name drops few famous movies. The only reason anyone would want to read this book is to learn about her experience in these two areas. Half of the book is about her entry into Hollywood and marrying Nick Jonas. I had no interest in these parts. She dedicates an entire chapter on her father's illness and death which again I don't care to read about as I am not reading her father's biography. She didn't have to spend that many pages about it.
I felt bad for her considering how she never lived with her parents. She was abandoned at the age of 7(such a young age!!) by her parents when they sent her to a boarding school to make her learn "discipline". Then sent to US to study.
Like I read in another review, she sounds like that annoying classmate who says she didn't study at all but ends up getting 100/100 in the exam. She says she was never interested in becoming Miss India or a film actress and that her mom sent her photos that she had gotten clicked for scholarship to the pageant without even telling her (does anyone really believe this story?!!). She says that she had zero experience in modeling and then at the end of the book, she posts a photo of herself modeling before she entered beauty pageant. Nothing about her past relationships or about anyone from the industry except for some name dropping of Salman Khan and Hrithik Roshan whom she praises.
Totally useless book. Learnt nothing from this book.
I ended up skimming through many chapters. She has 1 chapter about her beauty pageant and 1 chapter about her 12 years in Bollywood and she name drops few famous movies. The only reason anyone would want to read this book is to learn about her experience in these two areas. Half of the book is about her entry into Hollywood and marrying Nick Jonas. I had no interest in these parts. She dedicates an entire chapter on her father's illness and death which again I don't care to read about as I am not reading her father's biography. She didn't have to spend that many pages about it.
I felt bad for her considering how she never lived with her parents. She was abandoned at the age of 7(such a young age!!) by her parents when they sent her to a boarding school to make her learn "discipline". Then sent to US to study.
Like I read in another review, she sounds like that annoying classmate who says she didn't study at all but ends up getting 100/100 in the exam. She says she was never interested in becoming Miss India or a film actress and that her mom sent her photos that she had gotten clicked for scholarship to the pageant without even telling her (does anyone really believe this story?!!). She says that she had zero experience in modeling and then at the end of the book, she posts a photo of herself modeling before she entered beauty pageant. Nothing about her past relationships or about anyone from the industry except for some name dropping of Salman Khan and Hrithik Roshan whom she praises.
Totally useless book. Learnt nothing from this book.
May 4, 2025
May is Asian American and Pacific Islander heritage month in the United States. It’s not a month that I normally devote much reading to, which is an error on my part. The school district I work in the most is a melting pot of cultures, including many students from India, China, Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and Turkey. Each group contributes to 21st century American culture and overlooking their contributions is an error on my part. I admittedly don’t read many Asian authors besides Jhumpa Lahiri, who is now based in the United States and Italy, and Amy Tan, who has lived in California for decades. Wanting to rectify this gap in my reading, I actually searched the standard “books to read for AAPI month” and received a number of library curated lists. When I finally found a nonfiction list, it was like a treasure trove of information and I actually found three to five books that piqued my interest. For the first time, I am actually reading for AAPI month- I have four books planned. The first book I picked up from the library is a celebrity memoir. I admit, I could read a celebrity memoir every day and not tire of them as I want to learn about the person behind the persona. Enter one Priyanka Chopra. Those who know me know that the only tv I watch is live sports. I might go to three movies a year if that. Pop culture is not something I am up to date on unless all of my daughters are home, and then I know pretty much everything- tv, movies, and music. Believe it or not, I actually enjoy some of the music they choose for me, and one group I clicked with has been the Jonas Brothers. Yes, I’m a sucker for boy bands. Yes, I’m also a sucker for celebrity romances. So I “knew” who Priyanka Jonas is. What I did not know was the story of her vibrant life, which I was happy to read about for AAPI month.
The gaps of my pop culture knowledge aside, Priyanka Chopra was born in India and grew up as the equivalent of an army brat. Ok, not a US army brat. Both of her parents Ashok and Mathur were army doctors so the family moved around India a lot. This was not a stable life for people who wanted their daughter to get an education and become a doctor- later changed to aerospace engineer. After second grade, Priyanka actually attended boarding school for the next four years. I send my children away for high school, but they are fourteen, not seven. I would not have the heart to send a seven year old away for school, but this opportunity provided the most stability and best education at the time. By the time Priyanka returned home for middle school, she excelled at most school subjects and had gained more independence than the average twelve year old. Her parents relished this self-sufficiency; however, this streak was more suited for life in the US than conservative India. That’s when Mathur concocted the idea that Priyanka should go to school in America and live with various aunts and uncles. So that is what she did for four years, living in Iowa (I actually know that school), Indianapolis, Queens, and Boston. Priyanka would have stayed in Queens indefinitely - she felt at home in the vibrant melting pot of cultures right outside her door- but that family moved outside of Boston, which ended up precipitating Priyanka’s move back to India. In America, Priyanka learned that she had a flair for the dramatic and starred in school musical theater productions. It was an inkling of what was to come.
Priyanka was not looking to go into modeling or acting. Her younger brother Siddarth wanted his room back and encouraged their mother to send in photos for the Miss India competition. The Chopras are a conservative family, and Mathur chaperoned Priyanka everywhere. She told her daughter that being different is her superpower. Somehow as a seventeen year old, Priyanka won the Miss India World competition. Then she traveled to London with her family and as an underdog won the Miss World competition for 2001. For the next year, her life was traveling as Miss World, which lead to acting in Bollywood. She had never wanted acting for a career. It just happened. Then Priyanka discovered the patriarchy that occurs in Bollywood. It is an industry dominated by men. Even as a younger woman, Priyanka knew she did not want to be that pretty woman on screen; she desired roles where the women dominated and participated in roles as directors and producers. Even in the 21st century, India is a conservative country and ceding leadership roles to women in Bollywood was not going to happen overnight. For Priyanka to establish herself as a star and move into these positions, her management team encouraged her to go to America. Bam. Quantico. I have not watched this show, surprise, but Priyanka was the first South Asian to star on a major network show. This lead to more opportunities in movies and music internationally. She was on her way to becoming a star.
At thirty five, Priyanka was on a dating hiatus. She was still grieving the loss of her father two years earlier and lived comfortably with her dog. Friends encouraged her to make a non negotiable list of what she wanted for a husband. And somehow Nick Jonas happened. This is the part I “know”. I told you, I love a good celebrity romance. This book isn’t about Priyanka’s role as a Jonas Brothers’ wife. Her romance only occurs in the last two chapters of the book and details their storybook wedding in India. Not knowing much about traditional Hindu wedding rituals, I found this part fascinating, and the fact that the Jonas family savored participating in the events shows how open people are to learning about other cultures. Being married did not slow Priyanka down. On the contrary, Nick encouraged her to pursue her own endeavors which include being part of Bumble India, an app where women make the first contact. In a country where for years girls were undervalued by society, this app is a game changer. Along with her mother, Priyanka founded Purple Pebble Pictures. There are 28 languages and cultural groups in India, yet Bollywood caters to the dominant Hindi language. PPP has sought out stories of people from other language groups and cultures and told them on the big screen. I am now intrigued to find one of them in the US if possible to broaden my horizons, which is what Priyanka Chopra has done as a person.
Today Priyanka and Nick split their time between Los Angeles and Mumbai. They have a daughter named Malthi born in 2022- I had to look that up- and three dogs. PPP is still going strong as is Priyanka’s plans for a friend comedy movie with Mindy Kaling that features South Asians in leading roles. In her adult life, Priyanka has undertaken being a humanitarian ambassador of the world. Whether its providing for medical care in Africa or funding education for girls in India, Priyanka Chopra is a play it forward, far thinking woman of the 21st century. It is little wonder to me that Time named her one of the world’s most influential people of 2018, and that was seven years ago. I will have to read up on the projects she has done since. She also happens to be married to a Jonas Brother who happen to be on tour this year including Wrigley Field. Maybe I should go. I am all for a good celebrity sighting. All the Jonas wives are stars in their own right, lead by Priyanka. Now I know about this multitalented woman off camera who has earned her spot as a world influential person. I look forward to seeing where life takes her.
4 stars
The gaps of my pop culture knowledge aside, Priyanka Chopra was born in India and grew up as the equivalent of an army brat. Ok, not a US army brat. Both of her parents Ashok and Mathur were army doctors so the family moved around India a lot. This was not a stable life for people who wanted their daughter to get an education and become a doctor- later changed to aerospace engineer. After second grade, Priyanka actually attended boarding school for the next four years. I send my children away for high school, but they are fourteen, not seven. I would not have the heart to send a seven year old away for school, but this opportunity provided the most stability and best education at the time. By the time Priyanka returned home for middle school, she excelled at most school subjects and had gained more independence than the average twelve year old. Her parents relished this self-sufficiency; however, this streak was more suited for life in the US than conservative India. That’s when Mathur concocted the idea that Priyanka should go to school in America and live with various aunts and uncles. So that is what she did for four years, living in Iowa (I actually know that school), Indianapolis, Queens, and Boston. Priyanka would have stayed in Queens indefinitely - she felt at home in the vibrant melting pot of cultures right outside her door- but that family moved outside of Boston, which ended up precipitating Priyanka’s move back to India. In America, Priyanka learned that she had a flair for the dramatic and starred in school musical theater productions. It was an inkling of what was to come.
Priyanka was not looking to go into modeling or acting. Her younger brother Siddarth wanted his room back and encouraged their mother to send in photos for the Miss India competition. The Chopras are a conservative family, and Mathur chaperoned Priyanka everywhere. She told her daughter that being different is her superpower. Somehow as a seventeen year old, Priyanka won the Miss India World competition. Then she traveled to London with her family and as an underdog won the Miss World competition for 2001. For the next year, her life was traveling as Miss World, which lead to acting in Bollywood. She had never wanted acting for a career. It just happened. Then Priyanka discovered the patriarchy that occurs in Bollywood. It is an industry dominated by men. Even as a younger woman, Priyanka knew she did not want to be that pretty woman on screen; she desired roles where the women dominated and participated in roles as directors and producers. Even in the 21st century, India is a conservative country and ceding leadership roles to women in Bollywood was not going to happen overnight. For Priyanka to establish herself as a star and move into these positions, her management team encouraged her to go to America. Bam. Quantico. I have not watched this show, surprise, but Priyanka was the first South Asian to star on a major network show. This lead to more opportunities in movies and music internationally. She was on her way to becoming a star.
At thirty five, Priyanka was on a dating hiatus. She was still grieving the loss of her father two years earlier and lived comfortably with her dog. Friends encouraged her to make a non negotiable list of what she wanted for a husband. And somehow Nick Jonas happened. This is the part I “know”. I told you, I love a good celebrity romance. This book isn’t about Priyanka’s role as a Jonas Brothers’ wife. Her romance only occurs in the last two chapters of the book and details their storybook wedding in India. Not knowing much about traditional Hindu wedding rituals, I found this part fascinating, and the fact that the Jonas family savored participating in the events shows how open people are to learning about other cultures. Being married did not slow Priyanka down. On the contrary, Nick encouraged her to pursue her own endeavors which include being part of Bumble India, an app where women make the first contact. In a country where for years girls were undervalued by society, this app is a game changer. Along with her mother, Priyanka founded Purple Pebble Pictures. There are 28 languages and cultural groups in India, yet Bollywood caters to the dominant Hindi language. PPP has sought out stories of people from other language groups and cultures and told them on the big screen. I am now intrigued to find one of them in the US if possible to broaden my horizons, which is what Priyanka Chopra has done as a person.
Today Priyanka and Nick split their time between Los Angeles and Mumbai. They have a daughter named Malthi born in 2022- I had to look that up- and three dogs. PPP is still going strong as is Priyanka’s plans for a friend comedy movie with Mindy Kaling that features South Asians in leading roles. In her adult life, Priyanka has undertaken being a humanitarian ambassador of the world. Whether its providing for medical care in Africa or funding education for girls in India, Priyanka Chopra is a play it forward, far thinking woman of the 21st century. It is little wonder to me that Time named her one of the world’s most influential people of 2018, and that was seven years ago. I will have to read up on the projects she has done since. She also happens to be married to a Jonas Brother who happen to be on tour this year including Wrigley Field. Maybe I should go. I am all for a good celebrity sighting. All the Jonas wives are stars in their own right, lead by Priyanka. Now I know about this multitalented woman off camera who has earned her spot as a world influential person. I look forward to seeing where life takes her.
4 stars
February 13, 2021
PC has a genuine voice and is few of the actors I really like solely coz of how she carries herself with total elegance, grace and poise. An amazing memoir, her journey has always been quite inspiring. Really enjoyed reading this one.
February 28, 2021
Spoiled princess writes about her privileged life, with little drama and a lot of padded pages. While Priyanka claims it's not about her sophisticated looks, pretty much everything falls into her lap due to her rich background (both parents were doctors) or her beauty.
She does give a basic outline of her life and much of it in India is confusing. Unless you understand the culture or country, her details about places, people, and customs become boring because she doesn't explain much. She acts like she assumes we know what she's talking about. Nowhere does she explain the caste system or how she can live with her rich upbringing (she had servants to do everything for her) while bemoaning the poor in the streets.
Her parents treat her like a princess and do whatever she wants, with a stage mother who practically pushes her into everything while Priyanka's younger brother gets ignored. The author wants to convince us how wonderful her parents are, but they often abandon their children for months or years at a time. There's a horrible story of how at age seven her mother takes her hours away to a boarding school without telling her she will be left there--Priyanka sits on the playground day after day looking at the gate waiting for her mom to return and rescue her. What kind of parent does that without talking to the child first? She chalks this up to her great parents teaching her how to be independent; I read it as being the reason she grew to be an very insecure adult who hates to be alone or ever be criticized. They certainly were not the ideal parents she makes them out to be.
The really interesting section is about her three years in America as a teenager, living with relatives and not her parents. Sadly, it's way too short and lacks many details. She clearly states that her years in "conservative" Iowa and Indiana were amazingly positive and accepting of her ethnicity; meanwhile her times in New York City and Boston were filled with bigotry and bullying. When she moves back to her own country to finish high school, she continues to be looked down upon by fellow upper class Indians (including her relatives) for being too dark skinned or speaking with a bit of an accent. Yet she fails to make the connection that the people in her life that accepted her were the conservative Christians, and the ones that rejected her were the liberals. Has she not figured out that she married a guy raised in a conservative Christian culture, which represents the only positive acceptance she ever had in life?
Whenever the book goes to India she writes in more detail but it's much less interesting. She stumbles into a Bollywood career with absolutely no acting experience. She then is plucked by American record producers for a music career even though she never sang a note professionally in her life (her singing voice was dubbed in Bollywood films). And then a TV executive calls her out of nowhere asking if she'd consider acting in America, giving her a chance to audition for a lead role in what becomes Quantico. No work involved, no working her way up like normal people. She obviously was selected due to her looks and upper class style, though she doesn't want to admit it. I'm still baffled at how she was selected for any of these things without any experience (especially the recording deal, which makes no sense as she tells it), proving that life isn't fair for average people--it's the rich, beautiful folks that get the breaks.
If you're looking for any personal insights into her dating years, forget it. There's nothing here. She at times uses a paragraph to summarize many years instead of giving us stories worth reading. There is no mention of any drug usage (extremely rare in a celebrity memoir) and based on this book you assume she must have never had sex, since she says nothing about it. Instead of padding the book with minor repetitive information about her country or clothing her mother wears we need her to tear down the wall and let us in to her real life.
Even her marriage to Nick Jonas is confusing and lacks detail. Oh, she goes into the weird wedding ceremonies and customs, but actually talking about what she did with Nick to fall in love isn't in this book. They just exchange some emails for almost two years, get together a few times without really dating, and decide to get married on a whim, just like her parents did. Without explanations and stories it sounds like a fairy tale. And that's not a compliment for an adult memoir.
She finds a few things to complain about, such as her many flights from India to the U.S. in order to be a star in both countries or the negative internet commenters that she hates. Poor Priyanka, to be so rich and famous that she is tired from all that flying or that she actually has people calling her on some of her choices in a country where free speech is a basic right. Everything she gripes about is pretty insignificant. Priyanka's life, as presented here, has been picture perfect.
This short book (just over 200 pages) sounds like a cheerleader thanking all the people who helped her get ahead in life (with way too many unknown names in it from teachers to pageant officials to record executives) while trying to act humble in tacking on a final chapter that explores her "inner house" that includes her non-profit charity and her star husband. She promotes a new Netflix movie coming out this and ultimately it all feels like the book was put together as PR spin to further her career. It all comes across as being unnecessary and, truly, unfinished.
She does give a basic outline of her life and much of it in India is confusing. Unless you understand the culture or country, her details about places, people, and customs become boring because she doesn't explain much. She acts like she assumes we know what she's talking about. Nowhere does she explain the caste system or how she can live with her rich upbringing (she had servants to do everything for her) while bemoaning the poor in the streets.
Her parents treat her like a princess and do whatever she wants, with a stage mother who practically pushes her into everything while Priyanka's younger brother gets ignored. The author wants to convince us how wonderful her parents are, but they often abandon their children for months or years at a time. There's a horrible story of how at age seven her mother takes her hours away to a boarding school without telling her she will be left there--Priyanka sits on the playground day after day looking at the gate waiting for her mom to return and rescue her. What kind of parent does that without talking to the child first? She chalks this up to her great parents teaching her how to be independent; I read it as being the reason she grew to be an very insecure adult who hates to be alone or ever be criticized. They certainly were not the ideal parents she makes them out to be.
The really interesting section is about her three years in America as a teenager, living with relatives and not her parents. Sadly, it's way too short and lacks many details. She clearly states that her years in "conservative" Iowa and Indiana were amazingly positive and accepting of her ethnicity; meanwhile her times in New York City and Boston were filled with bigotry and bullying. When she moves back to her own country to finish high school, she continues to be looked down upon by fellow upper class Indians (including her relatives) for being too dark skinned or speaking with a bit of an accent. Yet she fails to make the connection that the people in her life that accepted her were the conservative Christians, and the ones that rejected her were the liberals. Has she not figured out that she married a guy raised in a conservative Christian culture, which represents the only positive acceptance she ever had in life?
Whenever the book goes to India she writes in more detail but it's much less interesting. She stumbles into a Bollywood career with absolutely no acting experience. She then is plucked by American record producers for a music career even though she never sang a note professionally in her life (her singing voice was dubbed in Bollywood films). And then a TV executive calls her out of nowhere asking if she'd consider acting in America, giving her a chance to audition for a lead role in what becomes Quantico. No work involved, no working her way up like normal people. She obviously was selected due to her looks and upper class style, though she doesn't want to admit it. I'm still baffled at how she was selected for any of these things without any experience (especially the recording deal, which makes no sense as she tells it), proving that life isn't fair for average people--it's the rich, beautiful folks that get the breaks.
If you're looking for any personal insights into her dating years, forget it. There's nothing here. She at times uses a paragraph to summarize many years instead of giving us stories worth reading. There is no mention of any drug usage (extremely rare in a celebrity memoir) and based on this book you assume she must have never had sex, since she says nothing about it. Instead of padding the book with minor repetitive information about her country or clothing her mother wears we need her to tear down the wall and let us in to her real life.
Even her marriage to Nick Jonas is confusing and lacks detail. Oh, she goes into the weird wedding ceremonies and customs, but actually talking about what she did with Nick to fall in love isn't in this book. They just exchange some emails for almost two years, get together a few times without really dating, and decide to get married on a whim, just like her parents did. Without explanations and stories it sounds like a fairy tale. And that's not a compliment for an adult memoir.
She finds a few things to complain about, such as her many flights from India to the U.S. in order to be a star in both countries or the negative internet commenters that she hates. Poor Priyanka, to be so rich and famous that she is tired from all that flying or that she actually has people calling her on some of her choices in a country where free speech is a basic right. Everything she gripes about is pretty insignificant. Priyanka's life, as presented here, has been picture perfect.
This short book (just over 200 pages) sounds like a cheerleader thanking all the people who helped her get ahead in life (with way too many unknown names in it from teachers to pageant officials to record executives) while trying to act humble in tacking on a final chapter that explores her "inner house" that includes her non-profit charity and her star husband. She promotes a new Netflix movie coming out this and ultimately it all feels like the book was put together as PR spin to further her career. It all comes across as being unnecessary and, truly, unfinished.
February 11, 2021
I always feel weird when rating memoirs, because it feels as if I'm essentially rating someone's life and how they've decided to tell their own personal stories. However, I have no doubts about giving this five stars, because although you can tell that this wasn't done by an individual who writes professionally - and though there are editing tidbits i would have suggested (like telling it more chronologically instead of an essay form divided by theme) - I felt it was a more than solid writing debut and, what matters most to me with memoirs, it held Priyanka Chopra Jonas' personality and character; her honesty and humor shined and I just couldn't stop reading about her life.
There are a few specific parts I want to point out that I found particularly interesting and I think are the stand-outs of the book. Firstly, it's Chopra Jonas writing about the grief of losing her father and the depression that followed. I appreciated her honesty about going through losing a loved one and the pain that still lingers as I could connect with my own personal losses that have happened fairly recently, and I also appreciated her honest self-reflection about the mistake in not seeking out help and therapy, which she probably should have. I think it tells a lot about a person that they can look at their past and say "I do think I handled it badly and could have done better, even if I understand why I did it" and it's something Chopra Jonas does a couple of times throughout the book. As someone who got to a better mental state without therapy, it's something that can happen, but much like Chopra Jonas herself I also know I could have benefitted from therapy and actual professional help, and I just found it refreshing to see.
Secondly, I loved the way Chopra Jonas wrote about the setbacks she had in her career, and calling out the problems within the film industry - specifically in India with the favoritism and nepotism, but also in the rest of the world. She was open and candid, and it felt like it was important to read about. She is an incredibly resiliant woman who has worked hard for everything she has achieved, and I'm pleased to see her speak up and use her platform for good.
Lastly, I very much appreciated that Chopra Jonas used this memoir to also address the mistakes she has made in her life, and she handled that as openly and honestly as all the other topics in the book. She explained and called out the colorism in Indian culture, and has admitted her own fault in being complicit in it by endorsing skin-lightening products, and simply and honestly apologising for it. Like I said before, Chopra Jonas admits her faults and apologises for some mistakes that, with her platform, could have harmed others, and I'm incredibly glad that she took this opportunity to do that. It's important that people recognise what their impact could be in the world, and how complicit they could be within a damaged, corrupt and harmful system, apologise for it and work to change it.
My appreciation of Priyanka Chopra Jonas as an actress, producer, humanitarian and a human being in general has only been deepened, and I'm excited to see her future projects.
There are a few specific parts I want to point out that I found particularly interesting and I think are the stand-outs of the book. Firstly, it's Chopra Jonas writing about the grief of losing her father and the depression that followed. I appreciated her honesty about going through losing a loved one and the pain that still lingers as I could connect with my own personal losses that have happened fairly recently, and I also appreciated her honest self-reflection about the mistake in not seeking out help and therapy, which she probably should have. I think it tells a lot about a person that they can look at their past and say "I do think I handled it badly and could have done better, even if I understand why I did it" and it's something Chopra Jonas does a couple of times throughout the book. As someone who got to a better mental state without therapy, it's something that can happen, but much like Chopra Jonas herself I also know I could have benefitted from therapy and actual professional help, and I just found it refreshing to see.
Secondly, I loved the way Chopra Jonas wrote about the setbacks she had in her career, and calling out the problems within the film industry - specifically in India with the favoritism and nepotism, but also in the rest of the world. She was open and candid, and it felt like it was important to read about. She is an incredibly resiliant woman who has worked hard for everything she has achieved, and I'm pleased to see her speak up and use her platform for good.
Lastly, I very much appreciated that Chopra Jonas used this memoir to also address the mistakes she has made in her life, and she handled that as openly and honestly as all the other topics in the book. She explained and called out the colorism in Indian culture, and has admitted her own fault in being complicit in it by endorsing skin-lightening products, and simply and honestly apologising for it. Like I said before, Chopra Jonas admits her faults and apologises for some mistakes that, with her platform, could have harmed others, and I'm incredibly glad that she took this opportunity to do that. It's important that people recognise what their impact could be in the world, and how complicit they could be within a damaged, corrupt and harmful system, apologise for it and work to change it.
My appreciation of Priyanka Chopra Jonas as an actress, producer, humanitarian and a human being in general has only been deepened, and I'm excited to see her future projects.
April 6, 2021
I first became aware of the author long before most Westerners, having been a fan of her 'Bollywood' films a decade before she made a splash in Hollywood - I even have an 11 year old all black cat I named after her. So I was curious to read of her life and get the inside scoop. Although never less than interesting, and surprisingly well-written (she's no dummy!), I was slightly disappointed that her Indian career in films is given rather short shrift - only a handful are even mentioned, and none in great detail- and also that she is rather reticent to discuss her romantic life before her fairytale marriage to Mr. Jonas (given that there are rumors about affairs with two of Bollywood's biggest married superstars, that is perhaps understandable). Nonetheless, she's lived a fascinating and varied life (who knew she attended high school largely in the US?), and it was a fast and enjoyable, if not particularly memorable read.
March 15, 2021
this book made me so upset.
it was poorly written (super basic structure + weird organization that any decent editor should have spiced up) & taught me literally nothing more than what i already know about priyanka from instagram...
kind of felt like the goal was to write a book rather than to properly reflect or share unseen insight into her life.
the worst part is i think she actually has an unparalleled, ridiculously amazing career.
it didn’t have to be this way (iykyk)
it was poorly written (super basic structure + weird organization that any decent editor should have spiced up) & taught me literally nothing more than what i already know about priyanka from instagram...
kind of felt like the goal was to write a book rather than to properly reflect or share unseen insight into her life.
the worst part is i think she actually has an unparalleled, ridiculously amazing career.
it didn’t have to be this way (iykyk)
February 14, 2021
I think Priyanka Chopra is a great actress and is thriving as an entrepreneur and as a person. However, this book is not for us desis who may already know quite about her by following her on social media or by watching all her interviews. I felt that you didn't really get much out of the book in terms of who she is other than what we've already seen or heard before. Other than that, I felt like the way she spoke about her family was super touching and the book was well written.
More thoughts on this in my dedicated review here: https://youtu.be/cG1Ku3xmwJw
More thoughts on this in my dedicated review here: https://youtu.be/cG1Ku3xmwJw
April 5, 2021
There are so many books on my list that are to be read but I was curious to read Priyanka Chopra Jonas’s memoir as I found her journey distinct. Hence I picked this book as soon as it was released. But to my surprise, there was nothing in here which is unknown to people about her journey, the chances she had taken to be where she is right now. We get all this information from her interviews. I felt that the book is kind of superficial as I didn't find much of her lows or vulnerabilities in her book. Out of nowhere, without efforts, she got Miss world. She doesn't mention much about that journey. It was disappointing. I picked this book to learn how dedicated she has been to accomplish her goals. I still love her but I expected more that's all.
Her writing style is good( first book as an author.) She is bold, sassy, funny. I can feel she is being herself when she is describing her life. Some parts of her book make you laugh, too. The kind of support she gets from her parents to pursue whatever she wants is incredible. I had tears when she gets her tatto and shows that to her father. And I felt very emotional when she lost her father. The lack of seriousness in diagnosing the illness correctly led to his death. That was heartbreaking for me. She doesn't mention much about her love life. However, I loved Nick Jonas. He is a nice person. In this world, where in many parts of the world patriarchy still exist, having found a guy like that who doesn't find fault in her for being very ambitious is beautiful. It's great to see men supporting women to reach their goals.
It's 3/5.
Her writing style is good( first book as an author.) She is bold, sassy, funny. I can feel she is being herself when she is describing her life. Some parts of her book make you laugh, too. The kind of support she gets from her parents to pursue whatever she wants is incredible. I had tears when she gets her tatto and shows that to her father. And I felt very emotional when she lost her father. The lack of seriousness in diagnosing the illness correctly led to his death. That was heartbreaking for me. She doesn't mention much about her love life. However, I loved Nick Jonas. He is a nice person. In this world, where in many parts of the world patriarchy still exist, having found a guy like that who doesn't find fault in her for being very ambitious is beautiful. It's great to see men supporting women to reach their goals.
It's 3/5.
February 23, 2021
Oh dear. I was excited about this memoir! I loved Quantico when it was on tv! But I felt like this memoir didn’t delve deep enough. It was an easy quick take on Priyanka’s life from childhood to Miss World to Bollywood to Hollywood. The random hashtags she threw in throughout the book gave me a full body cringe and completely took me out of the story (what kinda editor approves that?!). I did love that she read the audio herself, hearing about her extended family and parents who always took care of each other, and getting the back story on how her and Nick fell in love. I just think this one had more potential. #missedthemark
Want to read
February 11, 2021So she wasn't kidding when she said it in that Vogue interview that she'll name her book Unfinished, huh😅
April 17, 2021
More comers than content.
This book was my first experience with memoirs/autobiography, and I did not enjoy it. I believe that whatever way you choose to talk about yourself, you should remain a bit humble and let the people decide how great you are and how amazing are the things you have done. In this book, more than two hundred pages, the author gave me the feeling of showing off and over-exaggerating her achievements. She is Priyanka Chopra, not Meryl Streep, after all! The campaign of the book was emphasizing on self-development, building up self-confidence, and shaping one character. However, I did not find this kind of pattern, on the contrary, the author does not lack confidence, and it was visible from the very beginning! To sum up, this is a book about a very ambitious woman where it is hard to say if she is an actress, singer, model, humanist or feminist. To me, this is a person who wants to be in the middle of attention, and this book is just one of the many steps that she took to achieve it.
This book was my first experience with memoirs/autobiography, and I did not enjoy it. I believe that whatever way you choose to talk about yourself, you should remain a bit humble and let the people decide how great you are and how amazing are the things you have done. In this book, more than two hundred pages, the author gave me the feeling of showing off and over-exaggerating her achievements. She is Priyanka Chopra, not Meryl Streep, after all! The campaign of the book was emphasizing on self-development, building up self-confidence, and shaping one character. However, I did not find this kind of pattern, on the contrary, the author does not lack confidence, and it was visible from the very beginning! To sum up, this is a book about a very ambitious woman where it is hard to say if she is an actress, singer, model, humanist or feminist. To me, this is a person who wants to be in the middle of attention, and this book is just one of the many steps that she took to achieve it.
February 23, 2021
I am fond of reading biographies. It was nice to read it. One of the exception is that she referred her as a small town girl does not seem accurate. Being lived in various cities like Bombay, Jamshedpur and Delhi and studied in US does not claim her to be girl of small town.
Whenever a person goes to great heights in life there is great contribution from parents, relatives, backgrounds and surroundings. Priyanka was quite lucky that she got all such support. She entirely missed her father when he passed away and it was nice and humourous to read about her marriage in indian surroudings and traditions. Her mother was bold enough to take crucial decisions about her life and entirely support her in career. Overall, it was nice to read to know about her miss world journey, acting career and later her life is US..
Whenever a person goes to great heights in life there is great contribution from parents, relatives, backgrounds and surroundings. Priyanka was quite lucky that she got all such support. She entirely missed her father when he passed away and it was nice and humourous to read about her marriage in indian surroudings and traditions. Her mother was bold enough to take crucial decisions about her life and entirely support her in career. Overall, it was nice to read to know about her miss world journey, acting career and later her life is US..
October 27, 2021
rating- 5/5
i've read quite a few biographies and memoirs, but this one stuck with me for some reason. i love the impromptu writing, her way of making things seem so simple. i've always admired Priyanka so i knew i had to read the book, but i didn't know just how much i would enjoy it.
unfinished gives the reader an insight on Priyanka's early life and career. the book talks about her journey from being a tiny little girl to a confident and established woman. a number of things that stand out in this book, for me are:-
first : the chapter about losing her dad and the depression that followed. the description of her grief and how it affected her, helped me a lot. the following quote is from the same chapter and is something i still come back to, days after reading the book.
(a number of reviews did talk about how if the story were written more chronologically instead of an essay format divided by theme, it would have been a better read and though i might agree, i feel like that didn't bother me as much and in fact, helped with the impromptu and candid approach of storytelling)
According to me, it was pretty good for a writing debut.
lastly, I'm Indian, so i LOVED that she constantly refers to our traditions and culture and explains them really well for somebody who might not. Loved the wedding chapters < 3. I absolutely adore nick and priyanka together:)
overall, the book does a great job at highlighting different problems in the film industry, India and the world without diverting from her life. she talks about how she wants to use her platform for the better and i think this book is definitely an example of that.
i've read quite a few biographies and memoirs, but this one stuck with me for some reason. i love the impromptu writing, her way of making things seem so simple. i've always admired Priyanka so i knew i had to read the book, but i didn't know just how much i would enjoy it.
unfinished gives the reader an insight on Priyanka's early life and career. the book talks about her journey from being a tiny little girl to a confident and established woman. a number of things that stand out in this book, for me are:-
first : the chapter about losing her dad and the depression that followed. the description of her grief and how it affected her, helped me a lot. the following quote is from the same chapter and is something i still come back to, days after reading the book.
"For me, one of the hardest things to accept in life is that control is an illusion. I hate that I can’t control what happens in my life, but I can’t. Loss happens. Failure happens. Sorrow happens. I can’t always control where I’m headed, either. Sometimes sadness is the destination, whether or not it’s where I want to go. During my time there I had to learn to trust that I was visiting for a reason, but that it would not be my permanent place of residence, my forever state of being. That, like water, I would flow past it eventually and end up where I was meant to be."second : despite this being a memoir filled with her life events, the way it is narrated makes it a fun and pleasant read. her personality and humour shine through the pages of the book.
(a number of reviews did talk about how if the story were written more chronologically instead of an essay format divided by theme, it would have been a better read and though i might agree, i feel like that didn't bother me as much and in fact, helped with the impromptu and candid approach of storytelling)
According to me, it was pretty good for a writing debut.
lastly, I'm Indian, so i LOVED that she constantly refers to our traditions and culture and explains them really well for somebody who might not. Loved the wedding chapters < 3. I absolutely adore nick and priyanka together:)
overall, the book does a great job at highlighting different problems in the film industry, India and the world without diverting from her life. she talks about how she wants to use her platform for the better and i think this book is definitely an example of that.
March 21, 2021
Rating 3.75
I hadn't known much about Priyanka Chopra before reading this. I had seen her on Quantico and liked her acting.
I like her voice and it's great that she narrated this herself.
Of course she is still young, so the title, Unfinished, is appropriate.
I found her story interesting, and think that she addressed a wide range of experiences and feelings as deeply as it's possible at this point in her life. I think it's difficult to do an in-depth analysis of your life experiences while you are still living it full speed - and she's basically in the living life to the fullest business.
Overall it reads like a full account of her life up to this point, with highlights of her emotions and feelings about her experiences.
I hadn't known much about Priyanka Chopra before reading this. I had seen her on Quantico and liked her acting.
I like her voice and it's great that she narrated this herself.
Of course she is still young, so the title, Unfinished, is appropriate.
I found her story interesting, and think that she addressed a wide range of experiences and feelings as deeply as it's possible at this point in her life. I think it's difficult to do an in-depth analysis of your life experiences while you are still living it full speed - and she's basically in the living life to the fullest business.
Overall it reads like a full account of her life up to this point, with highlights of her emotions and feelings about her experiences.
February 17, 2021
I don’t think I can really write a review of a memoir, so I’ll just say that this was fun. I listened to the audiobook narrated by Priyanka and while I do know the important events of her life story, it was exciting to know about some of the background stuff. I particularly enjoyed getting to know more about the Miss India and Miss World pageants. Also her small tidbits about the inner workings of Bollywood were interesting.
Overall, I enjoyed this one and as always, her love for her father and how much she misses him comes through very clearly.
Overall, I enjoyed this one and as always, her love for her father and how much she misses him comes through very clearly.
March 4, 2022
2.5 stars rounded off.
Priyanka Chopra is a big name. She is a self made woman and has had a fascinating life thus far. Managing a successful transition from the Hindi film industry to Hollywood is not a small achievement and she has many more credits to her name beyond this one. This memoir lets the reader take a small peek into the workings of her fascinating life.
It is an honest account. Priyanka is a great conversationalist but she's not an overly gifted author. Despite that I enjoyed the read.
Priyanka Chopra is a big name. She is a self made woman and has had a fascinating life thus far. Managing a successful transition from the Hindi film industry to Hollywood is not a small achievement and she has many more credits to her name beyond this one. This memoir lets the reader take a small peek into the workings of her fascinating life.
It is an honest account. Priyanka is a great conversationalist but she's not an overly gifted author. Despite that I enjoyed the read.
February 15, 2021
It’s a nice decent read. Nothing extra ordinary though
November 11, 2022
Reading this book after Prasad Kothari sir's article on movie analytics - https://www.kdnuggets.com/2013/12/mov... Great book.
dnf
July 18, 2025DNF
If you must know one thing about me it's that i can never, like NEVER, dnf a book. But this one compelled me to do so. Being a girl from brown family born in the early 2000s, PC has always been THE icon for me, the way she speaks, thinks, walks, carries herself, everything. So I was like reaaaaally excited to read her book since i thought it'd tell me more about her. But unfortunately halfway into the book i realised she didn't even let us any further into her life than what she has already told on TV. she has done a reaaally awesome job depicting her childhood and i loved it but the transition to a celebrity was such a poor job. i mean we buy the autobiography in hopes that it'd inspire us and tell us more about the person and make us feel like we know them personally. i don't know if it's just me but i really expected more from this book.
If you must know one thing about me it's that i can never, like NEVER, dnf a book. But this one compelled me to do so. Being a girl from brown family born in the early 2000s, PC has always been THE icon for me, the way she speaks, thinks, walks, carries herself, everything. So I was like reaaaaally excited to read her book since i thought it'd tell me more about her. But unfortunately halfway into the book i realised she didn't even let us any further into her life than what she has already told on TV. she has done a reaaally awesome job depicting her childhood and i loved it but the transition to a celebrity was such a poor job. i mean we buy the autobiography in hopes that it'd inspire us and tell us more about the person and make us feel like we know them personally. i don't know if it's just me but i really expected more from this book.
March 19, 2021
Astonishing and captivating read of an incredible unfinished story
I absolutely fell in love with this book from the first page to the last one I kept reading until I finished
I was truly mesmerised by the layout and the generosity of the book, when it comes to certain things, aspects, lessons, and experiences.
I was captivated by the stories that filled the pages of the book.
It was not just an individual story but rather a story about a multicultural International personality that has many aspects of each and everyone reading this book.
this is a must-read and by far one of my favorite memoirs till the date.
I absolutely fell in love with this book from the first page to the last one I kept reading until I finished
I was truly mesmerised by the layout and the generosity of the book, when it comes to certain things, aspects, lessons, and experiences.
I was captivated by the stories that filled the pages of the book.
It was not just an individual story but rather a story about a multicultural International personality that has many aspects of each and everyone reading this book.
this is a must-read and by far one of my favorite memoirs till the date.
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