You Live, You Learn: The Alanis Morisette Story

by Craig Tomashoff

Follows the rise of the Canadian rock singer to phenomenal success and details her childhood, personal life, and the inspiration behind the lyrics to her songs, in a portrait that features exclusive interviews with friends and colleagues and photographs. Original.

186 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Craig Tomashoff may not have done it all during his 20+ years as a journalist but he’s certainly tried. He’s spent the night drinking heavily on a Utah mountaintop with Jon Bon Jovi, eaten bologna sandwiches with an O.J. Simpson juror’s family as the verdict was read and scaled a 250-foot Brazilian church tower while tethered to a corporate attorney. Whether he’s navigating through the wilds of Hollywood, jurisprudence or South American villages, he’s had the presence of mind to write about his experiences for a wide variety of publications, including People, the New York Times, TV Guide, the Los Angeles Times, the Boston Globe and The Hollywood Reporter.

Somewhere along the way, he’s also written the popular book You Live, You Learn: The Alanis Morissette Story and co-authored I’m Screaming As Fast As I Can: My Life in B-Movies with Linnea Quigley. Craig currently resides in Encino, California, where he enjoys embarrassing his children as often as possible with his love of ‘80s pop music and horrific puns. As well as remind them, or anyone who will listen, that Queen Latifah once taught him how to dance.

Reviews

[C. J. Scurria · Rating 3 out of 5]

Alanis Morisette. The girl with the voice. Starting as an innocent crooner from Ottowa, she rose to success with the release of Jagged Little Pill that saved the music business slump in the mid nineties. She climbed the Billboard charts and over a few months sold 15 million copies. Known to both praising fans and seething critics alike she was known and left a mark in the music industry.

Reading this made me re-live the songs I enjoyed, knowing the album inside and out this was a good book. Though it only covers such early territory in her career (she made a second U. S. album a few short years later) it was interesting to learn of her music past as a child.

A good, easy book to read.