What do you think?
Rate this book
The One #1
Before Her
In this transportive memoir, the National Book Award–winning author of Brown Girl Dreaming traces the relationships in her past that would eventually deliver her to the love of a lifetime.
Before Jacqueline Woodson met Juliet, before her own self-realization, there were decades of friends, lovers, and family who defined the woman she’d become. In this haunting story of memory and identity, Jacqueline shares the profound impact they had on bending the path of her life; how they informed the dreams of her future; and how each one—some lost, all loved—would bring her to Juliet, her one and only.
Jacqueline Woodson’s Before Her is part of The One, a collection of seven singularly true love stories of friendship, companionship, marriage, and moving on. Each piece can be read or listened to in a single sitting, with or without company.
19 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 30, 2019
680 people are currently reading
1509 people want to read
About the author
Jacqueline Woodson
83 books9,099 followersI used to say I’d be a teacher or a lawyer or a hairdresser when I grew up but even as I said these things, I knew what made me happiest was writing.
I wrote on everything and everywhere. I remember my uncle catching me writing my name in graffiti on the side of a building. (It was not pretty for me when my mother found out.) I wrote on paper bags and my shoes and denim binders. I chalked stories across sidewalks and penciled tiny tales in notebook margins. I loved and still love watching words flower into sentences and sentences blossom into stories.
I also told a lot of stories as a child. Not “Once upon a time” stories but basically, outright lies. I loved lying and getting away with it! There was something about telling the lie-story and seeing your friends’ eyes grow wide with wonder. Of course I got in trouble for lying but I didn’t stop until fifth grade.
That year, I wrote a story and my teacher said “This is really good.” Before that I had written a poem about Martin Luther King that was, I guess, so good no one believed I wrote it. After lots of brouhaha, it was believed finally that I had indeed penned the poem which went on to win me a Scrabble game and local acclaim. So by the time the story rolled around and the words “This is really good” came out of the otherwise down-turned lips of my fifth grade teacher, I was well on my way to understanding that a lie on the page was a whole different animal — one that won you prizes and got surly teachers to smile. A lie on the page meant lots of independent time to create your stories and the freedom to sit hunched over the pages of your notebook without people thinking you were strange.
Lots and lots of books later, I am still surprised when I walk into a bookstore and see my name on a book’s binder. Sometimes, when I’m sitting at my desk for long hours and nothing’s coming to me, I remember my fifth grade teacher, the way her eyes lit up when she said “This is really good.” The way, I — the skinny girl in the back of the classroom who was always getting into trouble for talking or missed homework assignments — sat up a little straighter, folded my hands on the desks, smiled and began to believe in me.
I wrote on everything and everywhere. I remember my uncle catching me writing my name in graffiti on the side of a building. (It was not pretty for me when my mother found out.) I wrote on paper bags and my shoes and denim binders. I chalked stories across sidewalks and penciled tiny tales in notebook margins. I loved and still love watching words flower into sentences and sentences blossom into stories.
I also told a lot of stories as a child. Not “Once upon a time” stories but basically, outright lies. I loved lying and getting away with it! There was something about telling the lie-story and seeing your friends’ eyes grow wide with wonder. Of course I got in trouble for lying but I didn’t stop until fifth grade.
That year, I wrote a story and my teacher said “This is really good.” Before that I had written a poem about Martin Luther King that was, I guess, so good no one believed I wrote it. After lots of brouhaha, it was believed finally that I had indeed penned the poem which went on to win me a Scrabble game and local acclaim. So by the time the story rolled around and the words “This is really good” came out of the otherwise down-turned lips of my fifth grade teacher, I was well on my way to understanding that a lie on the page was a whole different animal — one that won you prizes and got surly teachers to smile. A lie on the page meant lots of independent time to create your stories and the freedom to sit hunched over the pages of your notebook without people thinking you were strange.
Lots and lots of books later, I am still surprised when I walk into a bookstore and see my name on a book’s binder. Sometimes, when I’m sitting at my desk for long hours and nothing’s coming to me, I remember my fifth grade teacher, the way her eyes lit up when she said “This is really good.” The way, I — the skinny girl in the back of the classroom who was always getting into trouble for talking or missed homework assignments — sat up a little straighter, folded my hands on the desks, smiled and began to believe in me.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 236 reviews
![Profile Image for s.penkevich [hiatus-will return-miss you all].](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.gr-assets.com%2Fimages%2FS%2Fcompressed.photo.goodreads.com%2Fusers%2F1735525095i%2F6431467._UX200_CR0%2C11%2C200%2C200_.jpg&w=128&q=75)
March 13, 2024
‘Before there was Juliet, there were the women who showed me the way to her,’ writes Jacqueline Woodson in this brief yet touching memoir short piece Before Her. Winding her way through memory lane and criss-crossing the timeline of her life, Woodson examines ‘the roads that I had to walk to meet the people who I needed to meet.’ There are roads of love and loss, friends who come and go and people who left this world but never her heart. It is a lovely little look into the life of this prolific author, chronicling not only the ways she changed over the years but the way the world changed as well. Yet amidst all the change and loss, she still finds the journey to be a pathway of life and love.
‘But sometimes living pulls back the skin of another life. A possibility.’
This was a really heartfelt read and I enjoyed learning a lot about Woodson. This brief story is not only about the big events in life, but how all the small ones amalgamate into something far greater and how even small events slowly point us in a fresh direction to new people, experiences, and understandings. Woodson experienced many losses and griefs of family and friends, though has accepted that ‘death tears away the skin of one life, exposing another.’ It is all another doorway to something new even if it means learning to live in the world without someone who had previously been a constant. ‘There were the friends whose deaths opened the doors to new friends I might not otherwise have ever known,’ she says, and it makes for a rather optimistic outlook where even grief can be a way to a fresh start.
A lovely read with equal parts sadness and joy. I liked her mention that her mother and grandmother stopped reading her books for being ‘too sad’ but her mother tells her she writes as well as her favorite author, Danielle Steel, but at least with Steel ‘there is a happy ending.’ While we don’t really meet Juliet here, at least we know this pathway lead to a happy ending for Woodson. A lovely book.
‘In this way, I learned to love, to lose, and to live. Living, loving, and dying. A circle unbroken.”
‘But sometimes living pulls back the skin of another life. A possibility.’
This was a really heartfelt read and I enjoyed learning a lot about Woodson. This brief story is not only about the big events in life, but how all the small ones amalgamate into something far greater and how even small events slowly point us in a fresh direction to new people, experiences, and understandings. Woodson experienced many losses and griefs of family and friends, though has accepted that ‘death tears away the skin of one life, exposing another.’ It is all another doorway to something new even if it means learning to live in the world without someone who had previously been a constant. ‘There were the friends whose deaths opened the doors to new friends I might not otherwise have ever known,’ she says, and it makes for a rather optimistic outlook where even grief can be a way to a fresh start.
A lovely read with equal parts sadness and joy. I liked her mention that her mother and grandmother stopped reading her books for being ‘too sad’ but her mother tells her she writes as well as her favorite author, Danielle Steel, but at least with Steel ‘there is a happy ending.’ While we don’t really meet Juliet here, at least we know this pathway lead to a happy ending for Woodson. A lovely book.
‘In this way, I learned to love, to lose, and to live. Living, loving, and dying. A circle unbroken.”
September 10, 2019
Before there was Juliet, there were the women who showed me the way to her, the roads that I had to walk to meet the people who I needed to meet. There were the friends whose deaths opened the doors to new friends I might not otherwise have ever known.
I’m a Woodson stan. If you are, too, I predict you’ll adore this short —very short —story.
Trigger warning for dog lovers:
I’m a Woodson stan. If you are, too, I predict you’ll adore this short —very short —story.
Trigger warning for dog lovers:
December 15, 2019
I enjoyed this ‘short’ memoir .... stream
of consciousness styling and memories! It’s ‘very’ short.
If you have Kindle unlimited..., you can read this for free or you can listen to it for free...or do both.
I listened to audiobook.
Things I took away:
....important people in Jacqueline’s life died while she was just coming of age.
By age 19 - she was clear of her lesbian sexuality.
She shares a little about her years in college in the 80’s...
.....about when she was a child in the 70s.... about her mother, her grandmother, her boyfriends, her girlfriends...
and ‘writing’.
A sentence that stayed with me was:
“Once a writer begins to have an interesting life, their writing begins to suffer”.
I’m not a writer - yet I relate to what Jacqueline said. I notice the more fun I have in my busy local life - the less I care about writing a review.., haha!!!
I’m normal right? Lol
Overall this is pretty memoir thin - in
size- but listening to this wonderful author express herself was enjoyable.
Jacqueline is the type of person that when she speaks- she demands our attention.
I thought it was a lovely short piece.
Thank you Cheri for bringing this book to my attention.
of consciousness styling and memories! It’s ‘very’ short.
If you have Kindle unlimited..., you can read this for free or you can listen to it for free...or do both.
I listened to audiobook.
Things I took away:
....important people in Jacqueline’s life died while she was just coming of age.
By age 19 - she was clear of her lesbian sexuality.
She shares a little about her years in college in the 80’s...
.....about when she was a child in the 70s.... about her mother, her grandmother, her boyfriends, her girlfriends...
and ‘writing’.
A sentence that stayed with me was:
“Once a writer begins to have an interesting life, their writing begins to suffer”.
I’m not a writer - yet I relate to what Jacqueline said. I notice the more fun I have in my busy local life - the less I care about writing a review.., haha!!!
I’m normal right? Lol
Overall this is pretty memoir thin - in
size- but listening to this wonderful author express herself was enjoyable.
Jacqueline is the type of person that when she speaks- she demands our attention.
I thought it was a lovely short piece.
Thank you Cheri for bringing this book to my attention.
December 5, 2019
A 17-page Amazon Original short story / autobiographical memoir by Jacqueline Woodson, one of those authors who has yet to disappoint me.
”Before there was Juliet, there were the people who showed me the way to her, the ones who lived and the ones who died, each bending the path of my life.”
This touches on so many events through her years leading up to the present, which includes some difficult years during the early years of AIDS, changes in the country and in the world, as well as in her life. Hoping all the while that someone would be the one who stayed.
”In this way, I learned to love, to lose, and to live. Living, loving, and dying. A circle unbroken.”
Lovely, and heartbreaking at times, it is, of course, beautifully written.
I listened to the audio of this, although I also borrowed the kindle version of this book and read along for free through Amazon’s Prime program, or you can buy it to read for $1.99.
Highly recommended for fans of Jacqueline Woodson
”Before there was Juliet, there were the people who showed me the way to her, the ones who lived and the ones who died, each bending the path of my life.”
This touches on so many events through her years leading up to the present, which includes some difficult years during the early years of AIDS, changes in the country and in the world, as well as in her life. Hoping all the while that someone would be the one who stayed.
”In this way, I learned to love, to lose, and to live. Living, loving, and dying. A circle unbroken.”
Lovely, and heartbreaking at times, it is, of course, beautifully written.
I listened to the audio of this, although I also borrowed the kindle version of this book and read along for free through Amazon’s Prime program, or you can buy it to read for $1.99.
Highly recommended for fans of Jacqueline Woodson
December 14, 2020
Interesting story about the many women and men who shaped the author to be ready for the love of her life, Juliet. But we never meet Juliet which was odd. I found the writing to be quite lovely in places, but the flow of the story went back and forth so much it was hard to track what time period the author was in. The ending felt a bit unfinished.
January 14, 2026
Meh! Not for me.
August 9, 2021
This is a short story from Amazon’s Original Stories. It is part of THE ONE, a collection of seven true love stories of friendship, companionship, marriage, and moving on.
December 13, 2023
The author’s winding road to finding love that has lasted more than 20 years. Short essay.
August 21, 2019
Death tears away the skin of one life, exposing another beneath it. Four months later, I would learn that I was pregnant.
This is a short story in yet another Amazon Collection, The One. The collection seems to focus on love and romance, including love for one's children, pets, as well as romantic partners.
"Before Her" is my favorite of this series so far. Jacqueline Woodson weaves a beautiful story of love, death, and how all the little events - bad or good - in ones life lead to where you are. Woodson's writing is wise and lyrical. I am immediately seeking more books from this author.
I always enjoy these Amazon Collections as the stories are short and easily digested over your morning coffee, a lunch break, or (as is often in my case) right before nodding off to bed. You get a short sampling of an authors work, and I have found a few new favorite authors I otherwise wouldn't have found through reading these.
This is a short story in yet another Amazon Collection, The One. The collection seems to focus on love and romance, including love for one's children, pets, as well as romantic partners.
"Before Her" is my favorite of this series so far. Jacqueline Woodson weaves a beautiful story of love, death, and how all the little events - bad or good - in ones life lead to where you are. Woodson's writing is wise and lyrical. I am immediately seeking more books from this author.
I always enjoy these Amazon Collections as the stories are short and easily digested over your morning coffee, a lunch break, or (as is often in my case) right before nodding off to bed. You get a short sampling of an authors work, and I have found a few new favorite authors I otherwise wouldn't have found through reading these.
March 7, 2022
3.5 stars
February 16, 2021
But sometimes living pulls back the skin of another life. A possibility.
A tiny memoir of love and finding the one. Sweet, simple, lovely as all of Woodson's writing always is.
January 20, 2020
I've read several of Jacqueline Woodson's work and have enjoyed them. When I picked up Before Her, I was just looking for a quick, low commitment, read before bed because I didn't want to start a new book at 11pm on a work night. I didn't know that it was nonfiction and tells the story of how she met her longterm partner. I'm currently a twenty-something navigating the nightmare that is dating so I'm always a sucker for these kinds of books. Woodson writes with a carefulness, a hesitancy almost, that I find really endearing.
I also have 7 of these short stories from Amazon's "The One" series and couldn't decide if I was going to count them in my 2020 reading challenge but I'm going to. They remind me of Love, Actually and it's cute.
I also have 7 of these short stories from Amazon's "The One" series and couldn't decide if I was going to count them in my 2020 reading challenge but I'm going to. They remind me of Love, Actually and it's cute.
Read
December 8, 2019Shes gay. And before this past girlfriend (one of many) things were different.
She is someone that dates alot and doesnt hold back expressing herself. She stands out and her life has changed after meeting her.
This was cute and quick.
She is someone that dates alot and doesnt hold back expressing herself. She stands out and her life has changed after meeting her.
This was cute and quick.
December 31, 2021
Delightful!
That was surprising, refreshing and I wanted more. I always enjoy wanting more when a book ends, that's one surefire way to let me known how invested I was. How invested I may still be. Good times.
That was surprising, refreshing and I wanted more. I always enjoy wanting more when a book ends, that's one surefire way to let me known how invested I was. How invested I may still be. Good times.
August 1, 2019
3.75 stars. Beautifully written vignette about love. I would love to see it become a full memoir.
August 23, 2020
"Living, loving, and dying. A circle unbroken."
September 18, 2019
This is a short memoir. It feels honest but seems to be missing heart, or maybe emotion. The topics and content should have been intriguing, but instead it felt like a lot of disconnect thoughts with too little real depth or storytelling. Something about it just didn’t flow for me. I had trouble caring, despite all the brief mentions of potential intrigue. I think it would have been better had it just been one brief moment or story from her life that had a significant impact.
Others are mentioned so quickly, briefly, and casually that it’s hard to understand their potential impact on her life. It has these moments that drew me in, but then it failed to hold me after drawing me in. It flitted from thought to thought so fast that I couldn’t really enjoy or appreciate the thoughts. Then, it ends abruptly, without it feeling like an ending. I don’t love it in this format, but maybe if it were a full memoir, I would like it far better.
Pages: 17
Others are mentioned so quickly, briefly, and casually that it’s hard to understand their potential impact on her life. It has these moments that drew me in, but then it failed to hold me after drawing me in. It flitted from thought to thought so fast that I couldn’t really enjoy or appreciate the thoughts. Then, it ends abruptly, without it feeling like an ending. I don’t love it in this format, but maybe if it were a full memoir, I would like it far better.
Pages: 17
September 14, 2020
This very short memoir is open, forthcoming, chatty and sweet. In it, Woodson touches upon the events through the years that led her to the woman she loves and to whom she is committed today. It gives glimpses into the way the world impacted her view of herself as a lesbian woman. I found it warm, real and sometimes heartbreaking.
”Before there was Juliet, there were the people who showed me the way to her, the ones who lived and the ones who died, each bending the path of my life.”
”Before there was Juliet, there were the people who showed me the way to her, the ones who lived and the ones who died, each bending the path of my life.”
October 9, 2019
The audiobook was available for free through Amazon Prime, so I decided to listen to it on my way home. It was a short story oscillating from sweet to serious; a good reminder that I have a lot of time ahead of me. I'm starting to feel pressure to meet certain life milestones, but I shouldn't think I need to decide accomplish it all by 26.
August 6, 2019
This 17-page memoir of Woodson's love life up to the current love of her life was touching and lovely. She told a story most of us are familiar with, of love found and lost, and found again. I would love for her to expand on this and turn it into something more for her readers.
July 14, 2022
Very beautifully written and there were some enjoyable moments and lines that hit deep, but it's also very easy to get lost in the timelines of her life and experiences.
July 3, 2023
Woodson gives reader a real insight into her complex dating life before she finds her true love Juliet. It’s quite endearing and lovely.
In the memoir, we get a beautiful and complicated history of past lovers, relationships, and friendships as Woodson comes of age before ever meeting present-day Juliet. In the process, Woodson endures good and bad things like the birth of children, dance and theatre, the many deaths of friends, and the casualties of American politics, racism, and white supremacy. But through it all there remains love.
The path is carved out for her to share and bend her love to Juliet. In this short, we never get to see Juliet, but we know she is someone that Woodson is dearly passionate and earnest for within these pages.
3.5 stars
In the memoir, we get a beautiful and complicated history of past lovers, relationships, and friendships as Woodson comes of age before ever meeting present-day Juliet. In the process, Woodson endures good and bad things like the birth of children, dance and theatre, the many deaths of friends, and the casualties of American politics, racism, and white supremacy. But through it all there remains love.
The path is carved out for her to share and bend her love to Juliet. In this short, we never get to see Juliet, but we know she is someone that Woodson is dearly passionate and earnest for within these pages.
3.5 stars
May 22, 2022
Beautiful first of seven short stories from various women writers. This first one comes from Jacqueline Woodson as she chronicles the women who came before her wife and helped shape Jacqueline and prepare her for her future, her marriage and their motherhood with their children. How have I not seen this before today? Simply exquisite. Thanks so my dear friend Barbara for pointing the way.
June 20, 2025
Confusing!? Grieving?! Jezelle Bell! Crazy??
August 17, 2022
Pretty good quick Audible about a female love story.
September 15, 2019
"I prefer the company of the theater and the arts." Me too.
I typically don't enjoy short stories, as they aren't long enough to leave an impact. While 17 pages still isn't really long enough to make a huge impact, this was an enjoyable read. I'm so glad Woodson found her Juliet!
I typically don't enjoy short stories, as they aren't long enough to leave an impact. While 17 pages still isn't really long enough to make a huge impact, this was an enjoyable read. I'm so glad Woodson found her Juliet!
September 15, 2019
someday I will write my memoirs...
July 20, 2022
I understand its a short story....but I would more call this a longer poem. I was too short to understand her timeline or what was going on.
August 28, 2022
You don't always have to kiss a few frogs to find your prince(ss). Sometimes, they're all princes and princesses, and they help you to find the one meant for you.
March 24, 2021
“I didn’t know that the movies I watched, the music I danced to, the marches I screamed in, the guys I snuggled and giggled and got stoned with would leave this world one by one, sometimes mind before body, sometimes with only our crew as family, sometimes completely alone.”
I’ve just read this on the bus on the kindle app, and really liked it.
It’s a very short memoir, which I quite liked, and overviewed the key memories in the authors life. Following from childhood, through the AIDS crisis through to her present life.
Beautifully written, almost reads like poetry
I’ve just read this on the bus on the kindle app, and really liked it.
It’s a very short memoir, which I quite liked, and overviewed the key memories in the authors life. Following from childhood, through the AIDS crisis through to her present life.
Beautifully written, almost reads like poetry
Displaying 1 - 30 of 236 reviews