What’s Your Vibe?: Tuning into your best life

by Craig David

*** I'm still learning, still making mistakes, but I feel ready now - after a lot of twists and turns along the way - to share my journey with you. In his much-anticipated first book, celebrated singer-songwriter Craig David takes us on a journey of connecting, disconnecting and reconnecting, weaving together stories of his life and music - starting with his early days in Southampton working with The Artful Dodger, to his overnight chart-topping success, through to the present day, and everything in between. This is Craig as we've never seen him before - the always-positive showman, baring his soul for the first time. From physical pain, lost love, public humiliation and depression, Craig takes us past his comfort zone, in a raw, honest and courageous account of his own lived experience. In opening up about how he overcame these obstacles, Craig shares his insight and provides practical advice that will help us to navigate the daily challenges we all face. This is Craig's story of how he learned to tune into his best life.

Genres: Nonfiction, Audiobook, Autobiography

272 pages, Hardcover

Published October 6, 2022

Reviews

[Queen Rebecca · Rating 2 out of 5]

Great to hear about Craig David's career, especially before his first hit, Rewind. Also brought back the nostalgia of 00s hits. However, I was not so much into the self help sections of the book because it feels like he takes normal everyday feelings and blows them into a life changing epiphany.

[Sarah Harding · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don’t usually read autobiographies but having been a fan of Craig since he first released music in 2000 I wanted to read this one. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and admire the way he talks about his mental health and the struggles he has faced, including being bullied at school. But not everyone will enjoy the book, particularly the second part which is more about self help. This book showed me that he is the lovely person I’ve always thought he was.

[J · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think this book is excellent. Beautifully written, super easy to follow and I don’t mind how self-helpy it gets at the end.

[Jade Long · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't usually read autobiographies, however I have always loved Craig David and wanted to give this a try. For me personally I absolutely loved this book, it was amazing to see someone talk openly about their mental health and their struggles and what they do to overcome it. This won't be everyone's cup of tea but for me it was brilliant.

[Alexi · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was painfully boring. I'm not a fan of self help/ memoir combos and hoped this leaned more towards memoir, but it didn't. It was very vague and had few concrete stories. The generic, cliche, overdone sayings and quotes were SO unoriginal. The only interesting thing he spoke about was his experience being humiliated by Bo Selecta. All his other stories were incredibly minute and mundane. NO, I do not care about your mint plants. Jesus Christ.

I cannot believe a celebrity's life is this boring?? Either he's not spilling the real tea, or his life really is that banal. I'm not sure which is worse. You would think a celeb memoir would have more interesting stories about, I don't know, being a celebrity?! Not ONE cool/funny story?? Really!?

In addition, he uses the words "vibes", "vibe", and "vibey" at least 70 times throughout the book. I had an audiobook, but if anyone with an ebook wants to use the search feature to see how many times those words come up, I'd be interested to see. He's way too old to be using the slang he used in this book and it was cringe. He's super flighty and believes in dumb shit like angel numbers. How did he solve his crippling back pain??? He didn't really say, did he? Or did I just miss it because I put the last part of the book on 2x speed because it was so unbearably bland? I know I caught something in there about him using alternative medicine, which seems on brand for him.

Yeah, this was trash.

[Natalie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great book this, I have loved Craig David since my younger years and absolutely loved his "vibe". He just never seems to age and his music was part of my life in a big way growing up so to read this was a delight.

It was a partial biography from Craig in that he briefly described how his career came to be, but this book focuses a lot on how he has had to learn to manage his own feelings when things don't always go to plan. No matter how much money you have and how much of a beautiful house you may have in such a beautiful place, you might still be unsettled and that's OK once you recognise it and accept that and deal with it.

From the outside, nobody would know anything about Craig's struggles as I am sure he always comes across as a very upbeat and positive person, always wanting to please everyone which he freely admits to, but sometimes he has had to learn to say no, to protect himself from taking on too much. I really enjoyed his honesty in this story and would have liked a longer read! Very easy to read and nice short chapters.

[Alanna Inserra · Rating 2 out of 5]

I probably didn’t pay enough attention to the second last sentence of the blurb…that this would be about Crag David giving advice. Why would anyone want this? Who knows. As this book progresses it becomes less about Craig David’s experiences, life and feelings and more of a preachy sermon full of basic cliches to live your best life. The earlier parts of the book, which were more memoir focused, I really enjoyed listening to. But then it lost the plot and I didn’t even finish the second last (or last) chapter of the book.

[Danielle · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was really great reading the first 100 pages (or so) of the book, it brought back a lot of nostalgia of the noughties.

I found it really interesting of how life was like before his major hit of Rewind - That I had no idea he had even wrote.

After that the book just becomes very boring and waffles a lot about nothing I found. I ended up giving up with less than 100 pages to go, but I just couldn't bare it.

[Jonny Brick · Rating 2 out of 5]

A little bit of memoir (with a few hundred words on Leigh Francis) but the clue to this book is that it's on the Happy Place imprint. There's a lot of stuff about intuition, gardening, holding space, being present and mindful all told via Craig's life lessons. It'll help lots of people but it doesn't make for nutritional prose.

[Adélie · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an amazing book! It was so heartwarming and such an amazing read. I am in awe of what this man has had to overcome (the bullying and racism). Such a kind hearted man. It made me feel even more connected to his songs. I really recommend the Audible version as hearing his voice reading his own book makes it even more special. If I could give more than 5 stars I would!

[Olof · Rating 2 out of 5]

Strong 2. Even though much of the pep-talk that this book partly is, feels truthful, I can not relate to Craig David as a person, which make it difficult for me to see that what he talks about apply to me. For a Self-Help book to work, that part is important. So I guess that part of the book is not for me. The Biography part is OK, not more.

[Lorette · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this book. I found the struggles and challenges something I can relate to. Growth, making mistakes and keep moving forward are key positive messages.
It really resonates with me how I am so closed off and I know we can all make changes.
Would recommend

[Jade Dilks · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great read if you want to know more about Craig's background, especially if you are a big fan like I am. My one criticism was it was sometimes very deep around the self help elements, I would've preferred it to be just a normal autobiography.

[Victoria Zuke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Craig talks openly about the rise of his career, and the time he spent away from the UK. He speaks openly about his struggles, physically and mentally, and how he overcame them. Candid memoir from a brilliant singer-songwriter.

[Spencer Preece · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bit too spiritual for me.

[Ellis Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just Bo Selecta

[Faye · Rating 4 out of 5]

Craig David seems a nice guy

[Carly · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. Having been a fan of Craig David’s since I was young I was happy when I was gifted this book last year. Definitely worth a read

[Alexie · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.75

[Helen Macklon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked finding out more about his life and it was interesting as he’s very earnest, an over thinker and a reformed people pleaser!

[Lizzie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Full of snippets

This is an amazing book. You think it's just a biography but it's so much more than that. Definitely worth a read.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars

[Cheryl R · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoyed Craig finally telling his story. I just wish that this book had more detail about his career..Craig has been one of the biggest stars in the U.K. and I feel a few things in this book were glazed over. I wanted to hear some backstage stories, the times he worked with artful dodger in depth. The time he was supposed to record a duet with Jennifer Lopez. Too much was glazed over and it became a bit of a self help book. Loved the tips but expected more from such a huge artist.

[CwtchUpBooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

A gentlemanly take on the music industry, mental health and bringing good vibes.