Me [Hardcover]

Ricky Martin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 2, 2010

International superstar, Ricky Martin, who has sold more than 60 million albums worldwide, opens up for the first time about memories of his early childhood, experiences in the famed boy band Menudo, struggles with his identity during the Livin’ la Vida Loca phenomenon, reflections on coming to terms with his sexuality, relationships that allowed him to embrace love, and life-changing decisions like devoting himself to helping children around the world and becoming a father. Me is an intimate memoir about the very liberating and spiritual journey of one of the most iconic pop-stars of our time.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"In the process of revealing the human being behind the artist, Ricky Martin offers us a testimonyof exemplary honesty and greatness of soul. While I was reading, I remembered a verse from the Persian poet Hafez, ‘Not even seven thousand years of joy can justify seven years of repression.’"—Paulo Coelho



"Ricky Martin has written an extraordinary memoir, the story of a tortured soul who healedhimself by returning to the state of innocence and authenticity. His story will speak to you,because it is, in a sense, the story of humanity—of the sacred and the profane, of forbidden lust and unconditional love. It takes courage to be so ruthlessly honest and transparent, but it is only this kind of courage and this kind of love that can heal the world. Bravo!"—Deepak Chopra, M.D.

About the Author

Joining Latin pop group Menudo at the age of 12 as lead singer, Martin had scored countless #1 singles globally prior to making his mark in the US with his worldwide hit, "Livin' La Vida Loca." Throughout his 25-year musical career, he has sold over 60 million albums and has won numerous GRAMMY awards, American Music Awards and Billboard Awards. Martin is also a devoted humanitarian, having established The Ricky Martin Foundation. He lives between Miami and San Juan, Puerto Rico.

En Español:

Despues de incorporarse al grupo Menudo a los doce anos, Ricky Martin tuvo innumerables sencillos #1 en todo el mundo antes de dejar su huella en los Estados Unidos con el megaexito internacional, "Livin' La Vida Loca." A lo largo de su carrera musical la cual abarca mas de 25 anos, Ricky Martin ha vendido mas de 60 millones de albumes y ha sido galardonado con numerosos premios GRAMMY, American Music Awards y Billboard Awards. Martin es tambien un activista humanitario dedicado a proteger los derechos de los ninos en todo el mundo a traves de su fundacion - Ricky Martin Foundation. El reside entre Miami y San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Celebra Hardcover (November 2, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451234154
• ISBN-13: 978-0451234155
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (88 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #12,473 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #9 in Books > Gay & Lesbian > Biographies & Memoirs
  • #43 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Arts & Literature > Composers & Musicians

More About the Author

Joining Latin pop group Menudo at the age of 12 as lead singer, Ricky Martin had scored countless #1 singles globally prior to making his mark in the US with his worldwide hit, "Livin' La Vida Loca." Throughout his 25-year musical career, he has sold over 60 million albums and has won numerous GRAMMY awards, American Music Awards and Billboard Awards. Martin is also a devoted humanitarian, having established The Ricky Martin Foundation. He lives between Miami and San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

84 of 90 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Interesting Conversation with a Remarkable Man, November 2, 2010

By 

S. M. Hyde (NY, USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Me (Hardcover)

Ricky has written a very interesting book about his experiences as a performer and his journey to discover himself. As a fan for many years, I always wanted to have a long conversation with Ricky and he has given us that opportunity with this very personal book. From his unusual childhood to his recent revelations, the book is full of insight into a world that few have experienced. He is modest about his incredible professional accomplishments and sincere in his desire to reach out to others through his charitable work. He has a sense of humor about himself and a true appreciation for his many blessings. Some of the book is heart wrenching as he is frank in his description of his fears and self doubts, especially when discussing the discovery of his sexual identity and what he feared that might do to his future. I wish that he had not doubted that those of us who admire him would continue to do so, perhaps even more, because of his willingness to discuss those things that were most private to him. The discovery of his own personal joy and his love of parenthood is a pleasure to share with this very private and rather shy man. This was an enjoyable book.

61 of 65 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Much too guarded for an autobiography, November 18, 2010

By 

Braden Pickering (Maricopa, AZ) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Me (Hardcover)

I've always had a soft spot for Ricky Martin. On top of putting out some fun and catchy music, a lot of it quite underrated these days, he also just seemed like a generally nice guy. Needless to say I was very interested in reading his memoir, but even just a few pages into it I could already tell it was going to be a struggle to get through, even though I did persist to the very end.

As we all probably know by now, Ricky Martin is a very spiritual person, and the bulk of this book tells of his journey along that path. That alone doesn't bother me; in fact in a lot of ways I can relate to the tales of self reflection and the general "there's got to be more to life than this" moments of despair. Everyone should take a few minutes to breathe. However, that's basically ALL he seems to want to talk about. Even before these spiritual revelations, which are relatively recent, he seems to retroactively place this current mindset on past events, speaking of how he would view them taking place now as opposed to what he felt at the time. I can't tell you how many times he writes something off as "my destiny," or "it was time," or "was meant to be." Okay, but how did you feel? How did you react? He relies on this sort of generic "aligning of the cosmos" rhetoric way too much and in the end I feel like very little of his own personality came through because of it. Not only did it make for an extremely dull read, it also caused me to roll my eyes and scoff outloud many, many times at some of the cornball things he said, which is bad since I'm usually open to that kind of sentiment - in small doses. I just don't believe him to be as deep as he thinks.

Plus he pretty much breezes over major points in his life I'm sure his fans would like to know more about. The song writing process for one, could have been really interesting to read about. Or some fun anecdotes from his time with Menudo. A closer look at his relationship with his family, perhaps? I'm not necessarily asking for juicy sex life gossip or anything (not that it could hurt at this point, lol), but nothing here is especially revelatory or fascinating. At all. Like I said, this is all basically text book Ricky Martin, rather than a first person account of actual events. I will say that I did appreciate and admire his thoughts on fatherhood, philanthropy, child trafficking, and all the hard work he puts into his foundations around the world, and that shone through just fine. He's still an A+ guy, even if this book did him no favors in making him more relatable to the majority of his audience.

Listen, I know it's his book, his life, his story, and he can tell it any way he wants to. But that's just it - it didn't seem like he wanted to. For an autobiography, it struck me as awfully guarded, which defeats the purpose of penning one in the first place in my opinion. Recommended for only the most die hard fans and collectors.

52 of 57 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "The One And Only Ricky Martin", November 2, 2010

By 

Terry Richard "Terry Richard" (Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Me (Hardcover)

Born on Christmas Eve, 1971 in Puerto Rico, Ricky Martin found both fame as an actor and singer during the early nineties after he starred in the daytime soap opera "General Hospital" and recorded the worldwide hit "Livin' la Vido Loca".

In this very informative autobiography entitled "Me", Ricky documents his humble beginnings in South America where he achieved recording success being one of the most popular Latin singers ever, both as a member of the boy group Menudo and a popular solo act. He started acting in musical theatre and was hired for several daytime serials known as telenovelas. All this success would bring him to the attention of the American recording industry and the rest as they say became history.

Ricky discusses how he would become one of the most popular male singers in the 1990's with his english debut record called simply "Ricky Martin", how that record and its two huge singles propelled him into superstar status, and how he wasn't ready for such success.

The most informative part of the book is when he writes about his life as a closeted gay man in an industry where it's important for the female record-buying public to admire and lust after hunky male singers. He discusses how hard it was for him to remain silent on issues regarding his sexuality even after Barbara Walters asked him in a famous interview if he were gay. Finally, after years of silence, when even his close friends and family knew his secret, in 2010 via his Twitter account, Ricky announced his sexual orientation. He writes about that experience and how and why he decided this was the right time to "come out", and his feeling of relief after he pressed "send" on his computer after the revelation.

Ricky talks about his love of children and his eventual fatherhood of twin boys that he conceieved through a surrogate. He also discusses his love affair with a male Los Angeles DJ years ago, how it was love immediately, but realized due to an intense touring schedule that it could never really work.

Informative, funny, sad, regret, happiness, and relief are all elements in "Me", a book I read in one sitting about a man who had everything in the world: fame, money, children, friends, and a wonderful family, yet was missing one important element in life: the freedom to be who he was. However, on March 29, 2010 once Ricky stated to the world his true self, he would have everything. As an openly gay man I am proud of you Ricky Martin.