Customer Reviews

Me

5 star:		(49)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

I got this book last night and finished it this morning.

It's wonderful.

Ricky Martin tells the story of his life -- from Menudo to fatherhood and everything in between -- with charm, humor, and the grace that has made him an international superstar for two decades. What separates this book from the pack is that Ricky tells his story -- he doesn't drop names at all, and he doesn't opt for headline-grabbing lascivious details that are so typical of celebrity tell-alls. This is the classy story of a classy guy. Moving, powerful, and inspiring. 5 VERY BIG STARS.

Zac Bissonnnette

Author of Debt-Free U: How I Paid for an Outstanding College Education Without Loans, Scholarships, or Mooching off My Parents

Shucks, I like this guy. I'm from Puerto Rico but didn't become a fan until his MTV Unplugged years. I started researching him and found out that the media handled his sexuality with crudeness and homophobic attitudes. Dealing with all of that couldn't have been easy.

After reading this, my admiration grows. Not only did he have to survive the homophobic comments from media and newspapers regarding his sexuality, he had to get over his own self-hatred as well (also fueled by the media exposure, he even says so in the book.) Best of all ---pay attention, public relations students--- he came out on his own terms, first by Twitter then the book, and dealt with this touchy issue without giving the press a chance to walk all over him. Not only will his career be better for it, he has changed perceptions of a lot of people in the world. Good for him!

As for the book, its clear he wrote it in Spanish (the edition I own) because all of the Puerto Rican idioms and wordings that no translator can easily fake. So if you can read in Spanish, get it in Spanish, his true personality shines best in the original language.

I only docked a point because he is so on-message that if you saw the Oprah interview, you get the gist of the book. I guess he's still hurt over the bad press, because everything he says on interviews is practically lifted from the book, word by word. A sensible choice, considering the state of mass media these days. So skip the interviews and get the book, its a good read.

Many critics claim that `Me' could have been written by any gay person. But who would read an autobiography by just any random person? We live in a society where celebrity status leads us to believe people like Ricky Martin are more important than the person living next door....

Ricky Martin writes in a very humble way. He knows that he is more than his music and fame. If it were not for his fans, he knows that he would still be slumming around Puerto Rico. This is the thing that keeps the details about his career from falling completely flat.

Martin is at his best when talking about his grandparents and children. His dedication is worth an excellent rating all by itself, but I cannot rate a book on one detail.

I am glad that he keeps personal facts about his relationships to himself...he talks about how the different relationships made him feel, but he does not give names or explicit descriptions. (If this is what you are expecting, then you are wasting your time.)

My favorite part of `Me' is when Martin discusses his trips to India and his fight against human trafficking. I really felt the emotions he explains during these aspects of his life. The peace that he felt while trying to find his `silence' is enough to make readers sigh some relief. His anger (I am putting this lightly) and disgust for people who prostitute children is gut-wrenching.

Maybe it is due to translations, but the rest of his story comes across with an air of indifference. Or maybe he realizes that his struggle to accept his homosexuality is nothing compared to what these children (who should not know about any sexuality yet) are going through.

And for those who say that this story is a waste of paper because you already `knew' that Ricky Martin was gay...get over yourselves. He makes it very clear that he always `knew' too--but it was never the right time to say something about it until he actually did it.

Like many others, I would have liked to see some pictures...especially of his travels.

Overall, I rate this book as 3.5--giving it the benefit of the doubt and raising it to a 4.

Appropriate for 15 and up.

Ricky Martin has been in the spotlight since he was twelve and won a spot in Menudo after failing several auditions. From there his life was a whirlwind of touring, practicing, studio work, with every moment of each day being plotted for him by someone else. After he resigned from Menudo, he began his own journey into both his creative and personal sides.

"Me" is less a story of his life and more of his spiritual journey that resulted from what he lived through as a superstar while attempting to keep himself grounded within the great whirlpool that is celebrity. It's a journey see through the colored glasses of a man who was not always happy, but grateful for his luck, success, and talent.

My one issue: there were no pictures. It would have been interesting to put some sort of visual context to his story.

I considered myself somewhat of a fan of Ricky during his "Livin' La Vida Loca" peak of popularity, and thought I knew the basic story of his life, even before I picked up this autobiography, released a couple of months short of his 39th birthday. I was expecting a polished, feel-good story, possibly more the work of a talented ghost writer than Mr. Martin himself, and was surprised to find that the book reads more like a personal journal, with what are clearly his own observations and thoughts about what happened in his life - occasionally disjointed and prone to go off on occasional tangents - but undoubtedly the heartfelt and genuine emotions of the singer himself.

Martin traces his life from his boyhood in Puerto Rico, holding a kitchen spoon (as a pretend microphone) as he sang for his family, through his whirlwind years touring the world as a lead singer in the teen group Menudo, during his roles acting on soap operas, a Broadway show, and getting the recording contract that would eventually lead to that career-defining moment on the Grammy Awards show. Rather than resting there, he applies equal self-analysis to what happened afterward, decisions that were made (both good and bad), attempts to maintain his popularity in America without alienating his core supporters abroad.

More importantly, he takes us on a journey to get to know him more as a person, his spirituality and beliefs, his Humanitarian work through his Foundation, his activism in fighting human trafficking, and - ultimately - his decision to become a parent (through a surrogate) and the (self-regretted, but sound) reasoning behind his long-delayed revelation as a gay man.

Absolutely much more than I was expecting, and enough to give me a new found respect for him. Five stars out of five.

- Bob Lind, Echo Magazine

I was very disappointed in this book. The philosophical comments about destiny and life choices were very repetitive and seemed to take up three quarters of the book. Instead of being informative and learning about Ricky's life...it came off a little preachy.

I don't understand why someone decides to write an autobiography and then chooses to reveal so little. I love Ricky Martin, but don't feel like I learned much about him.

Here's what I love. There's no salacious tell all here. There's no pages of wallowing in drama about, 'how do I deal with being gay?', in fact, the argument he makes that his sexuality is just one aspect of his life in evidenced all through the book. Yes, his decision to come out and write this was based on the birth of his children, but I'd argue the book is much more of a spiritual awakening, than a sexual one. So, if you're looking for dirty details you'll be disappointed. What you will find is a thoughtful, reflective, and deeply felt spiritual memoir that made this person like and respect him even more than I already had.