Customer Reviews

There's No Other

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Having loved The Crystals for decades, I was really looking forward to reading this book, but the slim volume (under 200 pages) turned out to be a very brief synopsis of Barbara's ten or so years as a Crystal, which comprises only the first 88 pages of the book. She's stunningly frank about aspects of her personal life during this period, but says little about her professional and musical life then. This is followed by a number of treatises on her personal philosophies, advice on health maintenance and child-rearing, and assorted other insights into her life and worldview. While this is not a bad thing at all, and while she's a most remarkable woman, this is just not the book I was expecting. It seems, more than anything else, to be a tool of catharsis for Barbara and I applaud her courage and gumption in writing it. But if you're expecting a meaty, informative, insider's music-bio to read, look elsewhere.

I didnt know that such a book existed....what a great read it was....I am a BIG Crystals fan,so this was a Natural for me...I only wish that she concentrated more on her recording days,and the tours they were on....but...IT was a GREAT investment....you will enjoy the book,and her insights into life in GENERAL...BRAVO!!!!

Having been a long time fan of the Crystals since they made their debut in the early 1960s, I've been hoping that one of the original members would write a book about the history of the group. Barbara Alston did that and a lot more with "There's No Other". Her description of what it was like growing up in the days before the Crystals became legends was both colorful and interesting reading. She describes what it was like to keep up with the demands of recording, touring and maintaining some semblance of a personal life. The second half of the book deals with some interesting perceptions of American life through the eyes of someone who has had an uncommon journey from being a somewhat typical urban teenage girl to musical stardom and then life after being a Crystal. Great reading for fans of the group or anyone else wanting a view of the lives of performers during the Girl Group Era.