Elvis Presley Book Reviews
From Here to the Great Unknown
Lisa Marie Presley, Riley Keough
Rating: 4.5/5
Audiobook listened to? Yes.
-DISCLAIMER (AS ALWAYS): The point of someone writing a memoir is to share their side of the story. And everyone is entitled to their side of the story and their truth. When I rate a memoir, I am rating the structure in which it is written and the layout of the book. To add on to that, my rating is based on the words and sentences themselves and the overall use of the English language. In autobiographies, the only statements that can really be rated are the ones that can be proven true or false—not someone's personal outlook.
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-I pre-ordered this book from Graceland the day it was first announced. I also attended the On the Road with Riley Keough book tour in Memphis at the Graceland Soundstage on October 12, 2024, and got a signed copy of the book by Riley! The show was a little short but nonetheless a great night! I had a great experience and am glad I got to attend.
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-I enjoyed this one and could talk about the content of it for hours. Given that I am a huge fan of Lisa's career and Elvis's career, nothing in this book was mind-blowing to me. The press had a heyday with some of the things that were revealed but if you are like me and not necessarily a casual listener and fan, the majority of the content in this book did not come as a shock or surprise.
What WAS newly revealed for the first time were the details in which Lisa and Riley recounted. The small details, that a casual fan or reader may or may not pick up on, were the best thing about the book and what made it so enjoyable.
-Along with the details of Lisa Marie's life that she had never-before shared publicly, the formatting and layout was my favorite thing about the novel.
It was relatively short and both fonts used— one for Lisa's voice, the other for Riley's—were big. Lisa's font and both font sizes of the book reflected those '80s quick-read mystery novels.
I immediately loved the layout for three reasons: I am a slow reader so the big fonts benefited my reading pace, you don't see these fonts and layout structure often within modern-day books, and not every memoir needs to be extremely long. I feel that a lot of people who write a memoir feel like they have to go on and on to reach a certain number of pages but it didn't feel like Lisa and Riley had that goal.
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-Given Lisa's untimely passing, Riley had to step in and fill in the blank spots that presumably Lisa was in the process of writing or trying to figure out how to write. Lisa had asked Riley a month before she passed to help her complete her memoir but, of course, given her death, certain things were bound to be left out or not given much detail to. I discuss this more below.
Another fan of Lisa's once told me that he felt the book was rushed but I don't agree. While I guess I could see why he thinks that given the short length of the novel and certain things being left out, I believe the parts of Lisa Marie's life story that Lisa and Riley wanted to share were shared.
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-Lisa and Riley shared what they wanted to share and didn't write about the rest or only briefly wrote about it. Again, as someone who was a big fan before this release, I immediately picked up on certain moments in Lisa's life that were left out or only casually discussed without much detail.
Throughout her life she rarely gave interviews and was extremely private so she rarely discussed anything. I went into it wanting to know more about two things: her music career and her children, especially the twins, as Lisa didn't discuss those parts of her life and people all that much. The relationship she had with each of her children and how they affected who she was and the life she led.
With that being said, while there was a lot written about Riley, from Lisa and Riley herself, and a lot on Ben, the twins were glossed over. This easily could've been intentional given that they are still children but I would've enjoyed reading more about them from Lisa and/or Riley.
Same goes for Lisa's music career. I am such a huge fan of all three of her albums and would have loved more detail on the writing process of each, her opinion of those three records looking back, her favorite songs she wrote and recorded, and overall just more about her career as a songwriter and recording artist.
​-Was not a fan of Julia Roberts narrating Lisa's parts in the audiobook. I don't think she or Riley have strong narrator voices. Riley's narration was better than Julia's but it was expected to be better given that she was narrating her own words that she wrote.
However, aside from Julia's and Riley's voices, the tapes that Riley included of her Mother, sharing her stories, at the beginning and end of each chapter were beautiful, and the only reason I would recommend listening to the audiobook.
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-The title is cute and fitting but I don't really understand the cover photo. The purpose of this memoir was for Lisa to share her life story, on her own terms and publicly, for the first time. It's not an "Elvis book." And while they do mention him a lot as the book progresses, the first two chapters are the only chapters solely about her time growing up at Graceland and who Elvis was through Lisa's eyes. The rest of the chapters go through her childhood after he died and her adolescence, up through Lisa's final writings for the book, before she passed, and Riley's recount of her visitation, memorial service, and burial in the Meditation Garden.
I don't know who chose the cover image but I would have preferred it to be a picture of only Lisa or Lisa and her children given the content and purpose of the book. I feel that the cover was chosen as a marketing tactic to sell more copies, but again, if the purpose of the book was to share Lisa's story through her own words and to humanize her a bit, I don't think Elvis on the cover was the right move. While Elvis was a huge secondary character, the book wasn't about him and there was only one true main character: Lisa Marie. I wonder if it would've had a different cover photo had Lisa lived...maybe, maybe not.
However, the back cover picture and signed lithograph photo by Riley, that came with an order of the book through Graceland and/or a book tour ticket, were perfect.​
-Overall, a beautiful yet profoundly sad read.
Elvis and Me
Priscilla Beaulieu Presley
with Sandra Harmon
Rating: 5/5
Audiobook listened to? No.
-DISCLAIMER (AS ALWAYS): The point of someone writing a memoir is to share their side of the story. And everyone is entitled to their side of the story and their truth. When I rate a memoir, I am rating the structure in which it is written and the layout of the book. To add on to that, my rating is based on the words and sentences themselves and the overall use of the English language. In autobiographies, the only statements that can really be rated are the ones that can be proven true or false—not someone's personal outlook.
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-This is the first book written largely about Elvis I ever read, and I am glad I started my Elvis book journey here.
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-Wasn't extremely long and didn't drag on and on like I feel some other Elvis books do.
​-Loved how Priscilla completely stayed true to the purpose and format of a memoir and told her story based on her shared life and experiences with Elvis. She kept his career and public image on the back burner and consistently wrote about who he was around her and his core group of friends. Living up to the title, she wrote her entire memoir through the perspectives of two people: herself and Elvis. Naturally, mainly herself. There were barely any other secondary characters and the only ones she put energy into were her daughter and her parents.
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-What I loved most about Elvis and Me was that Priscilla didn't fail to share how generous Elvis was to everyone and how protective he was of her, but also most certainly didn't hold back on his darker side and the complex, difficult parts of his character that made her question her own position in his life. Similarly to Linda Thompson's book, Priscilla begins by writing about how blinded by love, in her own naiveté, she was with Elvis. But as the story progresses and she grows up and becomes her own person, she writes about how she was no longer willing to live on his own whims, within his rock 'n' roll lifestyle.
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-Some would probably argue that she focused too much on the bad and not enough on the good involving Elvis and the nature of their relationship, but ultimately I came away from it feeling that she was simply honest in her words and didn't hold back from depicting the full character that she lived with. She could've easily glamorized and romanticized parts of the story but she didn't. I felt that she told her side of things exactly as they were with no intention of defending his wrongs.
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-Definitely a book that divides the Elvis fan base, especially die-hard fans, though I've never really understood why. Several fans claim this book is full of untruths and that Priscilla fabricated parts of her story, yet I didn't pick up on any claims throughout that seemed wrong or exaggerated when put up against other accounts about Elvis, from those who knew him well. As far as facts about him, more specifically his career, everything she wrote seemed to check out.
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-I've also seen some comments on Reddit saying that since the initial release in '85, Priscilla has stated that the publisher pressured her into embellishing parts of her story for a more shocking, larger reaction from readers. I've yet to find any evidence of that being true, through a magazine, newspaper, or video recorded interview. Until I see a real quote from Priscilla, from a traceable source, regarding that claim, I will not believe it to be true.
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-In 2023, Sofia Coppola's Priscilla was released, which was a biopic about Priscilla's life and years with Elvis. The entire film was based on this book.
I've seen the film several times and rate it a 3.5/5. If you would like my full review on that, drop me a line through my "About" page!
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-And yes, I will probably read Child Bride at some point.
