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List Price: $24.99 | | Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Salesrank: 125660
Released: September 16, 2008 |
| Our Price: $0.99 |
| Used Price: $0.40 |
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| Media: Hardcover |
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Editorial Review:
We all want our children to succeed. What happens when they do?
Britney Spears wanted to sing ever since she was a little girl. But the years of sacrifices, auditions, performances, albums, fame, and paparazzi left the little Louisiana family swept up and spun around, and nothing turned out the way anyone ever imagined or wanted. Now Lynne shares the inside story of the Spears family as only a mother can.
Through the Storm takes readers outside the narrow orbit of the Hollywood glitterati. Lynne shares how fame forever changed their family; her regrets letting managers, agents, and record companies direct the lives of her children; the challenges that shaped Lynne and Jamie's failed marriage and how they affected Bryan, Britney, and Jamie Lynn; the startling events that led to Britney's breakdown; the aftermath of Jamie Lynn's pregnancy; and how the family has tried pulling together to recapture a sense of hope and purpose.
Through the Storm, says Lynne, is "the story of one simple Southern woman whose family got caught in a tornado called fame, and who is still trying to sort through the debris scattered all over her life in the aftermath. It's who I am, warts and all, with some true confessions that took a long time to get up the nerve to discuss."
Through the Storm: A Real Story of Fame and Family in a Tabloid World Reviews:
Lynne Spears' Personal Pity Party 
2009-09-16 - I read this book and it was not worth the paper it was printed on. I am so glad I bought a cheap used copy. From start to finish it is one long symphony of "pity me, love me, I'm so good, I'm so special, I've never done anything wrong." I don't believe Lynne is quite the monster that the media made her out to be, but I don't for one moment believe she is/was as naive, clueless, and without fault as she claims to be. If you are looking for dirt on Britney and Jamie Lynne, this is not the book. It's one claim to worth, in my opinion, is that she did not expose all of her daughters' dirty little secrets. But other than that, it is a plethora of whining and excuses. Lynne Spears did not get a college degree by being as stupid as she claims she was/is. Lynne Spears complains in the book about the sacrifices she made -- oh poor lady! She had to live in New York for a while, my goodness, what a terrible tragedy! Well, she managed to afford to do it. And she has reaped numerous rewards for all her efforts. The book is filled with lies and half-truths, all designed to make Lynne Spears look greater than Mother Teresa. I suppose the one thing that is most annoying is that she talks about how very, very much she misses the teaching job she "sacrificed" to help her daughter. She claims this while living a life of ease in her lovely home called "Serenity." We are supposed to feel sympathy for that great sacrifice. She fails to mention that she is free now to go back to teaching if she loves working for a living so much. In other words, this book is worthless. You finish it and at the end, you have only learned one thing -- Lynne Spears is a narcissist and she has just begged you to worship her.
A Book Review- Through the Storm, by Lynne Spears 
2009-08-10 - My lovely friend, Dana, told me about 9 months ago to sign up with Thomas Nelson Publishing to do book reviews! At first I was hesitant. I thought- I'm not a writer! I, of course, didn't think I'd get "approved" to do this, but I was thrilled when I received my first book two weeks ago!
My first book to review was entitled Through the Storm by Lynne Spears.
I was very eager to read this book, because of who it is written by. The mother of Brittney and Jamie Lynn Spears wrote this heartfelt and very open book about her life, her marriage and her children's messy lives in the spotlight.
While reading this book, I definitely got a sense of what was important to Lynne Spears, which was her family. She is a mother and a friend. I didn't feel as though she thought she were better than other people- very laid back and down to earth. She has had money issues, an awful marriage ended in divorce and lots and lots of anguish from losing several close family members. I knew by the end of this book that this woman does believe in a Heavenly Father and wishes with all her heart that her children would become saved, which was a nice to see. The book was an easy and quick read. I didn't feel like she made excuses for her children's mistakes and she spoke openly about the most public and heart wrenching mistakes- the teenage pregnancy of her youngest daughter and the loss of control and "mental state" of her middle daughter. I especially liked the last chapter. She went into detail several mistakes that she made as a mother and that could have perhaps caused some of the traumatic changes in her children's lives. I'm not gonna say that her children couldn't have chosen differently, but its always nice when people in the spotlight open up and say "I'm human! I made mistakes!" It definitely reaffirmed my beliefs on being a strong, tough love parent. Not that your children won't rebel, but perhaps, if she hadn't been so trusting i.e. a friend to her children, they wouldn't have gone astray, but it was nice to say a parent being THAT open with her mistakes, struggles and the issues in her life.
After reading the book, I felt like I had a little more compassion on their family. I don't think I really felt SORRY for Brittney or her family at any time. I think I've always been kinda indifferent about it. Kinda like, it doesn't affect me, that stinks, but oh well, moving on! I guess now that I've read the book, I have more of an understanding of how the family got to the place that they are at now.
I would definitely recommend this book to others. Like I said, it was good, short read. I think it made me a little more aware of people in the public spotlight and what they face sometimes.
We're All Human
2009-07-17 - Reading this book was beneficial to me in that it gave me more perspective into not only the lives of the Spears family, but into Hollywood types in general. So often we see them on television, read about them in magazines, or hear about them on the radio, and they become larger than life. We create a false image of them as something other than human. As such we feel that we can talk about them in such terms as well.
While reading the words of Lynn as she discussed their humble beginnings, I was reminded that even the Britney Spears of this world were born human just like I was. They have made choices and struggled with consequences just like I have.
And they deserve all the grace I ask for in my own life.
Liked it more than I thought I would. 
2009-07-15 - I liked this book more than I thought I would. I figured it would be some tabloid-esque piece of trivia. What I found, instead, was a thoughtful book written by a loving mother. Lynne shares her story and that of her famous family. She shares the ups and downs as well as her fears.
An incredibly easy book to read and while somewhat shallow and trivial, I came away with the impression that Lynne was very naive and trusting when it came to allowing her daughters to pursue their dreams of entertaining. She blindly trusted too many people, rather than educating herself about the entertainment world and taking an active role in her daughters' careers.
I also understood her fear and distrust of the media. I believe very little of what I read and hear reported by media outlets. I think that the entertainment media, especially, have a distinct lack of integrity in their reporting.
I don't follow Britney Spears in the media. I really don't care about her or her life. I did, however, appreciate the viewpoint her mother gives about how difficult life in the public eye can be. I"m sure that Lynne Spears is a loving, concerned mother just like the rest of us. Parenting itself is difficult, parenting in a fishbowl must be a nightmare.
Sincerity Wins Out
2009-07-06 - "It's a waste of ink to defend myself, because people will believe what they want to believe anyway," writes Lynne Spears in her autobiography Through the Storm. This is true, and Spears, the mother of pop star Britney and Nickelodeon TV star Jamie Lynn, seems to resign herself to this truth, generally staying away from self-defense and instead focusing on telling her story. If there is some indignation in the first half of the book, the uniqueness of Spears's story sways one toward giving her the benefit of the doubt somewhere just past the midpoint. Whether you are inclined to blame Spears for her daughters' very public adventures or to credit her for somehow holding it all together amidst them, you cannot deny that Spears is the only one who can tell this story, and this is both the strength and weakness of Through the Storm.
The book's first chapters are at times melodramatically overwrought and yawningly proud, not at all unlike any mother's account of her children's exploits. Spears makes too big a deal of their accomplishments, personality quirks, and challenges, and it gets tiresome. Self-indulgent chapters describing her best adult friends and her relationships with her siblings read more like the Special Thanks To section at the back of the book, as if Spears feels the need to give quick shout-outs to everyone who contributed to her tale and might be reading this book, and here I first realized that I am not the author's target audience. It occurs to me that Spears is reaching out to other moms, sharing with them the things they'll want to read about and expressing the kinds of doubts, fears, and joys they'll relate to. I am only guessing here, but do take my impressions of the early chapters with that in mind; I have a feeling this is the part of the book her audience will respond most positively to. I am not saying that stories of Spears's son Bryan making a trip to the emergency room are not interesting, but we all have stories like this and they are not the reason most of us are buying this book.
The one facet of Spears's early (that is, pre-Baby, One More Time) life that is fascinating is her relationship with her alcoholic ex-husband Jamie. In her descriptions of life in the cycle of alcoholism, Spears seems to drop the Blue Mountain sentiment and, without painting Jamie as a villain, presents what must have been a painful reality to share. There is very little woe-was-me stuff, though Spears does communicate well the stress and frustration that ruled her life. In fact, because she sets herself up as just a regular Southern mom, the effectiveness of this part of her story is heightened: this kind of thing happens to everyday people every day, and this is how one woman dealt with it. While I confess that my eyes glazed over at every mention of Bryan's athletic exploits or young Britney's precociousness, I found myself surprisingly sympathetic to and engaged by this woman's dealing with an alcoholic spouse.
The entire book swivels at the point where Britney's first record becomes an international hit, and here is where those who paid even peripheral attention to the mass media will begin to recognize some of the events that seemed to keep tabloids in business. Spears presents her side of all of it. The head-shaving, the Lolitaesque cover of the Rolling Stone, the relationships with Justin Timberlake and Kevin Federline, the thirty-six hour marriage to Jason Alexander, the endless circus of paparazzi, and the bizarre episodes under the management of svengali-like Sam Lutfi are told from a (sometimes estranged) mother's angle. If you are expecting a provocative tell-all, you're not going to get it here, but you will get the unique perspective of a regular mom in a highly unusual position.
Spears manages to stay away from both don't-blame-me posturing and it's-all-my-fault confessing, `though she does acknowledge feelings along both lines. Her sincerity and semi-penitent admissions near the end, where she says, "Every mother makes mistakes, and I'm no different. And honestly, I'd prefer to keep my regrets to myself" are the best part of the book. It seems at this point that she might cop out, but she comes ahead, outlining specifically where she thinks she might do things differently if she'd had the extra shot we all sometimes wish we had. While I'm sure it's by no means a complete list, it's enough to convince me that if Spears is to blame for any of her children's misadventures, she is probably no more so than any of us would have been if we'd been in her shoes. In fact, a fair amount of credit is undoubtedly hers, too, for any successes the reader may wish to attribute to Britney and Jamie Lynn.
Through the Storm is published by Thomas Nelson, which means that a lot of people who pick it up are going to be interested in the faith angle. It's not fair, but when a person whose fame comes from the mainstream, secular media finds a Christian venue for bringing her message, some of us expect to see evidence of credibility. This faith-cred can be communicated a lot of different ways, and while it's not the most important thing in a biography like this, it is important to me. Up until this last section of the book, Spears seems to know the right catchphrases and even quotes a few verses, but no more than anyone growing up in a small Bible-belt community would pick up automatically. Near the end of the book, as Spears is making herself the most vulnerable, her sincerity convinces me that this is a traveler on the same journey as me, as when she admits, "I must have felt that it would be hypocritical of me to have a huge fight with their daddy the night before, and then talk about how good the Lord is the next day. I was wrong. The Lord's mercies are new every morning."
A note must be made about the book's sloppy editing. I understand that maintaining the author's voice is critical in an autobiography, but standards still need to be observed, and there are too many photos captioned with "Britney and I at the park," or "Britney, Jamie Lynn, and I on vacation." There are a few too many sentences beginning with conjunctions, and a few too many places where subjects and verbs don't agree. Christian audiences are notoriously forgiving in the absence of technical excellence, as long as the sincerity of the message comes through, but although sincerity is definitely this book's strength, it should never be an excuse. If a story is worth telling, it is worth telling correctly.
Through the Storm is a flawed narrative and at times difficult to get through, but the uniqueness of Lynne Spears's story combined with the sincerity with which she tells it is enough to recommend it, especially to those with an interest in Britney Spears and Jamie Lynn Spears who would like an angle different from the one provided on television gossip programs. It won't engage everyone who picks it up, but it will find a sympathetic and interested audience.
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