This autobiography from Ann and Nancy Wilson, the singer and the guitarist from Heart, provides some worthwhile insights into their lives as women in the world of rock and roll. One particularly interesting wrinkle here is the presentation: most of the book is written in the sisters' own firsthand accounts. But every time someone noteworthy is mentioned--another band member, friend, family member--then that person's account in their own words is presented.

They were born to a globe-trotting Marine who finally ended up in the frozen tundra of Vancouver. There they started singing and writing and playing. They slogged it out in clubs and waded through bad record deals before breaking big with a string of hit singles.

Ann talks about her battle with weight and the pain it caused her; she struggled with it her entire life. Here is a brief excerpt about when she was still at school.

"Within minutes this had gotten back to Red [a boy she liked]. He had been kind to me the entire year, but that afternoon was different. As the teacher had her back to us writing on the blackboard, he turned to me and announced so loudly that the entire class could hear, 'I don't like you, you fat thing!' It had been perfectly acceptable for him to be friends with me, as long as that friendship hadn't been something public. But in public, he felt the need to humiliate me."

Kicking and Dreaming is a very good book and one of the better musician-written biographies around.