Reviews

Jeannie Out of the Bottle, by Wendy Leigh, Barbara Eden

mokey81's review

4.0

This was a really great read. It was amazing to read about all the people she had rubbed shoulders with. She definitely had a lot of stories about a lot of people. It was easy to read and, to be honest, I couldn't put it down. I read it in two days. Great book. My pet peeve is once again, it was written by Barbara Eden "with" someone else. I hate that because every word is suspect. But I'd recommend it. It was a good read.

tomaind's review against another edition

4.0

An interesting look into Barbara Eden's life and career. She has had a successful career in both television and movies. She has worked with and met many Hollywood legends. Barbara does a lot of name dropping in her life story. Hearing her tell it, almost every man in Hollywood has put the moves on her. Some I was very surprised about.

shannanh's review

4.0

A great story about Barbara Eden. She gave details about her personal life as well as filming on the set of I dream of Jeannie.

g2pro's review

3.0

Another Bio from a show I watched as a kid.

emilydittmar's review

3.0

I learned a lot about Barbara Eden in this book, as I should. She name dropped just enough to keep it interesting while sharing her thoughts about her career and opportunities. It's very optimistic outlook.

sci_mom's review

2.0

Read the other 2 and 1 star reviews. That about covers it.

williamsdebbied's review

3.0

I was a huge fan of I Dream of Jeannie, but this memoir really didn’t make me a bigger fan of Barbara Eden. Some of the behind-the-scenes glimpses and name-drops are interesting (especially her interactions with Lucille Ball) but there wasn’t much emotional resonance here.

jeansbookbag's review

informative medium-paced

2.0

I used to watch I Dream of Jeannie on Nick at Nite growing up and loved it, so I was interested in reading a memoir about the star, especially since it's clearly in large part about her time on the show. Ultimately though, I was disappointed. Eden has a lot of stories to tell, but the whole book was surface-level only and a lot of name dropping, which made it for a bit of a slog to get through. Even with the assistance of a co-writer, the writing was very basic and pretty repetitive. It's not the worst celebrity memoir I've read, but it's not great, either. If you've got some time and are a fan of Eden, it may be worth giving a try, but it's not one I'd recommend wholesale to everyone.

meganmargoking's review

4.0

Barbara Eden, most famous for playing the role of Jeannie on the 60s tv show 'I Dream of Jeanne', comes out with this tell-all memoir.

Subjects in the memoir range from her start in Hollywood, meeting her first husband (self proclaimed love of her life) Michael Ansara, the tragedy of her miscarriage, a nervous breakdown and more.

Eden laughs and cries as she recalls her past. She laughs when she remembers that in her youth she didn't realize that Elvis Presley was flirting with her. And she cries when she discusses the immature death of her only child, Matthew. Of course, if you do not listen/read this on audio you might not get the same affect.

The part of the book that takes place after 'I Dream of Jeannie' went off the air seems like Eden is just trying to rectify to all that she's been acting nonstop all these years despite what you may think.

I have to say that I will never think of the phrase 'Jeannie-Blink' the same ever again. Eden uses the phrase to 'take you back into the past'. And she uses this device a lot.

Overall, I gave this one a B. And I would recommend this memoir to those who have a love of television and television stars from the 1960s.

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aliterarylion's review

4.0

I really enjoyed her autobiography. Many celebrity books are quite boring; the only other I successfully completed and enjoyed was Kristen Chenoweth's. I thought it was very interesting and I still think she is one of the prettiest women on television