What Happened, Miss Simone?

Inspired by the Oscar-nominated Netflix documentary, What Happened, Miss Simone? is an intimate and vivid portrait of the twentieth-century icon Nina Simone.

Her willingness to speak her mind shines out of every page

Arrestive telling of the high priestess of soul's life story...What makes this portrait so compelling are the extras; think of the book as a director's cut

She is loved or feared, adored or disliked, but few who have met her music or glimpsed her soul react with moderation

Explores the huge impact [Nina Simone] made for civil rights through her music, as well as her activism

Traces a path through the sad and bewildering tangle that was Simone's life

Nina Simone was an overwhelming artist, piano player, and singer - the kind of artist that I loved and admired

Electrifying . . . Captures how unique and real she was on every page

Absorbing

A gripping (if often grim) portrait of a woman and her legend

Decent, respectful, conscientiously crafted and even-handed

A veteran music journalist, Alan Light is the author of The Holy or the Broken: Leonard Cohen, Jeff Buckley and the Unlikely Ascent of "Hallelujah" and Let's Go Crazy: Prince and the Making of Purple Rain . Light was previously the editor-in-chief of Vibe and Spin and a senior writer for Rolling Stone . He is also a frequent contributor to the New York Times .