For what it's worth, I have never read a Hollywood biography before in my life, so I have nothing to compare this one to. I am therefore simply rambling in the wind, in a genre that is a mystery to me. That being said, I was pleasantly surprised as I got into this book and found it read much more like one of the scientific or historical biographies I prefer - in the first half. I was extremely surprised to discover that the most interesting woman in this book was not, in fact, Katharine Hepburn, but her mother (also named Katharine Hepburn, which will make it extremely difficult for me to google her to find out more about her). Mrs. Hepburn was a truly astounding woman, and it is no wonder that she raised a woman like the Katharine Hepburn who grew up to become one of Hollywood's greatest stars. I will say, though, that the book lost something in the second half, when it switched to Katharine the younger, leaving her mother merely in the shadows, apparently still doing the things she'd been doing all along, to judge from the tantalizing hints the author dropped. Once Katharine went to Hollywood, it becomes mostly a work about the men who loved her, and that she loved, and their tormented existence, and why she put up with such treatment, especially from Spencer Tracy. The one thing I did not need was to learn so much about Spencer Tracy; I am afraid I will never be able to look at him the same again. The periods when she was doing her best work are pretty much lightly blown over, and this book doesn't really give a great picture of the woman so much as the woman plus the man...and the man...and the man. John Ford, Spencer Tracy, and even Howard Hughes manage to take their turns upstaging the leading lady in her own life. Overall, i would give a strong thumbs up to Part I, and a sort of a mildly interested "meh" to Part II. ( )

I ended up having to skip the first third of the book to finally get to Kate's biography. I got the impression that the author found her parents far more fascinating than the actress from the amount of pages spent on outlining every single detail of her parents' and grandparents' lives. ( )

the cover art might be the best thing about the book ...

I decided to write review notes as I read this book. I made this decision because so far (I'm up to her mother's and her aunt's antics at Bryn Mawr) I am just loving it. Ms Leaming's biographical skills are right up my alley. It's reading like a Michener or a Rutherfurd novel; not in the slightest bit boring.
And now that I've finished it, I can say that it got better through Kate's early life, it got a bit boring at the Spencer Tracey era and then tapered off too quickly and a little glibly for me. I think perhaps the Tracey part annoyed me more than bored me - he was an asshole and didn't for one minute deserve the adulation and love he received from her. The part of the story that happened after he died was crammed into so little space that it almost felt like Ms. Leaming didn't think that Kate was worth it after she finally became her own woman. Perhaps she was planning another book - or perhaps someone else has already written that book - either way, a woman of such spirit and talent deserves more. I shall probably now go out and look for the rest of her life. It's because of the sudden stop that I don't give it a full five. ( )

Beautifully told life of Katharine Hepburn, excellent read. ( )