THE TRUTH IS: MY LIFE IN LOVE AND MUSIC

Rock singer Melissa Etheridge has been the poster child for celebrity lesbians since she came out in the early 1990s; that her sexual orientation had been an open secret for some time, and that her songs carry a rock-solid, almost traditional Midwestern vibe, enabled her to avoid most of the opprobrium usually dished out to well-known homosexuals. Her career has included Grammy awards, a performance at a gay inaugural ball for President Clinton, and outspoken advocacy for gay rights. From its opening pages, where she reveals the childhood physical and sexual abuse she received from her older sister, THE TRUTH IS... is a sometimes harrowing but always honest account of a life fraught with both difficulty and triumph. Etheridge writes frankly, humorously, and viscerally about her growing awareness of her lesbianism, about how her sexuality informs her songwriting, and about her long relationship with Julie Cypher, with whom she had two children (with sperm donated by none other than singer-songwriter David Crosby), and from whom she separated in 2000. By turns philosophical and realistic, THE TRUTH IS... is a candid recounting of the life of this pioneering singer and personality.