Girls Like Us, by Sheila Weller

Sheila Weller's Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon—and the Journey of a Generation is an unusual but highly satisfying end-of-summer read. The book is an ambitious attempt at a collective biography, focusing on King, Mitchell, and Simon's personal stories, as well as the generation of American women who came of age in the 1960s.

Despite surface similiarities of age, race, and gender, Weller's subjects are distinct: Carly Simon was born into New York high society, Carol King is a product of middle-class suburbia, and Joni Mitchell's grandparents were Canadian famers. Weller's writing style is uneven (she uses italics like they're going out of style, and nearly every source is described as one of the subjects' "best friends"), but she wrings every drop of soap-opera-worthy drama from these women's histories, exploring their family lives, romantic troubles, and professional highs and lows. The final result is juicy enough to read like a novel—a smarter, sexier, infinitely more entertaining version of Valley of the Dolls, featuring heroines with astounding talent—and yet analytical enough to take its place next to other well-written, solidly researched, nonfiction accounts of the sexual revolution.