REVIEW OF 'HOW TO SURVIVE PUBERTY AT 25' by Nina Bhadreshwar (Authorhouse) Feb 2009

by William Marshall

Journalist Nina Bhadreshwar's book, 'How To Survie Puberty at 25' is a memoir, a diary and a piece of hip hop history.  Nina B tells her whole story from her childhood struggles with family and anorexia in England to her crazy years living in a gang neighborhood in South Central, Los Angeles while working for Suge Knight and Death Row Records. There she became part of the Death Row family of artists and executives, including Snoop Dogg and Tupac Shakur, even corresponding with Pac when he was in jail. Sensing that shit was about to hit the fan, Nina left Death Row in '96, just months before Tupac's murder.

'While I was in the USA, a lot of the gangsters and Death Row 'inmates' kept saying I should write about my life and what was going on,' said Nina in an interview to The Source.  But, after narrowly escaping with her life, she thought best to keep silent until she started working on publishing in 2003.  It was worth the wait. Abstract but incredibly detailed and brutally honest, you haven't read anything like this before. It's not an expose, not a kiss and tell; it's realer than that. It's about the chaos of puberty, the magic of music and art and family.