Blake Shelton: Happy Anywhere

In this “I knew him when” biography, educator Large discusses her friendship with country music star Blake Shelton, whom she has known since he was a youngster in Ada, Oklahoma. When Shelton told Large and her husband, Larry, that he wanted to be a singer, they decided to help him. After Shelton graduated from high school, they moved him to Nashville. Slowly opportunities arose. Shelton met legendary record producer Bobby Braddock; was signed to a label; released his first number-one hit song, “Austin” (followed by even more hits); was inducted into the Grand Ole Opry; and joined the TV singing competition The Voice. Large was there for all of it, as well as major events in Shelton’s personal life, including his divorce from singer-songwriter Miranda Lambert and meeting his now-wife Gwen Stefani. Fifty photos from Large’s personal collection are included, and Shelton himself wrote the foreword to this very flattering and homespun biography. The book is notably detailed: Large calls out names and places in Ada that only a local would recognize; she even shares the scores from a game of mini golf with Shelton and discloses his usual order at the Cracker Barrel (dumplings with a side of dumplings). And therein lies the book’s problem—too many details.