Lynne Spears—the mother of pop star Britney Spears whose memoir, Through the Storm: A Real Story of Fame and Family in a Tabloid World, was released by Thomas Nelson this week—said her book is an attempt to set the record straight.

"I think there was the tabloid version of our lives," she told Meredith Vieira of NBC's Today show yesterday. "I wanted people to see our family as we really are."

Originally titled Pop Culture Mom: A Real Story of Fame and Family in a Tabloid World, the book had been scheduled for release in May, around Mother's Day. But last December, Spears' youngest daughter, 16-year-old Jamie Lynn Spears, became pregnant with her boyfriend's child. Lynne Spears decided to focus on her family rather than finish her book at that time, Nelson officials said.

Spears told Vieira that she began the book five years ago as a collection of poems and memories. But when controversy and scandal erupted first around Britney and then around Jamie Lynn, she decided she needed to tell the story the way it really happened to real people.

"I have sat for hours thinking and thinking about everything that's happened," explained Spears, who was also scheduled to discuss her book on CNN's Larry King Live. "It's been a whirlwind. It's been a wild ride for everybody."

Spears said it was the mixture of Britney's superstar status and the 24/7 coverage of the paparazzi, 17 of whom were assigned full time to chronicle her every move, that spawned the "storm" in her book's title.

Spears, 53, said the darkest time was when Britney was committed to a hospital for psychiatric problems and Jamie Lynn was pregnant. "We were praying very hard because it seemed like we were having no control over anything that was happening," she said. "We were trying."

Spears said she blamed herself for all the things that had gone wrong: Britney's two marriages, her shaving her head and lashing out against paparazzi, her hospitalizations and her public humiliations. "I took a lot of the blame," she said. "I took all the blame. The personality I have, it's always my fault."

But Spears later told Al Roker: "We're through the storm, and we're looking at the sunshine right now."