Celebrity Memoirs That Don't Suck
And one that sadly does. WSIR #12 is here!
If you’re the kind of person who doesn’t care for celebrity, and secretly or overtly judges those who do, these recommendations are not going to be for you. But thank you for being here! Please check back in next week! (Or check the archive for something more substantive?)
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Are we alone? OK. I *am* someone who will read a celebrity memoir if I think it will be good, and if you’re still reading, maybe you are too! Fortunately, there are a lot of good ones. To me, a good celebrity memoir:
Is actually self-reflective and thoughtful, rather than simply chronological. We all know WHAT you did. Give me a lens to rethink fame, or work, or life.
Is well written. You don’t get a pass for being famous - in fact, the opposite! Find a good ghostwriter if you need to!
Names names. I’m not demanding burnt bridges, but if you’re not saying anything about anything, what are we even doing here?
So here are a few celebrity memoirs I’ve liked over the years!
(PS I’m not going to waste our precious time here asking whether you’ve read Becoming by Michelle Obama because of course you have. But if not, just read that. At least the first half.)
Born a Crime by Trevor Noah is fantastic. (I’m told the audiobook is also excellent - fun fact, I’ve never listened to an audiobook.) This is the story of his childhood in apartheid South Africa, where it was literally illegal for his mother to have a half-black, half-white child. It’s sad, infuriating, whip-smart and of course funny, but always in service of the narrative. You do not need to know a thing about Trevor Noah to love this book.
Forward by Abby Wambach is about her remarkable soccer career, of course, but more about the gift and burden of generational talent, of addiction, and of shame. I picked this up without expectation and was truly moved by her depth and vulnerability.
Would you believe me if I said that a celebrity memoir about the burdens of public body image and the destructive hold of eating disorders is actually really profound, tender, and readable? And that it was Unbearable Lightness by Portia de Rossi? I know, I know, and it sounds like Ellen is sadly rather terrible. But I read this many years ago and I still think about it. If it’s for you, it’s really FOR YOU.
Let’s lighten it up a little, shall we? Rob Lowe’s Stories I Only Tell My Friends is surprisingly great! If you grew up with Rob Lowe, or The Outsiders, or The West Wing - you’ll love this. Candid but not mean, funny and self-deprecating.
And if you really want funny - Mindy Kaling’s Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? And Other Concerns is really charming. I guess this might be more “comic essays” than “memoir” but who are you, the newsletter categorization police? Very sharp, savvy and sweet reflections on a somewhat unlikely path to stardom.
Lastly, an unfortunate but necessary PSA: you’re going to want to avoid any of the memoirs by Dame Julie Andrews. Yes, I too was devastated. Talk about someone with dish to dish! I had high hopes but your friend Kerry read them so you don’t have to, and you really shouldn’t.
I also read non-celebrity memoirs - stay tuned for some of my favorites in this genre!
A Year of Shakespeare: The Reading Challenge
2021 Week 5: Began the little-know Shakespeare work called Hamlet. I was not sure how I would feel about the tragedies, but so far I find it much more engrossing and thus compelling than the comedies I’ve read so far, which rely on clever but archaic wordplay that’s hard to parse (and probably a lot of staging.) As my stepmother said, “greed, grief and contemplations about life have not changed much.”
6.8% finished (behind yearly pacing at 8%, uh oh).
