Top Ten Tuesday: My Ten(-ish) Most Recent Reads

                    "Top Ten Tuesday" is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl!

April was actually, for me, a pretty exceptional reading month. The entirety of Spring usually is, as the sunny days start pulling me out of a winter-long reading slump, but these past few weeks proved especially beneficial. In total, I started about ten books, DNFing two of them, and still being in the process of reading two more. Then, in the last 24 hours, I tacked on another title to the list. 

That's not half bad, for someone who managed to finish all of one book back in February! (My success is no doubt thanks to the reading hacks from my Lawful Good and Chaotic Neutral blogposts this past month, too.) 

So, here's a sentence or two each about what I managed to read in the month of April... plus one bonus installment from May that I managed to read in less than a day, because yes, it was, in fact, that great. 

cover to cover

1. Rogue Protocol (Murderbot #3), Martha Wells

Murderbot continues to track down answers to his questions by following the classic "explore the abandoned space station" adventurer's track.

2. Exit Strategy (Murderbot #4), Martha Wells

Murderbot, now with answers, continues to track down his friends and rescue the humans from certain danger... again. 

3. 10% Happier: How I Tamed the Voice Inside My Head..., Dan Harris (audiobook)

Network news anchor kicks a drug habit and chronic anxiety by getting into meditation; spends the rest of the memoir trying to make Buddhist practices more palatable for Americans. 

4. Kitchen Counter Cooking School, Kathleen Flinn 

Perfect Food Memoir is perfect: when a Le Cordon Bleu-trained chef decides to use her forces for good, to train a batch of novice chefs to make their kitchen a healthier, happier place. 

5. Wolf-Speaker (Immortals #2), Tamora Pierce 

Perfect YA Fantasy series is perfect: Daine begins to come into her own powers, while protecting the animals of a region from an environmental threat from the people who rule there. 

last month's sole completed romance read

6. Touch the Dark (Cassie Palmer#1), Karen Chance

The first in a now-twelve-plus installment Paranormal Romance franchise, a Chosen One is tasked with dealing with a bunch of absurdly horny vampires, an insurrection from Rasputin, and entirely too much info-dumping. 

(Read more of my thoughts on this novel and more, by checking out my most recent post here!) 

DNFs

7. My Fair Succubi (Succubi Diaries #3), Jill Myles (20.5%)

A Jessica-Rabbit-style newly-formed Succubus contends with the patriarchy, misogynistic angels, some missing halos, and a love triangle. (I wouldn't know what else happens, because I DNF'd.)

8. Everything is F*cked: A Book About Hope, Mark Manson (audiobook, 26%)

Unconventional self-help guru is unable to help much of anyone figure out the sociological implications of Hope, because he's clearly got a lot going on himself. (I wouldn't know what else happens, because I DNF'd). 

still in the process

9. Best Food Writing 2017, ed. Holly Hughes

A collection of articles, introductions, and other similarly snack-sized pieces into a portable reader of some of the best Food Writing from 2017. But you could probably tell that from the title. 

10. King of Scars (King of Scars #1), Leigh Bardugo

Continuing on in the successful - and now Netflix-worthy! - Grishaverse, Prince Nikolai has some monster-adjacent stuff to take care of, with Zoya and Nina coming along for the ride. 

extra eleventh installment because I accidentally read a novel in the last 24 hours oops

11. Cemetery Boys, Aiden Thomas

Everything you've heard about this much-hyped YA Urban Fantasy book is correct. I had so much fun reading about East LA brujx, a ghostly teenage prankster, and a plot to unmask a murderer, that I was able to complete this read in less time than it usually takes me to write a blogpost! 

What's in your Top Ten today? Let me know, in the comments below!

What I Read for NaNo: Food Memoirs Galore!

As you might have seen in my recent blog post, I beat my NaNoWriMo 2019 challenge! Sure, it wasn't without a little heartache, a little struggle - or, you know, a lot of heartache and undue amounts of struggle - but I made it out on the other side, only a little worse for wear.

It's taken half a month to recover enough mental ground to talk about all of it, but there you go.

If you did, in fact, read that blog post, you'd also see that I kind of broke one of my typical NaNo rules this year, and decided to read books during the time I was writing. Instead of taking my standard sabbatical from non-NaNo material, I allowed myself to dive deep into the world of Food Memoirs, in the hopes that it might spur on my own creative process, too. 

So, in the full month of November, I not only ended up writing 50,000 words of my own food memories, but I sifted through four books worth of material on the same subject! Whether this made my writing better or worse, who's to say? Still, I had quite the enjoyable time doing it... and when I was struggling so hard with my own writing, it was nice to take a mental break by enjoying someone else's hard-won material.

Here's what I read: 


The Comfort Food Diaries: My Quest for the Perfect Dish to Mend a Broken Heart, Emily Nunn

A woman who has undergone a marathon of personal loss - grappling with a sibling's suicide, her fiance's breakup, and her admittance into a psychiatric ward of a hospital for severe alcoholism - decides to embark on a journey to find true comfort in food, as well as come to grips with her difficult upbringing. 

The food Nunn describes did sound delicious, and definitely got me craving some Southern, especially country-style ham and biscuits. And what a variety: there are far over 50 recipes present in the book itself... a feat I find impressive, despite the fact that at least four of them were for various salad dressings (and that's not including the ones that were for actual salad).

I really liked the way the recipes were integrated into the body of the story line, occurring interspersed throughout the surrounding narrative, instead of being bunched up at the end of the chapters, or held separate in an appendixes at the back of the book. It was like the food described was telling a story of its own, and none of it was too overly complicated, or too heavy on ingredients or technique, to seem inaccessible or overly difficult.

However, the rest of the writing seemed to fit that bill.

The style of writing is juvenile, especially evident in how the writer is prone to long, meandering lists, whether describing food or scenery, even when inappropriate for the story. This syntactical choice, as well as the equally wandering and poorly defined timeline of her life, made it very difficult to get a read on what time period various events were taking place in. At first, just from the first few chapters or so, I assumed she was in her mid-30s, because she seemed flighty, prone to humble brags about her ex-fiance's wealth or her career success, and seemed vaguely nervous. When later chapters appeared describing friends with children who'd left for college, or how she hadn't spoken to others in over 20 years, I felt confused.

She also could have been more forthcoming with the unspooling of various family ties. Revelations on her relationships with her mother, father, sisters, and brothers, came spread out and in chunks, with little through-thread to keep them knotted together. Barely anything was outright stated. For instance, her mother - narcissistic and controlling - is off-handedly described as having regular meetings with a psychiatrist, possessing a voracious and destructive tendency to be too dramatic or take things too far, while also swinging into bouts of depression or anxiety that would leave her unable to get out of bed. It is emphatically clear that she suffered from some form of mental disorder, but that is never explicitly stated, nor is it named, but instead, briefly intimated in the vaguest of terms.

Final Verdict: All in all, it was a fairly middle-of-the-road Food Memoir, one whose personal narrative I found frustrating, but whose genuinely friendly culinary content made up for its faults.



Coming to My Senses: The Makings of a Counterculture Cook, Alice Waters

A memoir detailing not only Alice Waters' journey to founding influential California restaurant Chez Panisse, but specifically, of how her youth and adolescence in the '60s and '70s shaped many of her counterculture perspectives on cooking.

This book really was a tell-all, in the sense that Waters is able to traverse a wide swath of her life in candid and unapologetic terms. The stories range from details about her childhood, family, and move to California, to her time at UCSB and Berkeley, trips to Paris and across Europe, and her social sphere back home in California (including notable director Francis Ford Coppola and costume designer Jacqueline "Jacqui" West).

However, because of this wide-spanning subject matter, the memoir really served as more of a foundational perspective rather than a comprehensive or strictly culinary one. On the whole, it becomes a testament to the idea that greatness can come from anywhere and anyone, no formal training required, just a love for food and a willingness to try something a little different.

My favorite parts were hearing about her foundational culinary experiences in her youth and home life, as well as opening night of Chez Panisse. It felt like there was a lot of talk about politics and Waters' experience in alternative movements, but these deviations were hardly non-essential: they laid a distinctive and underlying framework for how her culinary ideas germinated, too.

Final Verdict: This memoir didn't contain recipes, but had plenty of pictures, of not only Waters in her youth, but of her many influences and friends. The true power of this memoir wasn't necessarily the story itself, but how candid and vocal she was about her past.



A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes from my Kitchen Table, Molly Wizenberg

The author of popular early-adopter food blog The Orangette tells the story of her early life, growing up with foodie parents, falling in love with France and then her husband, and making a life for herself in Seattle, through mouthwatering terms.

You know how it's recently become a popular move to start dissing food blogs for writing long intros to their recipe posts? People claim its a sort of money-grubbing ploy - that it allows for the insert of more ads, that they make more for how far you have to scroll or something - but honestly, while it might be true for some, it is clearly not so for others. This book is a great justification for the practice, for why those intros exist: it allows the blogger to share more of who they are, and what this particular recipe means to them.

In a way, this book is kind of like a bundle of such posts, with a delicious recipe capping off every few pages or so of content. As a result, this book is also fairly easy to read through as the content is chunked into bite-sized pieces you can enjoy fairly quickly.

The only problem with knowing that a memoir has a blog, is that invariably, about halfway through, you decide to start doing some research. Finding out about Wizenberg's divorce from her husband, made reading about falling in love with him a little more difficult. Even though their relationship is still amiable, and they continue to own and operate the restaurant Delancey - in Seattle - together, it makes the words feel less full of meaning, even if it was truly meaningful at the time.

I'm genuinely excited to try some of these recipes, and almost all of them are things I'd be excited to eat. I do wish that this book contained some food pictures, because parts of it really just read like a regular cookbook.

However, I should mention a MAJOR pet peeve: I absolutely cannot stand the word "gulp" - I think it's gross, and somewhat unsettling - but only really got a handle on how much I hated it when Wizenberg used it in THREE CHAPTERS IN A ROW. Again, each of these chapters is only about five pages long. In total, I might have seen it in various places throughout the book about six more times. Pick a new word!

Final Verdict: Lovely stories - complete with engrossing settings and relatable characters - make up Wizenburg's relaxed and personable cookbook-slash-memoir, as a portrait of a particular period of her life. When considered as a framed example of her perspective, it is truly captivating.



Women Who Eat: A New Perspective on the Glory of Food, edited by Leslie Miller

A really fantastic collection of "up and coming" female writers (circa 2003), many focused in the Pacific Northwest, in a celebration of womanhood and food, be it prepared for them, by them, experienced, shared, bought, passed down, cooked themselves, or tasted countless times.

At times personable and impartial, emotionally-laden or distant, stories of attending cooking school, staffing a restaurant, tasting an old favorite again after a long absence, and more, many personalities are fitted neatly within its pages. Not only a reflection on a wide variety of food from a wide variety of perspectives, but shares a wealth of reasons how the food we eat affects our lives, from our friends, to habits and behaviors, to our identities themselves.

From the delicious (Carvel ice cream, in the face of a daunting doctor's visit to ascertain a cancer diagnosis), to the controversial (a woman who, in her post-pregnancy, cooks and craves the taste of her own placenta, as an act of recycling and reclamation), from the funny (a once-waitress tells the story of her favorite post-college restaurant job), to the familial (a California vegan reflects on the vegetables of her farm-raised, meaty Midwestern upbringing), the myriad of perspectives encountered within the pages of this collection truly run the gamut. The guarantee isn't even that you come away hungry, but that you reflect more on your own culinary connections to how your food shapes your life.

With the book being a decade-and-a-half old, naturally one of my first moves, was to scour the list of author names for any that I might still recognize. To my surprise, there she was: Cheryl Strayed, who, in the author's info section, is listed as living in Portland, Oregon, and "working on a book-length memoir." Wonder how that project panned out for her.

Did you take part in NaNo this year? Do you enjoy reading Food Memoirs? Let me know, in the comments below!

HELLO, NANO: NANOWRIMO 2019

To be perfectly, unerringly honest: I never even considered the idea that I wouldn't take part in NaNoWriMo this year... but as of midway through October, I had every intention of kind of phoning it in.

In the past, I've used NaNo as a means of entering into the realms of Thriller, Satire, Horror shorts, and a YA adaptation. I try to get into new genres every year, and use it as a means of not just forming good writing practices, but utilizing it as an opportunity to try out new voices and perspectives, working on unfamiliar formats and difficult subject matter.

However, this year, I was feeling fairly uninspired. I didn't have any kind of grand project idea, and was pretty much just ready to keep adding to my NaNo from last year, Fighting with the Wind. A  light and hopeful modern-day YA adaptation of Frances Hodgson Burnett's The Secret Garden wasn't exactly what I felt like focusing on right now - in the midst of life transitions, trying to find a job, and battling through some rough personal feelings - but it was all I had ready, so I felt prepared to buckle down and tackle the second half of that project, left unfinished.

Instead, I got a little help from my mom... not in any way that she intended, of course. 

We were sitting at the kitchen table, eating dinner, when I brought up that NaNoWriMo was almost upon us. My mother openly scoffed. "You're not doing that this year," she said, somewhat brazenly. "You're too busy."

"Oh really?" I replied. "Because I'm pretty sure I am, in fact, doing it."

She rolled her eyes. "What would you write about right now? It's not like you can just write a cookbook." I'd been spending most of the last week's evenings cooking dinner from the family, including a quite large one for my own 26th birthday celebration.

A lightbulb. Actually, you can totally write a cookbook for NaNo, I thought. I told her as much, and the subject passed. Little did she know, that she had planted a seed... this was now what I fully intended to do.

Really, it's something they should all have seen coming. I take it upon myself to periodically warn my family members that I - a prolific journaler since a very tender age, someone who creates scrapbooks, has filled countless notebooks and planners, and is all around, an passionate documenter - will someday write my memoirs. Whatever is published, will be backed up by years of receipts. Tread softly, lest you get written about.

While I have done absolutely nothing notable or worthy in my life to justify the writing of memoirs just yet, I keep telling myself it's better to start now, rather than wait to do so later, when my inevitable fame and acclaim will no doubt hinder their production. My perspectives on what forms such a work would take have changed around a bit in the past year, thanks to Kathleen Flinn: her book Burnt Toast Makes You Sing Good - following the culinary lineage of her grandparents and parents, and food-oriented upbringing - is honestly the genesis piece for my NaNoWriMo project this year.

I was an early adopter of M.F.K. Fisher as a kid, gaining a collection of her works in a large bound copy of The Art of Eating as a freshman in high school. Through high school and college, I would frequently pick up the books of Ruth Reichl, which my mother loved, once she had finished with them. I have collected my own set of cookbooks - especially those of Jamie Oliver - for years, and rarely went a week without flipping through one or another as a child. Food reading has always been a part of my life, for about as long as reading has as a whole, so it was honestly only a matter of time before I hit on the idea of writing a food memoir.

My Mother Hates My Soups: Bites from a Meal I'm Still Eating will follow the traditions, memories, and relationships forged in my childhood kitchen, and beyond. I'm a home chef, and not even a very good one at that - one that is still very much learning, something I'm reminded of every single time I add butter to a pan, or chop a head of broccoli - so this will probably be my most un-publish-able NaNoWriMo project ever. However, to be honest, it's one I've probably been thinking about for longer than any tackled in my past.

Food has actually managed to sneak into multiple other projects I've done for NaNo: one of the horror shorts I wrote, in a continuation of my NaNo project from 2017, was about a chef who endures a strange and unsettling trip to the grocery store, while in my 2018 project, the character of Martha was transformed from Mistlethwaite Manor's maid, into a young and ambitious local line cook. Her mother was old friends with Mrs. Medlock, giving her plenty of reasons to expose the petulant and uncertain Mary to new cuisine, frequently swinging by the brownstone "manor" with new recipes that I'd have found and pinned to my project Pinterest board.

Therefore, with all of this inspiration backing up my passion, I'm ready to get started. Granted, that start may be coming a little late in the game - so far, I've only written 5,504 words - but it's a start I'm proud of nonetheless.

Keep your eyes peeled for more future updates like this, filled with not only status reports from the blank pages of a Word document, but of all the food I've been cooking since then (which, spoiler alert, has kind of been a lot).

Are you tackling NaNoWriMo this year? What's your project about? 

Let me know, in the comments below!

REVIEW: OKAY, FINE, WHATEVER

To be clear: I am a self-defined coward. In almost all areas of my life, I am in some form of constant terror. While my baby brother finds this amusing, and my childhood best friend finds it infuriating, it's been such a reliable presence in my life that I have even developed a tendency to freak out when I don't feel it. Needless to say, whenever I see a memoir that mentions Anxiety with a capital "A" in the blurb, it winds up in my hands. 

Okay, Fine, Whatever, by Courtenay Hameister is a memoir of Anxiety, chronicling her attempts at breaking through the stress of daily life, by embracing stress in its more exaggerated forms, too. (It's one thing to get over an instance of stage fright, but quite another to visit a professional cuddler, you know?)

Of course I was immediately drawn to Hameister's story, of trying new things and working through fear over the course of a year. However, the trap of being compelled to pick up a memoir of someone you think is very much like you, is that you inevitably get turned off when, eventually, they reveal themselves to not be like you at all.

Hameister portrays this memoir as one oriented around trying new things, and she does: from an isolation tank to water aerobics, to getting high, and getting an MRI, she attempts quite a few new experiences, most of which would spook most people.

The difficulty comes when the majority of them seem to fall into one specific category: Romance. She attempts online dating in three different chapters - chronicling several failed dates within each - and some of her other exploits include doomed romances within the polyamorous spectrum, explorations with public sex, and an instructional fellatio class. Even some of her tamer excursions still find ways to relate to intimacy or sexuality, like getting a Brazilian wax, and visiting the aforementioned professional cuddler.

At times, it felt like the book wanted to tell two different stories, one of Hameister's mental health and working through her anxiety, and the other of her romantic history, as a sort of "getting her groove back" memoir.

In some ways, Hameister does a good job at communicating how her Generalized Anxiety Disorder affects her life; especially in the form of her "stress balls," which weigh in her stomach and balloon small issues into greater ones, like with worries over her career and health. And I did relate to some of her candid accounts of her romantic history... it was just at all the stops after that, she totally lost me.

(Also, side note: she is INCREDIBLY funny, which made the book a little easier to read, too.)

In conclusion: I didn't love the book so much as the idea behind it, and I couldn't stop thinking about how much more I'd enjoy it if it was someone a little more relatable, or if her journey was made a little more clear.

What is something brave or new you've tried recently? Have you read any other memoirs about anxiety? Let me know, in the comments below!

Bits of Books: More YouTuber Memoirs!

We're midway through summer, and the days are flying by... as are the books on my Goodreads Challenge! In the interest of speeding things up a little bit, I decided to compress two recent reads down into one review... because really, how many blog posts do I need to make about YouTubers?

Here are two memoirs, based on the lives of two very different Internet personalities: LGBT advocate and teen magnet Tyler Oakley, and beauty guru from across the Pond, Estee Lalonde!

bloom: navigating life and style, estee lalonde

Estee Lalonde has been one of my consistent YouTube subscriptions, since my early college years. Her conversational style and life advice is down-to-earth and very chill, which is somewhat at odds as to the current status of a fashion and beauty influencer, and her life is highly affected by the fact that she lives in what I personally think is one of the most interesting cities in the world (London!).

Her book, Bloom, showcases a lot of her signature, laid-back and stream-of-conciousness thinking. It's very conversational and accessible, and despite the physical book's relative thickness, pretty short. Organized into bite-sized portions like "Life," "Home," "Fashion," and "Food," she breezes through each with various degrees of personal inflection, touching on things like her anxiety and depression, disordered eating, and the emotional toll of moving to a new country, without allowing the writing itself to get overly affected or dark.

The style of the book's formatting and layout was just as much of a factor in its construction as the actual word content, and I think it's actually one of my favorite parts of it. It is filled with photographs that are carefully stylized, without losing any sense of personal belonging or intimacy, and they illustrate Estee's sense of organization and colorful personality perfectly.

The fact that the composition of the book itself was so stylized, was both an asset and a detraction. It highlighted Estee's style and fit with her brand, but also felt somewhat disconnected from the highly personal stories she was telling. It was almost as if she was letting the reader get closer to her life, but not that close, holding them at an arm's length away courtesy of colorful blocking, text changes, and perfectly aligned photos.

It also didn't help that her life has changed considerably after the publication of this book last year: while she talks quite a bit about her boyfriend - the Internet best friend, who eventually wooed her to move across to England from Canada in the first place, and who she has been with since the launch of her channel - it stings somewhat, due to the fact that they have recently broken up, and are no longer together.

Regardless, I enjoyed reading it, though I can't say that it was one of my favorite YouTuber memoirs. I wish more attention had been paid to the words, as much as the formatting, and that Estee had gone a little deeper than just surface level attributes. I can listen to her talk for hours at a time on YouTube and on her podcasts; I wish that she had spent as much attention to her storytelling here.

binge, tyler oakley

YouTuber Tyler Oakley is highly notable in his particular job market, due to his compassion and activism, high energy, outrageous sense of humor, and equally boisterous laugh. In a realm packed to bursting with big personalities, he has proven himself as a force to be reckoned with, after parlaying his fame into not just greater career opportunities, but significant ways to give back, which is why I'm such a fan.

Binge is a collection of bits and pieces of Tyler's life, likes, and history. Scattershot and short, he discusses more serious topics - like exploring his sexuality, his experiences with homophobia and heartbreak, and a childhood eating disorder - alongside the kind of topics he gleefully dishes on best, like details of late night partying gone awry, tales of hookups past, and his experiences in the fangirl lifestyle. The tones are disparate, but evenly weighed throughout the book, giving both the highs and the lows equal measure, each balanced out with his irreverent, conversational tone.

I do think there are elements of it that surprised me; namely, how raunchy it can get in various sections, especially due to the fact that I consider his fanbase to be rather young. I checked my thinking of, "Is he really okay with kids reading this?" when I put myself in their shoes, and realized that it was exactly the kind of thing I would have loved to read when I was younger (even though my parents would definitely not have approved).

Beyond the somewhat inappropriate nature of quite a few of the stories, there was enough heart to go along with it to recognize that Tyler wasn't blowing these stories up to exaggerate or hyperbolize his life, but because he is a storyteller at heart, who wants to share both the best and worst parts of his life with his fans.

While I think it started to lose a little steam towards the end, that deliberate sense of sharing was something that really set the tone for the book, and makes me think that no matter the medium, Tyler Oakley excels when he has a great story to tell.

What are some of your recent reads this past summer? Have you read any YouTuber books? Let me know, in the comments below!

Getting Bache-Literate: The Need-to-Read List for Fans of ABC's Bachelor Franchises

For a significant portion of the television-watching American public, this upcoming Monday night can't come fast enough. Plenty have already set their DVRs to celebrate the occasion, and planned watch parties or ordered floral arrangements to go along with it. My youngest sister and I have been sending each other a flurry of social media posts a day, and already have chocolate-covered strawberries lined up as our snack of choice with which to view the proceedings.

Because Monday night, of course, marks the premiere of the most recent season of The Bachelorette. 

I've been watching The Bachelor's various franchises for a while now. It was never a household fascination during my formative years - other than a brief stint watching Jake Pavelka's disastrous season  - but instead, an obsession I cultivated in college: despite the annoyance I feel at it playing into stereotype, there really was nothing quite like huddling up in front of the lounge television, post-chapter meetings on Monday nights, with my sorority sisters. 

The thing about learning to love The Bachelor in this way, was that it wasn't just dipping one toe in the water and deciding whether I liked the temperature... it was doing a full-on cannonball into the deep end, at the goading of my wonderful friends. My entry into the fandom was swift, and immediately immersive. 

Over the space of my four years in college, I went from having only a modicum of knowledge and one season under my belt, to cheering on eight total Bachelors and Bachelorettes - Sean, Juan Pablo, Chris, and Ben, as well as Desiree, Andi, Kaitlyn, and JoJo - and sinking further into the world of group dates, hometowns, fantasy suites and final roses than I ever thought possible.

True to form, I've also read several books, found trustworthy sources for behind the scenes info, and got hooked on two podcasts. Because loving The Bachelor isn't just being a part of a fandom, it's a lifestyle. And like any lifestyle, I needed to master the accompanying literature.

Here are the books - including two new releases - I think are filled with all of the history, gossip, and glamour (or lack thereof) true Bach fans need to read, in order to prepare themselves for what Chris Harrison will inevitably tell us is the "most dramatic season yet" of The Bachelorette! 

Amy Kaufman's Bachelor Nation

Amy first rose to Bachelor prominence as a reporter for the L.A. Times, but when her access was revoked due to her slightly snarky episode reviews, she made sure to voice her feelings on Twitter instead. Having amassed a following specifically for these reasons, she can frequently be found during the on-season, tweeting play-by-play commentary to the show as it airs. It's this tongue-in-cheek sense of humor, quick wit, and industry knowledge that makes her so appealing in short-form communication, and helped get her a book deal.

And boy, does she not disappoint. Not only does she examine the history of the show itself - as well as its producers, schedule, and genre background - with the rigor and breadth of a seasoned journalist (which she is), but at no point is the point ever lost that she is, at her heart, a fan of the show. She can get bogged down by the sordid details of exactly how television sausage gets made, without losing a taste for it. It's one of the reasons fans of the show would love this analytical examination of what makes one of America's most beloved television phenomenons tick: the history and culture is laid out bare for judgement (and oh boy, do we judge), but in a way that seasoned viewers can recognize and appreciate as something akin to their own fascination. It's not enough to love something... you have to know how it works to truly understand it, and Amy dives deep.

Look here for not just a collection of meaningful fragments of Bachelor history from across many years of popularity - highlighted from legitimate publications, to tabloids, to the many memoirs that have come from the show - but also communication with recent stars and television personalities, brief testimonials from celebrity fans who love to watch, and many, many rememberances of notable episodes past. Amy separates the truth from the hearsay, and lays it out with as much context she can muster from the infamously close-lipped cast and crew.

Andi Dorfman's It's Not Okay

Almost exactly a year ago, I published a post about books recommendations for fans of reality TV, and this memoir - written by Andi Dorfman, the attorney-turned-Bachelorette who originally appeared on Juan Pablo's season - more than warranted a place on the list.

While her sophomore effort, A Single State of Mind, is out now - detailing the dating scene after Bachelorland- it focuses less on the television show, and more on her life in New York. Her first NYT-bestseller, though, is all about dishing on her life in the spotlight of the franchise, complete with behind-the-scenes glimpses and some not-so-glamorous moments after the cameras stopped rolling.

While Dorfman might not be totally willing to give up the identities of the many people she encountered within the pages of this memoir, seasoned veterans of the franchise will have little problem identifying exactly who's who... especially when it comes to notable moments from her own Bachelorette season (and that "Men Tell All" special). Dorfman is still an attorney at heart, and just as to-the-point as she was on the show, so while she may be protecting identities by using numbers instead of names, you can count that her candor and personality still manage to shine brightly through this read.

Courtney Robinson's I Didn't Come Here to Make Friends

If Dorfman's recollections of her time with the franchise deliberately play coy with the identities of those with whom she shared a screen, then Roberston's veer sharply in the other direction. Unlike Andi, Courtney holds nothing back, choosing to name and shame the girls with whom she competed for Ben Flajnik's affections with relative impunity, calling out catty backstage behavior, two-faced made-for-TV friendships, and the struggles of living in close quarters with so many girls, with so much heartache on the line.

Throughout, she clearly establishes her protestations at being categorized as a Bachelor villain, while also admitting that the many choices she made on screen came from a place of insecurity, discomfort, manipulation, and in-the-moment brattiness. However, the context given throughout - around her upbringing in Arizona, her previous relationships, her interactions with production throughout filming, and her attempts to win over Ben - give the reality television lightning rod some much needed sense of personal ownership over those particular proceedings.

And with that comes a distinct branding point: this is absolutely Robertson's book, rather than anyone else's (despite the accompanying ghost writer). There is a significant sense of one side of the story being told... then again, that's mainly because Robertson is probably one of the few people from the franchise interesting enough to warrant her own book deal.

It should surprise no one - especially fans of the show's social media reflections - that the producer tasked with handling Robertson, as detailed in Kaufman's Bachelor Nation, was Elan Gale. In fact, out of all of the tabloid fodder, tell-alls, "true stories" to come out of the show, I feel like Robertson's book has reflected some of the most positive interactions with the production side of things... perhaps because a lot of her on-screen antics, and in-the-moment interviews, made it so easy to tell a compelling story. Maybe just not one meant for long-term love!

Elan Gale's You're Not That Great

So, why not focus on Gale's story, too? The longtime Bachelor franchise producer is a regular social media fixture on the Instagrams of many of competitors of the show, making his distinct hair and penchant for sarcasm a familiar presence to most dedicated fans. Due to his status as a member of production, Gale remains tight-lipped about Bach's creative process... but with his new book, maybe fans can get a glimpse at the mentality of the man who helps run it.

Focused around the idea that negative thinking can be just as powerful as positive thinking, and that people's difficulties in reaching their dreams are in part due to a failure in self-honesty, You're Not That Great (But Neither is Anyone Else) is probably a good fit for fans of Mark Manson's similarly subversive self-help book The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F***. Showcasing a stunningly blunt self-deprecating wit and evocatively descriptive take-downs, the book is sure to send a polarizing message to those who enjoy the self-help genre, particularly those like Jen Sincero's You're a Badass.

Personally, I didn't enjoy that particular book, and I found a lot more interesting content in Gale's endorsement of working past your own self-acknowledged flaws, rather than promoting the belief that the Universe is conspiring in your favor. His honesty in itself stretches far beyond just advice, and draws from his own personal experiences as someone who suffers from body dysmorphia and is a recovering alcoholic. 

It might not sound like this kind of a book has anything to do with Bachelor franchises - especially to casual fans - but it's when you factor in the holds the show clearly has on Gale's private and public lives, that the connection is more clear. Even his descriptions of his work take on a unique tint, when you consider the lifestyle of the man discussing them: for instance, his admittance to insecurities of taking his shirt off, while filming with very attractive people in a tropical locale, takes on a new and understandable meaning when you consider he's talking about Bachelor in Paradise. 

Are you a Bachelor fan? Have you read any of these books? Are you going to be watching the new season? Let me know, in the comments below!

Review: Sounds Like Me: My Life (So Far) In Song

Grammy Award-winning and Tony-nominated singer, songwriter, and actress Sara Bareilles has a whole lot of titles to stick onto her name already. 

Which means, of course, I was overjoyed when she decided to add "author" to that lineup! 

Ever since her hit single "Love Song" became a chart-topping success back in 2007, Sara Bareilles has made a career out of her folksy voice, genuine lyrics, and penchant for speaking to the heart of her worldwide fanbase, with songs like "Brave," and "King of Anything." Now, she takes to a different kind of writing platform, to share even more of her life in her own words, including views of her unconventional childhood, how to write a song, her battles with anxiety and depression, and what it took to make the world stop, and listen.

Sounds Like Me: My Life (So Far) in Song is divided into eight chapters, organized around songs she has written that have been both personal to her, and influential to her career. From her origins with "Love Song," all the way to "She Used to Be Mine," the standout hit from her Tony Award- nominated original score for Waitress: The Musical, the stories held within the book cover not just themes of heartbreak, growth, the industry, and family, but detail what kind of work went into the construction of these notable works of art, and her impressive career.

To be clear (if you haven't been able to tell thus far): Sara is one of my favorite musical acts of all time. As one of my favorite contemporary songwriters, it would make sense that her words would speak to me just as completely through the format of a memoir, as they would through her music.

In fact, this book is one of those things where it's almost hard to review this objectively, due to the sheer amount of love and unconditional support I feel for the person who wrote it. I love Sara, I love her songs, and the feeling's not going away any time soon. Her music has long had a foothold in my life, and I've overjoyed at her continued success.

So, I refuse to distance the concepts of reviewing this as an outsider, versus the status of being a fan: this memoir not only made me love her even more as an already-established admirer, but gave new and additional insight into some of the elements of her career that I've been able to observe from the outside, as a fan, from stories behind the writing of songs I already know all the words to, to the creative process for Waitress, to exactly why she left her judging position on my family's one-time favorite show, The Sing-Off (aka, the a capella reality competition that first brought us the gift that is Pentatonix).

(Also,  in case you were a fan of that show, fellow judge Ben Folds wrote the forward!)

For instance, the story behind "Love Song" is a little different than what you've read or heard before, even when it was told by Sara herself. Her efforts to remain authentic in a media-obsessed industry have helped her carve out a sound and fanbase that's all about celebrating being yourself, which is one of the reasons why "Brave" was so personal to her. And when it comes to the song "Gravity," it captures the feeling of heartbreak so perfectly, because it was an artifact of heartbreak, itself.

In fact, Sara spoke so completely through the memoir, that I ended up highlighting excerpts from some of the chapters, because it meant so much for me to read them. Her writing is conversational and straightforward, while still preserving a sense of artistry that is unique to her style as a performer. In fact, the audio book is even narrated by her, so if you're as big a fan as I am, it might be worth it to hear her tell her own story, in her own voice, out loud.

Regardless, this was probably one of the most meaningful memoirs I've read in the last year.

Final Verdict: Direct, authentic, and incredibly personal, Sara Bareilles' voice shines through her memoir just as completely as it does through her music. Whether you're already a fan of her music, or a fan of celebrity memoirs, I think you should take a chance, and take a listen, because I feel like it's impossible to come out of this not rooting for her unique blend of musicianship and heart.

What's your favorite celebrity memoir? Have you read any written by musicians? Let me know, in the comments below!

Review: Sisters First: Stories from Our Wild and Wonderful Life

Exciting news: guess who's going to see Hamilton in Seattle this Thursday??? 

Let's just say it's put me in a political state of mind... so I'm throwing it back to review a book I originally read about a month ago, about politically-adjacent sisters who grew up in front of a nation. From playing on the carpet floors of the White House to giving the young Obama sisters a tour upon their father's election, Jenna and Barbara have spent plenty of time around some of the country's greatest influencers of  the millennium's first decade... not necessarily in "The Room Where It Happens," but still, pretty close! 

In Sisters First: Stories from Our Wild and Wonderful Life, Jenna Bush Hager and Barbara Pierce Bush - aka, the Bush twins, daughters of President #43 and granddaughters to #41 - give their own account of what it was like, living behind the doors of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, and in front of the eyes of a nation. From their presence on election tours with their grandfather, to treading unsteady ground during their education on liberal college campuses, their reflections on everything from a childhood spent in matching outfits, to having youthful indiscretions documented on a global scale, paint a portrait of a sisterhood closely held, and a family legacy they had to grow to understand. 

When they called this book "Sisters First," they weren't kidding: even in the acknowledgements section, they clarify that this book was not necessarily a memoir, but instead, love stories they told to each other, and I believe it. Every page of this book is filled to the brim with adoration, something that's easy for me to understand, having two younger sisters (and a little brother!) of my own.

Naturally, the bond between these two is a little more important, being that their sisterhood played into the cultural history surrounding one of the most impactful positions in our national governance. As the granddaughters of George H. W. Bush, and daughters George W. Bush, their lives have reflected a unique perspective on growing up in not just the public eye, but the epicenter of national and worldwide politics, and it makes sense that they'd want to share that with others... especially when the perspectives that have been shared about them before have been less than kind.

Which, it may surprise you, I did not go into this book knowing! President Obama was elected into office when I was only in the eighth grade, which meant that my political consciousness hadn't been developed all that much during the time Jenna and Barbara's dad was in office. Hearing their tepid acknowledgements of tabloid-documented discretions of years past was a little disconcerting, when I wasn't all that familiar with what they had been doing wrong in the first place.

Still, despite the fact that their college years were less than straight-laced, it is clear that these women are intelligent and well-educated. Their story-telling is descriptive and packed with emotion, and punctuated with letters, emails, and other missives flying between members of their famous family to give it credence. I absolutely believe that these women love each other, and their family.

For the record, I am a Democrat, and a liberal, and all of those other things that don't necessarily align with the Bush family doctrine. However, that didn't stop me at all from enjoying this book. Not only did the sisters put forth their stories with apology, and without judgement, but they acknowledged the places where their lines of thinking, as they grew up, deviated from those of their parents, whether in terms of supporting gay marriage, being pro-choice, or mediating a more friendly relationship with news media. They discussed their friendship with the Obama family. They also made it clear that their support of their own family ran far deeper than any political divide, too.

While I do think the chapters had the tendency to get a little wandering and disorganized, the book's relative lack of structure made it feel very conversational, like they were just telling you these stories over a morning cup of coffee.

Final Verdict: A fun and unique installment in the various political memoirs I've been getting into in the past few years. If you liked Who Thought This Was a Good Idea? by Obama-era White House official Alyssa Mastromonaco, you would probably like this one, too, for their unique portraits of a presidential term, behind the scenes.

Have you read any great political memoirs recently? Do you also have the song from "My Date with the President's Daughter" stuck in your head? Let me know, in the comments below!

Review: Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood

Growing up, Comedy Central's The Daily Show was popular weeknight viewing in my house. My Dad was not only a fan of Jon Stewart, but all of the other correspondents on the show, including John Oliver, Samantha Bee, and Jessica Williams, who have gone on to their own comedy projects and careers. When Stewart stepped away from the spotlight, we weren't as invested in the program, but nowadays, my sisters and I are sure to share show clips between us when the highlight reels from the night before pop up on Twitter. 

I didn't know much about the show's new host, Trevor Noah, but this book had come highly recommended, so I figured, why not give it a shot? 

Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood, details comedian Trevor Noah's experiences growing up in racially divided, post-apartheid South Africa. From getting preferential treatment from older relatives for his light skin, to becoming a cultural "chameleon" drifting between social groups, from the sacrifices his mother made to send him to private schools, to the chaotic means by which a cash-strapped Trevor would go to make money, these stories are reflective of the unique circumstances of his upbringing, told with his signature tongue-in-cheek humor, and plenty of heart. 

Noah takes great pains to provide vital historical context to the culture and racial climate of South Africa within his stories. I know little about South Africa's history or culture - beyond that one Disney Channel movie from the '00s - but Noah gave many examples of accessible personal perspective to bridge the gaps in understanding. His brief asides, sandwiched in between each chapter, added informative context to his personal anecdotes, and hinted at what might be contained within the stories to come, be it references to the many cultural tribes within South Africa, the construction of their education system, or the limits of the city's many borders.

His style made the reach between differing countries and cultures a little shorter, too. He is known best for being a comedian, but he is also a truly beautiful writer. The stories maintained quite a bit of the humor that you might expect from such an established stand-up artist, but they were also evocative, emotionally charged in places, and wonderfully descriptive in others. His voice kept the book moving along with a conversational clip, even when recounting stories others would not find as relatable. 

The life he describes truly is remarkable, as well. The book opens with his experience of having to flee one of South Africa's many unchartered minibuses, thrown out of a moving vehicle while his mom tucked and rolled beside him, after one of the drivers started to get threatening. The anecdotes that follow exhibit everything from poverty, to selling bootleg CDs and stolen goods, domestic violence, and more, but at no point does Noah get bogged down or deterred from his primary goal: telling a good story. This is his ownership of his life, and the many intriguing and remarkable facets of it, and he acknowledges complete acceptance of all that he's experienced.

In total, the book is exactly what the title suggests, which I appreciated: stories of his growth and experience, told through the particular lens of a light-skinned kid growing up in a post-apartheid South Africa. He skims over most of the extraneous parts, including his adulthood, his rise to a prominent comedian glossed over with bare explanations, in lieu of focusing specifically in elements of his younger years that were particularly formative. He didn't write this book to talk about how he built his career, he's talking about how the world gave him character! And quite a character indeed.

Final verdict: Moving, conversational, and fascinating in its ability to intersperse personal anecdotes with cultural connections, Trevor Noah's Born a Crime features unique life experiences and stories well-told. A great example of how reading can bring about greater understanding, I feel like I gained more from this book than just a few hours of entertainment!

What's your favorite comedian memoir? Are you a fan of Noah's work? Let me know, in the comments below!

Review: Love Warrior

Happy Pride! While we're still feeling the after-effects of this past weekend's festivities in Washington, I felt inspired to post about a recent read, by an LGBTQ author. Here's the thing though: despite the fact that this memoir came out last year, she didn't necessarily identify herself in that fashion yet. You'll see what I mean... 

Glennon Doyle Melton is a successful blogger and author, who found her voice in the popular "mommy" sphere of the internet, discussing her children and her faith with readers across the world. However, they haven't necessarily seen this side of her yet: delving deep into the story of her eating disorder, alcoholism, addictive personality, and a rocky relationship with her then-husband, Love Warrior gives Melton a platform to explore the sides of her life that aren't as camera-ready as what she puts on her blog.

This book was awarded the distinction of being Oprah's 2016 Book Club Selection for notable nonfiction, and was a nominee for Best Nonfiction Memoir and Autobiography on Goodreads that same year.  Her previous book Carry On, Warrior, was a New York Times Bestseller, as was this one, and her blog has enjoyed popularity for years now. But the reason I knew about this book, of course, is because she's a fellow Sigma Kappa (She's actually spoken at one of our national conferences before!). Essentially, it was a sure gamble I'd like this book, even before I'd cracked it open.

And when I did, it was like I couldn't close it again. I read this book nearly one sitting, because I absolutely couldn't put it down! Half of that is probably due to the incredibly emotional nature of Glennon's source material - from bulimia and self-image issues, to marital problems and loss of faith in religion, and the growing pains of a growing family - but it's also due to her empathetic and enrapturing style of writing. It's one thing to speak of tragedy, but its quite another to make your reader sympathetic to that pain, instead of ostracizing them from it. Glennon openly admits she's not your perfect role model, but when alcoholism, abortion, and a second unwanted pregnancy align when your author was only a few years older than you are now, you can't help but feel for her.

As you might be able to tell from my previous descriptions, one of the most interesting perspectives in the memoir, are those on faith and religion... In this way, her writing is once again, very personal, and founded in a confluence of varying ideological families, from traditional Christianity, to yoga, to something that is uniquely hers. It's interesting to watch these perspectives intersect and unfold, from an epiphany standing at the feet of a statue of Mary, to a greater understanding of her place in the universe through radical meditation.

(Because of all of this, I definitely don't invite you to read any of the comments sections on her blog, Momastery. All Glennon is doing is looking for her own kind of healing, and people can be so vitriolic.)

Of course, I have to offer up the disclaimer that I include in nearly every review I write of a memoir, that some of it sounded a little overly dramatic and self-involved, like most memoirs are wont to do. But even where it does, it fits the scheme of the book: Glennon is trying to find herself in the midst of her own life, so if it sounds like she's focusing inwards, it's because she has every reason to be doing so.

However, like I mentioned in the intro, I identified it as being written by an LGBTQ author. Reading this book now is a little more difficult to do, due to the context of where Melton is now: her attempts at rekindling a loving marriage with Craig ring a little less true, because they ended up separating again before the book was even published, for good this time... and as of Mother's Day, 2017, she's happily married to soccer star Abby Wambach!

Take a peek at the couples' Instagrams: not only are their wedding photos totally adorable, but its clear that Abby's embracing her unconventional role in Melton's life. Abby even posted a photo of Craig on Father's Day, making it clear that even the family got a little bigger, it certainly didn't lose any love (they even play on the same co-ed soccer team!).

Still, beyond the author's personal life - beyond the very personal accounts of her life in her memoir - this book is an engrossing read, that led me to dog-ear some of the pages to come back to later when I need them. I'm especially excited to see what another book from Glennon might look like, now that her life looks a little different than when she wrote this one!

Final Verdict: An enthralling and emotional remembrance of this popular author's life, and a testimony to the power of self-love and personal healing, Love Warrior is a quick, moving read, that will inspire you, no matter your own religious background.

Have you read any of Glennon Doyle Melton's works before? What do you think of her and Abby's wedding pictures? Let me know, in the comments below!

Recommended Reads: Reality TV

So, if you're in any way connected to entertainment publications, a functioning Twitter account, or a culture-vulture lady in between the ages of 16 and 96 - or, God help you, all of the above - you know exactly what last night was: the premiere episode of Rachel's season of The Bachelorette!

I've been anticipating last night since Rachel became one of my personal front-runners early into Nick's season of The Bachelor earlier this year. She's charismatic, intelligent, gorgeous, and incredibly funny... the perfect lady for America to walk alongside, as she picks out both her own Prince Charming, as well as the next hunk of man candy to cast in the subsequent installment of the hit franchise!

(My favorite article published in anticipation of the new season, is a data breakdown by FiveThirtyEight, charting how best to predict which suitors will make it to the final rounds of competition. It's been pretty helpful in determining how to structure my Bachelorette Fantasy League! And yes, of course there's a Fantasy League... ABC is owned by the same company as ESPN!)

Still, if TV itself helps rot your brain, reality TV can be like dousing the entire thing in lighter fluid and striking a match. As we all disappear into the fire and drama of a new season of hot summer programming, it's important to remember that it's a good thing - a great thing, even! - to pick up a book every once in a while, instead. And yes, of course those books can be about reality TV, too!

Here are some of my personal favorite hits from some of my reality franchise favorites. Pink, but not precious, these lovely ladies with glam gams and spray tans are here to spice up your summer beach reads! And you don't even have to wait for Monday nights to get the scoop.

Down the Rabbit Hole: Curious Adventures and Cautionary Tales of a Former Playboy Bunny, Holly Madison

One of the most throwback picks on this list, the gossip from this tell-all - courtesy of one of the most famous Playboy bunnies of all time - isn't just for rabbit ears only. Going behind the scenes of Madison's time on E!'s Girls Next Door, this memoir shades out the greater insanity of the iconic early '00s show, giving context to some of its most notable TV moments, and illuminating more of the insidious darkness of their production.

My sister read the book before I did, and in a moment of curiosity, went back and re-watched some of the episodes we had viewed for the first time, back when the show was on the air and we were in middle school. Apparently, Holly's words ring true: while the dusty and dark mansion Madison describes seems so far away from its bubblegum depiction on the show, there's an element of falsity that permeates the whole setup... and you can even see it in their dialogue.

You'll also be happy to know that Madison also wrote the book herself: those manicured fingers certainly know how to type, too! Not only was Holly one of the show's stars and a cover model, but she also maneuvered her fame into long-term stints as an editor of the iconic magazine. She's no Stein, or Steinbeck, but she's an accomplished career woman who turned her own circumstances around, and now has the book deal, the bestseller status, and a sequel, to prove it!

The L.A. Candy series, Lauren Conrad

Can I be honest for a second? I don't think there's anyone who can turn a fluffy MTV reality show into a multimedia fashion and entertainment empire quite like Lauren Conrad. Between her lifestyle website, fashion brands, home goods line, and bestselling books - as well as adorable husband and soon-to-be baby! - I think she's found that yes, the rest is still unwritten... but she wants to be the one who's holding the pen.

She got her start straight off the series with these sweet little New York Times bestsellers, following the fictional lives of a group of friends living in L.A., and the camera crews that follow them, too, on a reality show documenting their not-so-real lives. Of course, I feel weird about using the word "fictional" to describe any of it, because as anyone who have seen more than three episodes of Lauren's shows - MTV's Laguna Beach and The Hills - can tell you, it's barely concealing the truth. (Backstabbing costars! The awkward dating scene! Near-sociopathic producers!)

Those longing to get a little more perspective on Conrad's early years should definitely pick up a copy... and, of course, her nonfiction books Style, Beauty and Celebration are all excellent, too.

It's Not Okay: Turning Heartbreak into Happily Never After, Andi Dorfman

Absolutely no citizen of Bachelor Nation was shocked when Andi Dorfman announced to the world that she would be penning a tell-all tome of her time on the hit ABC series. As one of the Bachelor franchises' most no-nonsense contestants, and one of the Bachelorette franchises' most vocal stars, Andi has a TV habit of voicing her displeasure... and she's not about to stop doing it now.

For the benefit of the uninitiated, the title comes from a now iconic Bachelor moment, when then-Bach Juan Pablo Galavis attempted to subdue the frustrated Andi by telling her, "It's okay," after she confronted him about his self-absorbed and narcissistic behavior the night before, in the Fantasy Suite. She dumped him then and there, and came back for Round Two as the Bachelorette, eventually bestowing Josh Murray with her final rose. Still, things weren't all "okay": it was only a matter of time before the ring was back in Neil Lane's pocket, leaving Andi with a lot of relationship drama to fill a book with. 

Dorfman tears into her Bachelor surroundings with the barest veneer of nondisclosure, but anyone who watched her seasons - let alone someone who watched her seasons with her entire sorority providing commentary - would know exactly who she's talking about when she mentions a few key exes. While this may come off across as a little vindictive, once you've been on national television, I think the boundaries get a little blurry as to what is and isn't appropriate to spill the beans on... and once a dude has copped to your hookup in front of a million viewers, I think it's alright to call him out for being a bit of a jerk.

And let's be real for a moment: if you're looking for more good-natured Bachelor reflections, go read Sean Lowe's For the Right Reasons (I've yet to myself, so tell me if you like it!).

Well, I think that sums up some of my more blatantly bad reality TV habits. What shows do you like to watch? Got any recommendations for reality TV reads yourself? Let me know, in the comments below! 

Review: The Book of Joan: Tales of Mirth, Mischief, and Manipulation

It's no secret that celebrity memoirs are often one of my favorite sources of reading material. It's equally apparent, when looking at my reading habits and frequent recommendations, that there's nothing better in my book, than the book of a very funny lady. The best of both were combined in this surprisingly moving and equally hilarious account by Melissa Rivers, of her life with her comedy star mother, Joan. 

I was always a big fan of Joan Rivers, and would often watch Fashion Police not for any of the actual sartorial commentary, but just because her humor made up such a significant part of it. This remembrance of her, told by her daughter Melissa, contains so much of that spark of irrepressible humor that was so quintessentially Joan. Funny, loving, and laced with enough struggle between strong personalities to remind you of your own relationship with your parents, I really enjoyed reading about Melissa's fond memories of her mother. And just in time for Mother's Day!

Melissa described her efforts in writing this book, were primarily to create something that would make her mother laugh. As such, the book is sprinkled throughout with not only the late Rivers' original style of humor, but also an attempt at replicating it by her daughter. 

The effect of this is sweet, but still a little odd. In the relationship, Melissa was always the straight man - something she openly cops to in the book - so to see her attempt to take on her mother's comedy mantle is a little difficult, because the humor doesn't exactly transfer. However, I don't think it was her trying to start a new kind of career in comedy, it was definitely in honor of Joan.

The style of humor itself, being Joan's, was almost kind of retro. In today's humor environment of shock comics on television and the movies, political satire blowing up in response to the current insane political climate, and whatever the hell kind of humor we're getting from the Internet - especially YouTube - Mrs. Rivers' kind of comedy, with a straightforward format, a diagram-able buildup to a punchline, and tongue-in-cheek meanness, comes off as quietly nostalgic. No one tells jokes like these anymore... and maybe that's because Joan Rivers isn't around to tell them.

The look into her personal life was sweet and hilarious. Joan Rivers was exactly the person you saw on screen when she was back at home: a workaholic who exaggerated the truth and didn't suffer fools kindly, this sharp broad was also a terrible driver, a stickler for manners with the kind of deadpan sarcasm that could flatten a bus, who loved junk food and jewelry, and hated sports. She lived unapologetically as herself, and that personal bravery has clearly made an impact on her daughter.

The one thing that threw me a little bit, were the repeated jokes within the book of how Melissa is now out of a job, and hopes to work for various influential people in Hollywood, often to the point of being a little subservient about it. On one hand, this is just like her mother's often self-deprecating style - one of the reason Joan dealt criticisms so openly, was because she paved the way by mocking herself first - but it was still a little sad: so much of Melissa's life and career was shaped around that of bolstering her mother's, so now she's having to manage her own way with Joan gone.

By the time I reached the end, I thought I could have read this in one afternoon, had I been less busy. Well-organized, and constructed in a pattern that makes sense, the overall story of the two's relationship is incredibly easy to read, and  Rivers' passion for grammar makes for a book that just flows easily.

Final Verdict: This remembrance of a comedy legend would have been just the kind of thing Joan Rivers would have loved. A humorous, caring reflection on the life of one of America's original funny ladies, by someone who absolutely knew her best, fans of hers should take an afternoon to indulge in this quick read.

What is your favorite celebrity memoir, of either themselves, or another? Who's your favorite celebrity mother-daughter pair? Let me know, in the comments below!

Review : Below Stairs

Shoutout to all the librarians of the world, whose expertly-crafted displays entice even the most introverted of bookworms, who sure as heck aren't brave enough to ask you for a direct recommendation. Such a makeup was how I got my hands on this memoir, this past February! 

Margaret Powell’s iconic memoir Below Stairs provides a fascinating first-hand account of the back staircases and cramped servants’ quarters of the English elite, in the space between the two World Wars. Her vivid portraits of past employers, and powerful hindsight commentary applied to her unique experiences, have inspired the likes of quintessential British programming, such as Upstairs, Downstairs and Downton Abbey. 

This fiesty writer rose not just through the ranks of household staff in her places of employment, but also from her class position, in order to become a vibrant, humorous memoirist. I especially loved her determined spirit and incensed perspectives on both past and contemporary (at the time) expectations of working women. She focuses on both the disparity of social classes and the power complexities of being a young woman in a working environment with a seasoned eye that still comes across as quite modern for her time.

Her origins and evolution provide an intriguing background to the changing modernist dynamics of that time period: having been raised in relative poverty, to waiting on aristocracy, to interacting with artists and the elite, and then going back to poverty and charity reliance once she left the workforce again after she got married, still comes across as a saga. The deliberate points she makes to illuminate various facets of these struggles raises important questions about the relationship and interactions between social classes, even nowadays!

In one memorable section of the memoirs, she even calls herself a feminist by name. Raised in the time of the suffragettes and having written the book itself in the midst of the tumultuous sixties, this struck me as particularly valid. If there’s anyone who warrants that title, it’s those of her stripes, quietly (and not-so-quietly) struggling for those rights at a time where such behavior was unthinkable. Being that we can barely convince today’s Hollywood darlings and pop stars to own up to those kinds of titles that women like Powell worked so hard to bestow, the ownership of the phrase seemed particularly poignant. 

One particularly moving emotional moment – which occurred fairly early on in these memoirs – was that of Agnes, the parlourmaid, at Margaret’s first place of work. While questions about abortion are still carried on today, in even the highest courts of our country and others, the fact that this has been such a documented turmoil on behalf of womenkind for such a long time also lends the memoir a significant amount of feminist credence. When women were widely without protection or options, and men met little to no consequence, this kind of issue could ruin the lives of those with the least security, and hearing about Agnes’ silent suffering and subsequent dismissal were hard to read about, especially in 2017.

Same with the descriptions of Powell’s experiences with poverty, and the expected subservience of the poorer classes on multiple levels – such as demonstrating semi-fealty to community “charity” groups - despite the fact that either she or her husband was regularly working. Deliberate social constructs that kept both her and her sons from pursuing higher education were especially annoying to read about, because anyone could see that this girl was smart, and observant. Empathy should always remain at the root of charity and community, and these examples were perfect illustrations as to why: demonstrated suffering shouldn't serve as a requirement to being poor. 

(As Charlie Chaplin said, "Judge a man not by how he treats his equals but by how he treats his inferiors." No one escapes this book without Powell bestowing some well-deserved karmic payback.) 

Due to the unique nature of these perspectives - as well as the incredibly humorous, interesting anecdotes peppered throughout the work - I would love to read more about the interactions between servants and their employers during this time period. They really did know everything that was going on in a household, even things that their employers were working hard to keep hidden! 

Final Verdict: Below Stairs is invaluable reading for not just fans of the period piece or British writing, but those looking for uncommon perspectives on feminism and social equality.

Are you a fan of shows like Downton Abbey? What's your favorite period memoir? Let me know, in the comments below!