Category: celebrity memoir

celebrity memoir, Memoirs, Non-Fiction

Book Review: I’ll Have What She’s Having by Chelsea Handler

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“The people who don’t get you are not your problem. Sitting around and thinking of all the people who don’t love you or don’t wanna hang out with you just diminishes your own light. Focus on where the light and love come from and park yourself in front of that. There are many moments in life when your own light is all you need.”

Through the most tender essays I’ve ever read from Chelsea, she shares what her dreams were as a child and how far she has come. She examines the woman fame let her become and wonders if that is the woman she wants to continue to be. She shares being at a low point in her life, the things that are important to her, her family, her work and skiing. She shares how her being child free is perceived and how much she actually loves children even though she does not ever want to have biological children.

“Learning the art of making an argument without yelling or screaming is something to behold. I’ve always dreamed of becoming the kind of person who can do that. Nothing feels like winning more than not losing your temper.”

I have read every Chelsea book. This is the first Chelsea book that I have listened to, and I loved the experience I had with it. I listened to this book during a road trip, and it caught me unawares. I think this is Chelsea’s most vulnerable book. She shares about being rejected by a governor, playing pickleball with the Bushes, sharing psychedelics with strangers in Spain, what her relationship with her family has become, and the love affair with Jo Koy.

“You are the love of your life.”

I think that Chelsea presents like such a strong woman which she absolutely is, but it was quite interesting to listen to her describe her relationships and all the things she endured. It was fascinating to hear her stay with a cheating partner and go back to him over and over again. When she describes her relationship with Jo and how much they tried to make it work and how she thought they would be married, I felt compassion for her. She also declines to mention why they broke up because she just feels that she has outgrown that period in her life where she would throw the men she has dated under the table for a story. I suspected that she broke up with him because he wanted a more traditional relationship on the conservative side – but that’s just my speculation from reading between the lines.

“It had taken me decades to learn how to not lay blame, to not be punitive or vindictive when someone hurts me. To be mindful and consistent while recognizing the difference between instinct and impulse. To recognize that instinct is a knowing feeling, and impulse is acting on an emotion.”

I gave this book 5 stars because I really enjoyed listening to Chelsea let us into her life. Please do this one on audio if you pick it up.

Leggy.

celebrity memoir, Memoirs, Non-Fiction

Book Review: From Here To The Great Unknown by Lisa Marie Presley & Riley Keough

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“I have a vague memory of this one conversation we had in that room about a passage that Elvis had underlined. I started to call someone to help me remember it, but realized that there’s no one left to call”

Whatever you felt after reading the quote above, is basically the feeling you’ll have about this book. For me, it was sadness and the feeling of loss and that’s what I got from Lisa Marie while reading her memoir. For those who don’t know, Lisa Marie, only child of Elvis Presley, decided to write her memoir but got stuck and enlisted her oldest daughter, actress Riley Keough to help her complete it. Not long after this, Lisa Marie passed away and Riley is left to complete what her mother started.

“Grief settles. It’s not something you overcome. It’s something that you live with. You adapt to it. Nothing about you is who you were. Nothing about how or what I used to think is important. The truth is that I don’t remember who I was.”

This was a very captivating memoir because it was everything a memoir should have, especially the most important – being honest. Lisa Marie was very open and honest about her life. She laid bare the good (which wasn’t very much), the bad and the ugly and you could feel her struggle and pain through her words. Even when she made decisions that seemed outrageous like deciding she wanted to be a mom and Danny Keough had to be the father and essentially trapping him, you just want to give her a pass because you just wanted to help ease her pain away. The honesty also rang even truer if you do the audio because you get to hear actual audio of Lisa Marie recounting her memories (which is what Riley used to finish up the book)

“He wasn’t an angry person, he didn’t live there. Some people full-on live in destruction. Others buy real estate and walk around in anger for a little while. My dad would just visit.”

Lisa’s first big loss was the loss of her father when she was 9 years old and I don’t think she ever recovered from it. She had a bond/connection with her dad that I can’t whole heartedly say was healthy. Not to say that they didn’t love each other, they did but her dad was an addict and as his addiction got worse and his moods became erratic it seemed like Lisa focused on just making sure she was on his good side. I say this to say that the book sounded like Lisa idolized him especially post-humously and it was almost like he could do no wrong. A stark contrast to her feelings towards her mom. She definitely wrote more about her dad than her mom.

“She mothers my daughter through me.”

As much as this was Lisa Marie’s memoir, the biggest impact it left on me was a desire to know more about her daughter, Riley. I mentioned earlier how it felt like Lisa Marie idolized her dad, I do think Riley did the same for her mom. She did a fantastic job of finishing the book for her mom and piecing together stories told to her by her mom. I felt that Lisa Marie didn’t stand a chance at happiness in life with everything that she went through and I wondered the same about Riley and how she was able to navigate the dysfunction and heartbreaks such as her brother’s suicide. She seems to be a parentified child and the person who kept the family together as the sensible one and it made me want to know more about her true feelings and how she navigated it all.

“I looked at my face as a child and thought, My God, if only anyone could have told you what you were going to go through in this life, what you were going to be up against. That cute little blond-haired child in the matching dress with her mommy. It overwhelmed me.”

Overall, I definitely recommend this book. It’s a quick 6 hour listen on audio. Julia Roberts narrates Lisa’s part and Riley narrates her part (I will admit I was not a fan of Riley’s voice). As mentioned earlier, we get to hear the actual raw tapes of Lisa Marie talking about her life and there is an honesty there that made me believe everything she said. She gave an aura of IDGAF and honestly, what was there to lose? I learned things I didn’t know about her previously like her romantic relationships, her music career and how fraught her relationship with her mom was. All this and more provided for one of my favorite memoir reads.

I’d like to give trigger warnings as there is mention of sexual assault, drug use and suicide.

Taynement

Best & Worst, Black Authors, celebrity memoir, Fiction, literary fiction, Memoirs, romance

Our Best and Worst Books of 2024

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Another year of reading is coming to a close and as always, we share with you what our best and worst books of the year were.

Taynement’s Best:

“I think of Constance’s hushed voice whenever we were cleaning together. Once some things get dirty they can never be clean again and once some things are broken they can never be fixed.”

I stumbled upon this book randomly. I sometimes go to the bookstore just for a happy high and I take pictures of the featured book display and go down the list to see what is available in my library. Sugar, Baby was and from the moment I read this book it has not left my mind and that’s why it is my favorite read. I couldn’t stop gushing about it to Leggy. I love books that remind you that life isn’t black and white. I don’t think enough promo was done for this but here is my review. Check it out and let me know what you think!

Some other faves:

  • Hold My Girl by Charlene Carr (another underpromoted book, I couldn’t even find it at the bookstore. The book asks the question “What defines a mother?”. Full review here)
  • Here One Moment by Lianne Moriarty (I never thought I would have a Moriarty book on my “best of” list but here we are. Full review here)
  • How To Say Babylon by Safiya Sinclair (What a memoir. Full review here)
  • A Kind of Madness by Uche Okonkwo (Enjoyed these collection of short stories)
  • Little Rot by Akwaeke Emezi (Listen, I am just as surprised as you are to see this here)

Leggy’s Best:

“In the rare hopeful hour, I tell myself this darkness has a purpose: to help me recognize light if I ever find it again.”

I heard such good things about this book when it was released in 2023 but I never got around to reading it. Finally, I cracked it open in 2024 and I understood why it was recommended so much to me. Read my full review of this one here.

Some other favorites:

  • The Wedding People by Alison Espach. I read this last month and really, really liked it. I feel like everything might have been wrapped up too neatly but I still really enjoyed my reading experience. This will probably be my first review of the new year.
  • Long Island Compromise by Taffy Brodesser-Akner. Rich people being badly behaved will always have my heart in literature. You can read my review here.
  • James by Percival Everett . You can read my review here.
  • Summer Fridays by Suzanne Rindell. I think this is my favorite romance of the year.

Taynement’s Worst:

I tried but I couldn’t get over the premise. Maybe it is possible, but it’s hard for me to imagine that someone would fall for the identical twin brother of the person who raped and impregnated her and have that child have an Uncle/Dad relationship? I know I say life isn’t black and white but this was not it at all.

Leggy’s Worst:

This book was just badly written and just bad. This was also the only book that I gave one star this year soooo it earned its place.

Thank you so much for sticking with us this year. Let us know your best and worst books of the year in the comments. Happy Holidays, everybody!

Taynement & Leggy

Black Authors, celebrity memoir, Memoirs, race, women's fiction

Book Review: Leslie F*cking Jones by Leslie Jones

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“You are with yourself every day, all day, all night—might as well like yourself.”

Leslie Jones is a comedian who is best known for her role on SNL for a couple of years. This memoir describes her life – from her childhood growing up in the South with a military father, her early high school and college days playing basketball, her early stand-up days driving from gig to gig and living from paycheck to paycheck to being cast on SNL which came because of a Chris Rock recommendation. I did this book on audio and I’m going to be reviewing this book on audio because I’m pretty sure this book on audio is very different from the printed book. For context, the printed book is 288 pages, the audio is 17 hours of Leslie just telling you, her story. It’s a long podcast filled with streams of consciousness and sometimes she even says – “I don’t think this was in the book but let me tell you about that time when…”.

“My talent can take me anywhere I want to go. I’m not conceited or cocky. I’m just convinced.”

I knew nothing about Leslie before I picked up this book. I’ve never heard any of her comedy and I don’t even watch SNL. I just know her as a public figure who was on SNL. So, I definitely went into this one completely blind about her story. Leslie grew up in the South with very young parents. Her parents got married when they were 18 and tried to do the best they could with what they had. Leslie’s ability to keep moving forward no matter what happened to her is very inspiring to listen to. She talks about her coming to the realization that she was black and a dark-skinned black girl at that and always asking her father if she was beautiful. She talks about hoping that her success will convince people who look like her to just keep going and that it gets better on the other side of being a grown up.

“I remember hearing Diana Ross once say, “Know who you are because if you don’t, they will make you what they want.”

Leslie is a very complicated person. There are a lot of things that I didn’t agree with, but I respect the fact that Leslie was always herself. Win or lose, she was always going to do it her own way and that takes a lot of courage to decide that who you are is enough. Did I listen to some of the stories and think she overreacted? Yes. Do I also think that it’s problematic that I think a dark-skinned black woman needs to tone it down? Absolutely. There is a lot of things living in America makes you internalize, and Leslie has internalized none of that. She tells you story after story of her trying to navigate her career – the things she did wrong and the things she got right. Consistently calling people out who she felt disrespected her because she’s a woman or because she’s black.

“I knew I wasn’t going to have children as far back as when as I was twelve. I am not a pain person. You’re telling me you’re going to pull a whole human out of my pussy? (For a start, I’m going to need more than six weeks off.) We saw a film in health class called something like The Beauty of Childbirth—but all I saw was hideous shit. What’s beautiful about snatching a baby out of a woman’s ass? The fuck? My cousin Rhonda even delivered a baby in our house, and I remember that there was so much blood…
None of this was going to happen to me.”

Leslie talks about her decision to not have kids. The abortions she had before going into planned parenthood for some much-needed sex education so that she could prevent getting pregnant. She was with one of her partners for a very long time and he wanted kids, but she was sure that if she stayed with him, she would be stuck and not achieve her dreams. Also, his mother hated her, and she got tired of the disrespect and left him. But as soon as she got pregnant the first time, she knew she was never going to be a mother. She knows that her mother would be disappointed about her decision to never have kids especially now that she has the resources to actually afford them but it’s a decision she made with clear eyes and has never regretted.

“He’s a grown-ass man. If you don’t watch out, you’re both gonna die—you’re both gonna sink in that same boat.”

Leslie talks about the complicated relationship she had with her father who wanted so bad for them to make something of themselves. She talks about her now deceased brother who was deep into selling crack during the crack epidemic in California. One of her regrets is that none of her family is here to reap the benefits of her success. As she describes her father, you get the feeling that she is hoping that her audience doesn’t judge him too harshly. She talks about how great he was when she was young and how he always told her she was gorgeous but also told her that she is a woman and black and she would have to fight hard to get anything in this world. You can tell that Leslie feels guilty that she chose herself unlike her brother who was stuck trying to take care of an alcoholic father. She was single minded in the pursuit of her career.

“The world’s not going to stop for that shit. This doesn’t define who you are. Don’t make this the focus of your life. There’s always going to be hurt before you get to the right place.”

All in all, I loved listening to this book, and it made me actually laugh out loud. So many times, I would stop and send Tayne a voicemail of something that I found incredibly funny. Like Leslie asking her therapist if she’s promiscuous because she was sexually abused when she was young and her therapist asking her if she’s considered that maybe she’s just a slut. It made me laugh so much because Leslie was like – you know what? you’re right. Anyway, I recommend this book and wish Leslie Jones continued success in all her endeavors. I gave this book 4 stars on Goodreads.

Leggy

celebrity memoir, Memoirs, Non-Fiction

Book Review: You Could Make This Place Beautiful by Maggie Smith

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“What would I have done to save my marriage? I would have abandoned myself, and I did, for a time. I would have done it for longer if he’d let me.”

Maggie Smith writes a poem that blows up and becomes the beginning of the end of her marriage. In her memoir, You Could Make This Place Beautiful, poet Maggie Smith details the disintegration of her marriage, the heartbreak that followed and her renewed commitment to herself and her children. This is a book about what happens to a marriage where your significant other becomes jealous of your success and expects you to shrink yourself and maintain the status quo of what your marriage was before your fame.

“I’m desperate for you to love the world because I brought you here.”

I remember reading an excerpt of this book as an essay in The Cut and loving it, which is why I picked it up. This book should have stayed an essay. I do not think Maggie Smith had enough material to make this an actual book. I was fascinated by the dynamic I saw expressed in that essay because it is a dynamic that I am very familiar with as a Nigerian woman. Smith’s lawyer husband constantly belittled her creative work, expecting her to perform a housewife role, even though she worked from home and when success finally found her, he resented her for it. I wanted to get an understanding of how despite being more educated than her mother, she had fallen into the exact same role as her mother even though she thought her, and her husband were a modern couple.

“Here’s the thing: Betrayal is neat. It absolves you from having to think about your own failures, the ways you didn’t show up for your partner, the harm you might have done.”

I never got this understanding because even though Maggie Smith chose to write this memoir, she is very reluctant to share her side of the story. She insists on telling us that there is no one truth, which is true, and also the very reason she should have never written a memoir if her truth hadn’t been solidified yet. If your feelings are still ever constantly changing, don’t write a memoir and then accuse your readers of having a voyeuristic gaze for daring to be curious about information that you are writing about.

She constantly would bring up a piece of information and then proceed to tell the readers that she would not tell us that information, why bring it up then Maggie? We did not ask you to write this book. You did! Why write the things you do not want to write about? Why keep bringing up specific scenes that the reader would have no idea about if you didn’t bring it up only to tell us that you won’t tell us what was said in the scene?

“I’m trying to tell you the truth, so let me be clear: I didn’t want this lemonade. My kids didn’t want this lemonade. This lemonade was not worth the lemons. And yet, the lemons were mine. I had to make something from them, so I did. I wrote. I’ll drink to that.”

One thing that is very clear in this book is that Smith is still angry. You can read it from the lines she has written and those she insists she will not write. I do not fault her for this, and she has every right to be angry. Her husband cheats on her, she finds out and proceeds to never confront him about it. He lets them go to couple therapy for months where he demands things from her that would mean the death of her career while never admitting that he cheated.

Infact Maggie spends therapy sessions continually twisting herself into pretzels to get this man to stay and never brings up the fact that she found out he was cheating on her. In the end, he makes the decision to end their marriage, get on dating apps and then move out of state, away from his children, to begin a new life with his affair partner. Who wouldn’t be angry?

“As if you have to break someone’s heart to make them strong. I could say you don’t get to take credit for someone’s growth if they grow as a result of what you put them through.”

Maggie Smith is a better poet than she is a prose writer. This book is so repetitive that I just wanted it to end. I love poetry so I enjoyed this more than the general public is ever going to. Smith spends the entire book circling around the thing while refusing to tell us about the thing. And she is so heavy handed every time she thinks she’s written a great line or said something profound that you can smell her smugness coming off the page. All in all, I gave this book 3 stars on Goodreads because I enjoyed the great lines in the book, but I actually wouldn’t recommend it.

Leggy

celebrity memoir, Memoirs

Book Review: Thicker Than Water by Kerry Washington

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Kerry Washington’s memoir was all the buzz last year with the big revelation that she found out her dad was not her biological dad. The book starts with the day she received the text message from her parents letting her know that they needed to talk. And from Kerry sharing her thoughts and wondering what it could be, she walks back on her life starting from her mother’s first marriage before bringing us back to the moment of her finding out.

The choice to do this was the first thing that impressed me about this book because it was a good way to just dive headfirst to the water cooler moment but then guide us through important moments that led us here. Her mother’s first marriage story was quite important as we get to understand how much she longed for a child after suffering a loss.

This book hit all the points of a memoir and she did not shy away from being open. She talks about her parents marriage, her dad’s financial flaws, sexually being abused by another kid and choosing not to reveal his identity, her abortion, falling in love with her husband, eating disorder and much more. Nothing was left unturned. It’s very easy to forget the accomplishments some actors have made in their careers but as she spoke about her work, I was taken down memory lane and was tempted to go back and rewatch all her bodies of work. The woman has an impressive list.

As always, I did this on audio and the actress in her showed in this narration and she made it enjoyable. Because Kerry is generally a private celeb, I can see how this book could be seen as a juicy tell all because most of the stories are new to us. I think it was an honest well written book with her authenticity being the best thing about it. I’d recommend.

Taynement

celebrity memoir, Non-Fiction

Book Review: The Woman In Me by Britney Spears

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“I wanted to hide, but I also wanted to be seen. Both things could be true.”

It’s crazy the things we experienced in real time that we kind of just shrugged or looked away from e.g when R. Kelly married Aaliyah when she was just 15. Britney’s ordeal is another thing that I can’t believe we lived through and just chucked it up to her being out of control until a few years ago when the ugly truth about her conservatorship came out and it was like “wow!”. When it was announced that she will be releasing her memoir, I knew I was going to be on it ASAP.

“The saddest part to me was that what I always wanted was a dad who would love me as I was—somebody who would say, “I just love you. You could do anything right now. I’d still love you with unconditional love.”

The biggest takeaway from this book is how much Britney’s family hated/hates her. Sounds like a strong choice of word but that is the best way to describe it. Britney starts the book by saying that “tragedy runs in her family”. Her grandfather passed down his traumas to her father which manifested in him being an alchoholic and not being kind to his family. She grew up in turmoil and music was her escape.

“I was quiet and small, but when I sang I came alive”

The book also conveys how much Britney enjoyed performing and how much it fed her soul. So when we get to the part when the conservatorship started and stripped her of this joy, it’s more palpable. We get to understand more of her mind state and how much grief and pain she was going through. And instead of creating a safety circle, her father and mother because if you say nothing, you are complicit, decide to exploit her and put her in a mental prison.

I did both the audio and read the book and it’s amazing how even though Michelle Williams voiced the audio, you can hear it in Britney’s voice. You have to look at the book as not a literary masterpiece, but as one long rebuttal from Britney to share her side of the story. She does a good job of letting us know all the events that led to the world thinking she was “crazy”. She makes mention many times of being like Benjamin Button and aging backwards mentally like a little girl, which makes more sense of why her Instagram is the way it is (plus regaining the freedom she lost).

It’s crazy that this lasted for 13 years. Britney doesn’t shy away from the details of all the unfortunate incidents in her life and my God, the paparazzi was relentless. Were there parts of the books that remained surface? yep. She doesn’t get into detail on getting with Kevin Federline while he had an 8 month pregnant girlfriend, just saying she didn’t know. But it happens again when she dated a paparazzo. I was interested to know more about her dating life while under the thumb of her father and in one case where her most recent husband, Sam Asghari was, when she went to the many unnecessary rehabs her dad whisked her to.

“If you stood up for me when I couldn’t stand up for myself: from the bottom of my heart, thank you.”

But she did all this for her babies because they kept dangling it as a threat. Also, once again we see how our legal system fails people. She wasn’t even against the conservatorship but just anyone but her father. It’s crazy how the “Free Britney” movement is what saved her and she specifically thanks her fans on this one. The book does not take into account her current divorce and she is full of praises for him in this book.

Overall, this was a quick easy read/listen that provides a different perspective. The book made me very, very sad because how can you be so wicked to your own flesh and blood. She’s just never had anyone in her corner and I wonder how she can proceed when she has clearly been looking for stability and love in her life and every single person keeps failing her. How do you trust anyone?

In one part, she mentions how everyone keeps saying that the conservatorship saved her life and she says physically, maybe but mentally, it crushed her soul. I hope she finds a way to move forward. If you’d like more Britney, the Britney vs. Spears documentary on Netflix puts faces to the names in the book.

Taynement

celebrity memoir, Memoirs, Non-Fiction

Book Review: Love, Pamela by Pamela Anderson

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I actually don’t know what the temperature of Pamela Anderson’s popularity is at the moment but in the 90’s she was a household name. She had her persona – blonde, big boobs, very sexual and let’s be honest ditzy. But we never really know the full story so I was interested in watching her Netflix documentary when it came out. It was also announced that she had a memoir coming out and I knew that I would be interested in reading that as well. The doc came out first and after watching, I definitely saw her in a different light and she is much smarter than most of the world gave her credit for. I was also curious to see how different the book was going to be. From the documentary, I learned that she kept very detailed journals and I think this helps in some of the clear details that she has in her book.

Pamela walks us through her childhood in Canada. Her parents’ quite frankly – toxic relationship which I think played a part in her toxic relaionships when she got older. Pamela’s childhood is impactful in her story because she suffered a lot of sexual abuse before the age of 18. This abuse included one from her babysitter and in another incident a situation with 4 boys. I had to take a breather after reading that part because you just wonder how one gets over repeated sexual assault.

She tells us about her career and relationships and of course her most high profile one with Tommy Lee. His jealousy, her miscarriages and how bad the paparazzi was to her. Of course she touches on the sex tape and we get to hear things from her point of view. There was a TV show about Tommy and Pam and I never stopped to think how she would feel about it and how it affected her. It was great to see her devotion to her boys and them being the reason she couldn’t be with Tommy even if that is what she wanted.

While Pam is all about seeking answers in whatever form – she shares her friendship with a pastor and she reads a lot of self help, I still think there is a gap in her relationship with men. Even if it was not her experience, I think she should have still addressed the accusations against Hugh Hefner. Pam holds Playboy in high esteem and only spoke highly of them. The same goes for Rick Saloman and she is still a huge advocate of Julian Assange.

All in all, I thought she met most of the tenets of a memoir and was pretty open about her life. It was a quick listen (5hr+ audiobook) and I feel like I got to know the generous, kind hearted, intellectual side of her that I’d never learned about from the media. I do wonder if watching the documentary affected my opinion of the book since some things weren’t new to me but overall it’s a quick read if you are looking to get a memoir checked off in your TBR list.

Taynement

Book Related Topics, celebrity memoir, Chick-Lit, Fiction, literary fiction, Memoirs, Non-Fiction, romance

Our Best and Worst Books of 2022

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Leggy’s Best:

“My point is, there’s always something. I think, as a species, we have a desire to believe that we’re living at the climax of the story. It’s a kind of narcissism. We want to believe that we’re uniquely important, that we’re living at the end of history, that now, after all these millennia of false alarms, now is finally the worst that it’s ever been, that finally we have reached the end of the world.”

Emily St. John Mandel has become such a must read author for me. I have enjoyed every book of hers I’ve ever read. I absolutely adored this book and gave it 5 stars. You can read my full review of this book here. This year has been a fantastic reading year for me in all genres so I thought it would be hard for me to pick a favorite but this was such a clear answer for me.

Other favorites:

  • Book Lovers by Emily Henry (favorite romance book this year for sure! Full review on the blog here.)
  • Dreadgod by Will Wight (The 11th book in the Cradle series by Will Wight. Please read these series if you haven’t yet. These books are so much fun. The 12th and final book comes out next year. favorite fantasy book of the year for sure!)
  • Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield (This was my favorite weird book I read this year. Goodreads marks this as horror? Didn’t get that at all but it was so strange and such amazing writing)

Taynement’s Best:

This was one of the first books I read this year and nothing else captured my attention like it. This memoir of sorts has Faith Jones recounting her time in a cult and how she got out of it. I could not believe a lot of the things I read and the fact that it was someone’s real life was really jarring. As mentioned in my full review, loads of trigger warning for this one. Any book that had me go down a rabbit hole of wikipedia and documentaries just to get more information after I was done, was bound to be top of my list.

A lot of the books I enjoyed were niche favorites (books about reality show bts) but some other favorites were:

  • Verity by Colleen Hoover (This book was an acid trip but I probably read this the fastest. Full review here)
  • The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green (I guess I had my number of non fiction reads. Perfect blend of smart and interesting. Full review here)
  • The Good Sister by Sally Hepworth (This was a random read that I ended up liking a lot. Full review here)
  • Carrie Soto Is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid (TJR rarely misses with me and this was not an exception)

Taynement’s Worst:

This was a recent review of mine so it should be no surprise that it is my worst. Up until writing this, I didn’t realize how much non-fiction I read this year. Well, my worst book is also in this genre. Every Tom, Dick and Harry has a memoir now whether they deserve it or not. This memoir had so many missing gaps, way too much toxic positivity and just overall missed the mark. Extra negative points for the terrible voice cadence that was used in the audio book. I just really hated this book y’all! (Full review here)

Leggy’s Worst:

Instagram loves this book. I have a mini rant about this book on our Instagram page (@nightstands2, follow us!). I picked up this book because of the hype and because I saw a trailer of the movie adaptation on Youtube and decided to just read the book instead, what a bad idea. There was nothing romantic about this book. The heroine is the exact type of character I hate in a romance – think Zooey Deschanel from New Girl, obviously hot girl who is “awkward” and has no idea she’s hot. I rolled my eyes so much reading this book it almost fell out of the sockets.

We hope you have enjoyed talking books with us this year. We’d love to know what your best and worsts were so let us know in the comments. Have an amazing Christmas and we’ll see you in the New Year. Happy reading everybody!

Leggy & Taynement

celebrity memoir, Memoirs, Uncategorized

Book Review: Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing by Matthew Perry

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“Do you know what St. Peter says to everyone who tries to get into heaven?”

“Peter says, ‘Don’t you have any scars?’ And when most would respond proudly, ‘Well, no, no I don’t,’ Peter says, ‘Why not? Was there nothing worth fighting for?”

I picked up this book because Chandler was always my favorite on Friends and I could not watch the reunion special because I could not believe how bad all the men aged. I wanted them all stuck in my head how they were when I watched the original show. Now, Friends premiered when I was 3, so obviously I watched it after it had ended and so avoided any knowledge of any of their private or celebrity news. I had no idea Mathew Perry was an addict until I picked up this book. Perry in this book is baring his addiction in such a glaring way that it is hard to read and yet, so hard to look away. I listened to this book on audio and could not listen all the way through. I could only do 2 hours at a time because the big terrible thing is really that big and terrible.

“I’m hopeless and awkward and desperate for love!”

A lot of fans know that a lot of Mathew Perry went into the character of Chandler on Friends. Mathew Perry is Chandler without Monica and without the twins at the end, but with the same baggage and an insane addiction problem. Perry takes us through his birth in America, his childhood in Canada with his mother who was Trudeau Sr. ‘s Chief of Staff when he was Prime Minister and then to his return to America to live with his father. Perry has had a roller coaster of a life. He started drinking at 15 and then never stopped. Every time he picked up any substance at all, he got addicted. There is no drug he hasn’t done, there is no amount of alcohol he hasn’t drunk, it’s actually quite insane to listen to. Perry spent most of his young life wanting desperately to be famous. He was actually getting steady work doing a lot of guest starring roles, shows that never led to anything while drinking his nights away with friends and sleeping with as many women as possible.

“Now, all these years later, I’m certain that I got famous so I would not waste my entire life trying to get famous. You have to get famous to know that it’s not the answer. And nobody who is not famous will ever truly believe that.”

I’m going to say something I don’t think anyone has ever said about a memoir but this book is too honest. Perry is so honest that I can see why people would consider him unlikeable after reading this book. He doesn’t pretend that he just loved acting and that’s all he wanted to do. Perry wanted to be famous. He longed for it, him and his friends would audition all day and then meet up at night to fantasize about being famous. Perry talked about his obsession with love. He was rarely ever single even through the worst of his addictions. He was either in a committed relationship or he was sleeping his way through Los Angeles. I can see why people would consider him a womanizer who objectifies women, but you don’t pick up a memoir about an addict looking for a saint. He would date amazing woman after amazing woman and break up with them before they had a chance to leave him. He would be at the cusp of proposing then crack a joke and then never do it.

Yes, he really is Chandler and it would be endearing and funny if he didn’t spend most of his time trying to escape reality through drugs and alcohol. Perry doesn’t make excuses about his mistakes. His story telling is very matter of fact. He tells you how much he’s spent on rehab. He tells you how most rehab are bullshit and he could sue them. If you’re looking for a humble man who is looking for forgiveness for his actions, you won’t find him here. Does Perry wish that he didn’t have this disease? Absolutely. But this book is not about convincing you that he is a good man who was riddled with this addiction. It is just a book about an addict.

“I was so often just a tourist in sobriety.”

There’s info about Friends and lovers, yes, but don’t pick up this book if that’s all you want scoop on. 75% of this book is about the big, terrible thing. This book desperately needed an editor. There are so many jokes that fell flat that should have never made it to the page. The Keanu Reeves joke for example. It made so many people mad that when I went to Goodreads to rate this book and saw so many 1 star ratings, I was so confused until I saw that some of them were mad about the Keanu quip (which Matthew Perry has apologised for). Also, this book was not linear so sometimes it left me confused, trying to figure out where we are at any particular time. Also a lot of it read as repetitive. Where were his editors? This book would have been so much better if it was thoroughly edited and a proper timeline worked out for all the events outlined in the book.

“If I drop my game, my Chandler, and show you who I really am, you might notice me, but worse, you might notice me and leave me. And I can’t have that. I won’t survive that.”

I felt sad after reading this book. It’s so hard to evaluate memoirs because how do you judge a person’s life story on a point system? I’m curious to see how reading this book is going to affect my further watching of Friends. I wonder if I’m going to still see my beloved Chandler Bing or if I’m going to be stuck staring into the crack Mathew has opened in this funny character. I gave this book 4 stars on Goodreads and based on the reviews I’ve seen about it, I will give one warning – do not read this book if you will be offended by the actions of an addict.

Leggy