One of the hazards of reading a nonfiction book, especially one about a well-known subject, is that you know what happens in the end. Every time I got to a section about the Confederates, I was just thinking, “Oh, sweetie, this is not going to turn out well for your side.” Be that as it may, there were plenty of things I didn’t know going into this, especially as I can by no means be called a history buff. I knew that Lincoln was President, […]
Funny Lady Flirts with Disaster
The summer between seventh and eighth grade I was riding my bike to the orthodontist while wearing flip flops when I stopped suddenly and my unprotected big toe was nearly severed by my kickstand. It’s not exactly catching my ballerina outfit on fire while riding on the back of my father’s motorcycle… but I could relate to some of Aisha’s childhood clumsiness. Our similarities ended in middle school (my drunken stories don’t start until the end of my senior year in high school) but Aisha’s […]
We Are Losing Them
My life growing up was, in many ways, very different from the people who populate my adult life. I find myself looking around often and saying “but why don’t you understand _____________?” I grew up in a very diverse area and my experiences and knowledge reflect that diversity. But it’s fair to say that my expanded viewpoint is only expanded to a certain extent because I still view life from a place of white, middle class privilege. But the high school that I attended started […]
Straddling that fine line between funny and obnoxious
There are parts of Sarah Silverman’s memoir, The Bedwetter: Stories of Courage, Redemption, and Pee, that are very, very funny. Most of them involve her family, primarily her father and his accent, written out phonetically and played for great laughs. And Silverman, like many comedians, is great at poking fun at herself, and it’s fun to laugh along with her. She also tells great stories about the men and women she has worked with over the years — doing stand up with Louis C.K., the writers on The Sarah […]
See Also: You Did It to Yourself
Another celebrity memoir, in which said celebrity overcomes a difficult childhood through personal strength and the ability to laugh at his-/herself, and is now wildly popular for said ability. Aisha Tyler’s Self-Inflicted Wounds is also the second celebrity memoir I’ve read in the last week (the first being Kristen Johnston’s) in which the writer was ridiculed mercilessly for her incredible height (both ladies are 6 feet tall), but now a general consensus would indicate that their height contributes greatly to their general hotness. “I was still very much a kid […]
Addiction and Triumph
Wow, this was way better than expected. I know Kristen Johnston primarily as Sally from Third Rock, as I’m sure you do, too — but don’t expect more than the briefest mention of Third Rock in this book. It is not a memoir about her “life in show business”. Guts is a book about addiction — starting with a drinking problem (in high school), adding on pills and culminating in an ulcer tearing open in stomach in London in 2006. “It was a dark day indeed when I was forced to admit […]
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