You'll Grow Out of It by Jessi Klein (2016)

Memoir in short essay form by comedy writer and comedian Jessi Klein. Very funny essays on a range of topics from getting older, dating, Anthropologie, The Bachelor, infertility and becoming a stand-up comedian. 

This list makes it sound a bit vapid, but it's quite funny and truthy and clear-eyed. Delightful, really!

From the (Dating) Types essay: 

"Noses are of key importance. I need a large nose. Something with a bump. I cannot abide a small nose on anyone, really--men or women. I need the kind of nose that suggests some sort of Jewish/Italian/Greek/African influence. The kind of nose that says, 'At some point in the history of my people, we were forced to flee.'" (p. 94)

LOVE it.

Tradition! by Barbara Isenberg (2014)

Subtitled: The Highly Improbably, Ultimately Triumphant Broadway-to-Hollywood Story of Fiddler on the Roof, the World's Most Beloved Musical.

 

Highly readable and light story of the making of Fiddler on the Roof, from conception to film to revivals all around the world. 

Filled with lots of little gems about the theater world, from personalities like Jerome Robbins and Zero Mostel (always fascinating) to the fact that Chaim Topol was only in his 30s when he filmed the movie, Isenberg even mentions Lin-Manuel Miranda's using Fiddler as inspiration not only for In the Heights, but for his wedding dance. 

Dishy and interesting, but still poignant and beautifully conveys the universality of the show.

Stand Up Straight and Sing! by Jessye Norman (2014)

Jessye Norman became famous in the world of opera, but now considers herself to be a singing artist. She has won Grammys, the National Medal of the Arts, and a Kennedy Center Honor. 

She grew up in Augusta, George in the 1940s, a time when the deep South was still segregated. Her parents were active in civil rights issues and race was always at the forefront in her childhood. Her parents spoke of illustrious African American leaders as if they knew them personally, and they felt as close as family.

"I learned about race discrimination and America's system of apartheid long before my first day of school... Jim Crow was hard to miss in Augusta in the 1950s and 60s. It was written in bold block letters above the water fountains and the phone booths and the public restrooms. It was on signs above the waiting areas at the train station and the restaurants and convenience stories, too; WHITES ONLY. COLORED ONLY. The schools were segregated, as were the churches, and the neighborhoods of Augusta were defined clearly along racial lines. There was absolutely no way the message could be ignored, especially for a curious little girl who had learned to read rather early."

Norman's writing is stately and majestic—even when describing the many incidents of racism that have affected her life. From Augusta, Georgia to the less-than-inclusive world of grand opera, this is a fascinating book.

Confessions of a Prairie Bitch by Alison Arngrim (2010)

Subtitled: How I Survived Nellie Oleson and Learned to Love Being Hated. If you looked at the cover of this, with its four shots of Nellie Oleson (who Arngrim played on Little House on the Prairie), and thought, what does she have to write a memoir about ….Let me tell you. Far more than you might ever think.

From complicated family relationships involving secrets and abuse, life as a child actor and beyond, and her years on the beloved family show Little House on the Prairie, Arngrim has a hell of a story to tell. 

Every bit of the story is infused with utter hilarity, while still being unbelievably realistic and clear-sighted and honest. Amazing. Hilarious and delightful and poignant.

So That Happened by Jon Cryer (2015)

Really, really liked this memoir of Cryer's experience in Hollywood. SO funny. 

Many laugh-out-loud moments as well as a great amount of humility and behind the scenes dish and insight into what life is like as a Hollywood actor and theater actor as well. Fabulously fun. SO many funny parts. For example:

 "Beginnings are easy. See how I did that? I began the chapter with a statement about beginnings. This book has layers! Being an author is a cinch! In your face, Herman Melville." (p. 111)

Girl Walks Into a Bar by Rachel Dratch (2012)

Subtitled: Comedy Calamities, Dating Disasters, and a Midlife Miracle.

I have a love-hate relationship with memoirs/humorous essay books written by comedians. However, I was surprised to find that I rather liked this one. (I should have been able to tell by the excellent subtitle alliteration.)

The beginning is a bit of inside dish on being a non-traditional looking actress in Hollywood who rather publicly got replaced on a major television show (30 Rock). The next part is about dating in New York, which is deliciously traumatizing, and the third is about finding herself unexpectedly pregnant in her early forties. Through the entire book, and all of her memoirs, she is wonderfully self-aware, and the book is well-organized and funny. Good stuff!

Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh (2013)

Subtitled: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened

Although I'd recommended and given it to a bunch of people, I was compelled to finally read it after listening to Allie Brosh's fascinating conversation with Marc Maron on the WTF podcast--one of the best discussions I've ever heard on depression.

This book is hilarious and honest and amazingly insightful into what depression feels like. Even her dog comics are adorable.  Beautifully, beautifully done.

Really. What else can be said!  Buy her book and give it to everyone you know.  Also, you should check out her blog as well, particularly:

Adventures in Depression

Depression: Part Two

And remember:

As You Wish by Cary Elwes (2014)

Absolutely charming memoir about making The Princess Bride, subtitled "Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride."

A fun look at all the ins and outs of movie making, from casting to promotion, written with lots of love and fond memories. Memories by other cast members are interspersed within the narrative, lending a little different view to the proceedings. And who can ever get enough Andre the Giant stories?  Not me for sure.

Elwes is humble, grateful, and marvelously charming. Just adorable.

Not That Kind of Girl by Lena Dunham (2014)

Most actress's memoirs--particularly if they are comic in tone--I find a bit facile and uneven. They tend to be loosely strung together collections of anecdotes.

However, you have to hand it to Dunham:  She tells it like it is.  I love the subtitle: A young woman tells you what she's "learned". She tells it warts and all, no writerly airbrushing or image enhancement to make her sound better.  

She's amazingly insightful but also amazingly self-aware. I can't help but like and admire her. This was a wonderfully enjoyable book.  Also, there are little sketchings in the book that give it the feel of a midcentury book on etiquette or relationships--and at the end, you find out the artist is her good friend that she refers to through the book.  And it's funny:  

"When I was born I was very fat for a baby--eleven pounds (which sounds thin to me now).  I had three chins and a stomach that drooped to one side of my stroller.  I never crawled, just rolled, an early sign that I was going to be resistant to most exercise and any sexual position that didn't allow me to relax my back." 

How can you not love that?

Can't We Talk about Something More Pleasant? by Roz Chast (2014)

I love Roz Chast, and this memoir of dealing with her parents' aging and eventual death is poignant, sad, truthful and surprisingly funny.  

She had a mixed relationship with her parents growing up, and dealing with her parents' eventual dependence on her is honestly and touchingly told.  

Very, very much enjoyed.  

Anything Goes by Ethan Mordden (2013)

Subtitled "A History of American Musical Theatre", this is a comprehensive and dense history of musical theater. It starts in 1728 and goes all the way up to fairly recent musicals. Mordden spends the majority of his time on the alleged (and Mordden scoffs at the term) "Golden Age" of musicals.

As someone who loves opera and operetta, it's fascinating to read the progression of musical theater over the years, from an offshoot of opera to its own entity.  I love Mordden's pointing out of the tropes of musical theater (the merry villagers intro, first and second couples), and the R&H Rules.

I also love that, above all, he is interested in what truly makes a musical integrated. Here's a quote that explains what, for me, makes a great musical (besides a great score, lyrics, etc.):

"This is what the American musical had been working up to for some one hundred years, and all its artistry dwells in the historian's key buzz term "integrated"; the union of story and score. Once a mere collection of songs and now a pride of fully developed numbers supported by incidental music, intros and development sections, and musical scenes mixed of speech and song, the score not only tells but probes the story, above all unveiling its characters."

YES.

Strippers, Showgirls, and Sharks: A Very Opinionated History of the Broadway Musicals That Did Not Win the Tony Award by Peter Filichia (2013)

Absolutely delicious and opinionated book about (as the subtitle reads) the musicals that did not win the Tony.

Filichia discusses why or why not various musicals didn't win the Tony in chapters devoted to various reasons, from it being the wrong year, the wrong time, or just not quite good enough. 

I love how he sprinkles little allusions and musical comedy lyrics in his text (like saying something "just isn't a hummamumamummable melody") and I love the context that he provides on how many performances certain shows ran, the theaters that they transferred to, the reviews that they received, and so on. 

Very dishy and fun. I loved his analysis of shows like Passing Strange and Sister Act, and they were right on as to why I never wanted to see them. Quite good reading for the musical theater fan!

Le Freak: An Upside Down Story of Family, Disco, and Destiny by Nile Rodgers (2011)

I LOVED this book.

I picked it up because of a rash of reading memoirs by members of the band Duran Duran (it's true--dang nostalgia) and they kept referring to Nile Rodgers in such glowing terms. I thought it would be interesting to read what he had to say about them. Not much, as it turns out, and I almost returned this book, but I read his captions on the photo spread and liked his sense of humor so I read it. Example:

"Here I am with the band for my second solo album, filming a video for our single, 'State Your Mind.'  A black man fronting a big-haired white band was a novelty then, but not the popular kind."  

The book starts in the late fifties in Greenwich Village, where Rodgers lived with his mother and white stepfather, who were heroin junkies. His fascinating childhood includes stops in the South Bronx, Alphabet City, South Central L.A., time spent in a sanitarium for ill children, and includes fascinating family and friends as he travels through the Beat Generation and the rise of Black Power, then the hippie movement. 

He has a vision of a new kind of black/white funk music, and sees tremendous success with his band Chic, only to be cast out and scourged when the Disco Sucks movement takes off. He produces some of the most iconic albums of the 1980s (David Bowie's Last Dance, Madonna's Like a Virgin, Duran Duran, and way more) and manages to do it all while doing a lot of drugs. He finally cleans up his act, starts a foundation that does great work, and in the last two pages of the book, gets a diagnosis of advanced cancer.

 In the last paragraph, he talks about his family's many secrets and how he'll keep this one (his diagnosis) from them. It may not turn out to be such a big deal, he says.

 MAN! This is a freaking awesome book. He tells his amazing stories with a lot of humility and a lot of humor and no self-pity and no arrogance. The amazingly vivid characters of his family members and his relationships with fellow musicians will definitely stick with me. SUCH an awesome book. So many bits of great language and humor are in this book that I can't quote them all, or I'd be typing out the whole book.  I will tell you that I loved his description of himself skipping school and "kicking back like Dean Martin with a cocoa martini."  Love.  SO much love.

I Want My MTV by Craig Marks and Rob Tennenbaum (2011)

Just like a great documentary, there's something so satisfying about a really well-written, perfectly edited oral history.  I Want My MTV: The Uncensored History of the Music Video Revolution is a perfect example, since the people interviewed are outspoken, honest and often hilarious. My copy of this is stuffed with post-it notes marking hilarious quotes from various performers. It's really well done. My only complaint is that there are so few photos--I'd like to see a few more photos of the people behind the scenes at MTV and the VJs, who were the face of MTV. Definitely inspired me to go to YouTube and look up videos, including the ones commonly described as the best (A-ha's Take On Me) and the worst (Billy Squier's Rock Me Tonite -- sorry, Billy.  No one can deny you still looked good even in a pink tank top.)  Fun and dishy.

And so many fantastic quotes (a totally random sampling):

Stewart Copeland: "We would tease Stingo that he couldn't walk past a mirror without primping. And he would say, 'Fuck off, it's my job. And yours, too, by the way.'"


Billy Gibbons: "I still sign autographs for girls who say, 'I was just thirteen and I couldn't wait to dress up like the girl in "Legs.'"  (So me.  That outfit was awesome.)

Joe Elliot: "When we were kids growing up in Sheffield, there were only two types of clothing shops--men's and women's. And you were never going to find stage wear in a men's shop. So nearly everything we wore, from the waist up, was female. Blouses and T-shirts with loud patterns, designed for big ladies."

John Landis: "One of my guilty pleasures is that when I see a group of people try to do the 'Thriller' dance using the record, they have to wander around like zombies waiting for the goddamn music to start, because the recorded version begins with all these sound effects that aren't in the video."

Lionel Richie: "The funniest story about 'Hello' is that I kept going back to Bob over and over again, saying, 'Bob, that bust of me does not look like me.' 'Bob, the bust does not look like me.' Finally, Bob came over to me and said, 'Lionel, she's blind.'"

Stewart Copeland: "I grew to understand that videos were mainly about getting our singer's face out there. Because it was so pretty. That's the way it goes. Drummers learn that lesson pretty early in life. Guitarists never quite learn that lesson. Drummers and bass players, we're over it."

Sebastian Bach: "Dude, when they talk about 'hair metal', whose hair do you think they're talking about? I've still got it. I'm looking at it right now. And it's so flaxen!"

Awesome and deliciously fun for anyone who grew up on MTV (or Friday Night Videos, for that matter).

What I Hate from A to Z by Roz Chast (2011)

I adore Roz Chast's drawings, and I adore a good rant and this book brings both of those things together in one.  Although, as Chast explains in the introduction, it's really less things she hates than things that make her anxious. But that's not as snappy of a title. One of my favorites is her entry on balloons: "When I look at a balloon, all I see is an imminent explosion. Where's the fun in that?"  Amen.

Fire and Rain by David Browne (2011)

Subtitled: The Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, James Taylor, CSNY, and the Lost Story of 1970. Incredibly absorbing story of a really pivotal year in music. Alternating chapters explore the lives and works of each of these musicians during this time.  As the music industry is a small world, these stories are constantly intertwining.  Lots of fascinating behind-the-scenes stories with larger than life performers all kept in context with the times as Browne explores the social and political events of the time as well.  Terrific look at a fascinating time in music.

Dangerously Funny by David Bianculli (2009)

Subtitled: The Uncensored Story of the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. Fascinating inside look at the television show that only lasted three years, but had a huge impact on television and comedy. Plus, an interesting look at the culture of the late sixties as viewed through the prism of television, and what wasn't being said on television. The Smothers Brothers themselves are interesting characters, as are the amazing cast that made up their writing and acting teams.  Only a few of the sketches they refer to are available on Youtube.  I hope they're not lost to the ages.

Just Kids by Patti Smith (2010)

Fascinating, beautifully written memoir about Smith's life in New York City in the 1960s and 1970s and her relationship with Robert Mapplethorpe, as well as her discovering her artistic passion. Beautifully evocative of New York City in that time period--one of the best books about New York I've ever read.   Photographs and artistic illustrations are sprinkled throughout the book like little treasures. Lovely reminiscences including one about a moment with a bunch of legendary people but how she couldn't recognize it because she was too young and self-involved. Love her encounter with Salvador Dali, as well as her complex relationship with Sam Shepherd (aka Slim Shadow). And did I mention the writing?

"The Chelsea was like a doll's house in the Twilight Zone, with a hundred rooms, each a small universe. I wandered the halls seeking its spirits, dead or alive. My adventures were mildly mischievous, tapping open a door slightly ajar and getting a glimpse of Virgil Thomson's grand piano, or loitering before the nameplate of Arthur C. Clarke, hoping he might suddenly emerge....I loved this place, its shabby elegance, and the history it held so possessively....So many had written, conversed, and convulsed in these Victorian dollhouse rooms. So many skirts had swished these worn marble stairs. So many transient souls had espoused, made a mark, and succumbed here. I sniffed our their spirits as I silently scurried from floor to floor, longing for discourse with a gone possession of smoking caterpillars."

Hiding the Elephant by Jim Steinmeyer (2003)

Subtitled How Magicians Invented the Impossible and Learned to Disappear.  History of illusionists that covers primarily the mid-1800s to the early part of the 20th century. Written by a creator of stage and film illusions, the author explains the illusions created in a clear, simple way and provides an amazing look at a bygone era.

Broadway Babylon by Boze Hadleigh (2007)

More like a primer to Broadway than a trashy, babylonish collection. Interesting essays on all sort of Broadway luminaries, and fabulous quotes on Broadway in all its forms. Great fun reading, excellent for the theater enthusiast.  Perfect reading on the plane on the way home from NYC.