I cannot remember why Anna Kendrick’s memoir, Scrappy Little Nobody, was the first book I chose to read/listen to in 2020, but it was. I think I might have liked the title, honestly. And it was great to find out Anna was basically playing different versions of herself in her films, because she is such a dork, and I relate.
I always like celebrities who seem like they could be me. Anna’s stories in the book are both funny and endearing. I liked her recollections of her (very) early career and her views on child acting. I enjoyed the fact that it felt like she didn’t believe her life either, that she was just as shocked as the rest of us that she was a famous actress, and that she felt like she had imposter syndrome.
Her book wasn’t very long, about 250ish pages, and I was amused all they way through. It’s a fun, light hearted read that is perfect for a couple of days at the beach.
I will also say it’s a great book for a car ride – Anna Kendrick did her own audiobook reading, and that was a great move. Anna was great at it. I’ve heard some actors/actresses reading their own work and not being so great at it, but she did a great job. I really appreciated her phrasing and tone.
Short, fun book. If you like Anna Kendrick, go for Scrappy Little Nobody.
Tag Archives: genre: autobiography
Scrappy Little Nobody
Theft by Finding: Diaries 1977-2002
Ah yes, Theft By Finding – my return to David Sedaris.
After 2016 I basically didn’t pay any attention to Sedaris again until last year when I borrowed this audiobook from the library. I actually went to one of his readings for this book, which was highly enjoyable. I had planned to get an autograph but it was Sunday night and I couldn’t wait on the line since I had to work the next day.
This book was essentially diary entries of Sedaris’s from 1977-2002, and he admits he went back and filled in some gaps and made sure everything made sense before putting them out.
I loved these stories. Whether they’re tales of his early work in construction or of his family at the beach, I enjoyed them thoroughly – although not the 9/11 entry so much. To me, that entry, while well written, felt lost to me. I guess we all felt lost then. It brought back too much of that feeling of waiting around with nothing to do, waiting for something to happen that never happens. I hated that feeling. I hated remembering that feeling.
I think what I like most about Sedaris, and maybe he’s done this on purpose, but maybe he hasn’t, is that feeling he invokes of being a passenger and observer in his own life. He is observing, but he also somehow gives the impression that he has zero control over what happens to him. He randomly ends up on the street buying pot in the middle of the night because his roommate was supposed to do it, but he went to go get laid instead, so David had to do it because his roommate talked him into coming. (This isn’t an actual example, but it’s just the kind of thing Sedaris does – things happen to him like he has no choice in it).
Maybe some people find this annoying. Even I do sometimes. But I think part of Sedaris’s appeal to me is that I often feel like a passenger/observer taking part in my own life. There’s all that “Oh, you’re the heroine of your own story” bullshit out there, but really, I’m not fully in control of my own circumstances 90% of the time, and a lot of the time, I feel like everyone else on the stage and I’m the only person in the audience.
I even managed to hook my husband on Sedaris with this book, because I made him listen to portions of it in the car with me when we went places. I’m looking forward to his next batch, which is supposedly a thing that’s happening (supposedly 2003 – present-ish).
Also, “theft by finding” is a real thing. According to Wikipedia:
Theft by finding occurs when someone chances upon an object which seems abandoned and takes possession of the object but fails to take steps to establish whether the object is genuinely abandoned and not merely lost or unattended.
I really like this phrase and idea for some reason.
Theft By Finding was a solid series of essays/diary entries. Any David Sedaris fan will enjoy it.
The Princess Diarist
Losing Carrie Fisher in 2016 bothered me. I loved and admired her from afar, the way many did. I thought she was brave, and she was funny, and she was brilliant.
I borrowed and listened to The Princess Diarist because I missed her, and I wanted to hear about her affair with Harrison Ford. Not exactly the most serious reason, but a reason all the same.
I loved the parts where she read her diary. I get that part. I get the teenage girl/young woman stuff. The part where her daughter read her poetry/stream of consciousness? Not so much. I am not good at poetry.
There wasn’t a lot about the making of Star Wars, but there was a lot of insight into the heart of a young woman from the perspective of her older self. I relate! I angsted so much as a teenager. Now…not so much.
It was a short book – I think I listened to the whole thing in one to two afternoons. Worth it if you want some gossipy deets on a steamy affair and the classic overthinking of everything by someone new to the sex game. Not worth it if you wanted a lot of cool Star Wars info. I didn’t need the Star Wars info to enjoy it.
I liked The Princess Diarist and its look at Carrie Fisher, who has been one of my heroines since I watched her blow out the grate on the Death Star and say, “into the garbage shoot, fly boy!” and always will be one of my heroines for her writing talent, her sharp wit and biting humor, and her always honest evaluation of herself.
Her last memoir is deeply personal and lovely. It made me miss her. I never met her, but I miss her.
Paddle Your Own Canoe: One Man’s Fundamentals for Delicious Living
Nick Offerman’s Paddle Your Own Canoe was the other book I read on my honeymoon. It was beachier reading than Smoke, for sure. It was way less dense and funny.
For those who don’t know, Nick Offerman played hyper-masculine Ron Swanson on NBC’s little-engine-that-could comedy Parks and Recreation. I have only seen a few episodes of Parks and Recreation, so I know very little about Ron Swanson, but I did know of him, and I feel that speaks to the popularity of the character and the actor.
Anyway, Paddle Your Own Canoe is, basically, a memoir. Offerman reflects on his life growing up in Bumblefuck, Illinois. I apologize profusely for referring to wherever Offerman grew up as Bumblefuck, but I can’t remember the actual name and Offerman himself said it was a very small Illinois town that was hours from the nearest city. So again, my apologies to Bumblefuck, Illinois for not remembering its real name.
It chronicled how Offerman got into acting and comedy, and gave bits of life advice that are obvious but quite a bit invaluable in many ways, especially when stated so plainly. Example: find something you can do that you enjoy or makes you money or both. Offerman learned carpentry and this skill kept him from completely starving to death during his “paying his dues” years in “the business.” He still spends a lot of time making things out of reclaimed wood. It’s a hobby turned business that he deeply enjoys. And while this seems like and obvious tidbit, it really clicks when someone actually says it.
The book also tells the story of how Offerman met his wife, Megan Mullalley (Karen on Will and Grace) and their life together.
Paddle Your Own Canoe was a really fun read. I enjoyed it immensely because (while he insists otherwise) Offerman is clearly a funny, intelligent man who thinks for himself and whose life philosophy is, basically, the same one I subscribe to: don’t be an asshole. He also seems to have the same quiet pride in his country that I do, which basically boils down to “It’s not perfect, but it has its own, original brilliance of a governement experiment to be proud of, its ideals for us to reach for, and we’re working on it.”
So me and Nick Offerman are basically the same person, except he has way better facial hair. So…I wrote Paddle Your Own Canoe. You should read it. I also starred in Parks and Recreation. You should watch it. I’m taking credit for it now.
On the Shoulders of Giants: My Journey Through the Harlem Renaissance
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is one of the most interesting, well spoken men I’ve heard in our time, so when I saw On the Shoulders of Giants: My Journey Through the Harlem Renaissance in the audiobook library, I realized that this interesting, well spoken man had a book that combined some of my favorite things:
+ his interesting, well spoken point of view
+ New York City
+ the Jazz Age
+ jazz itself
+ art & culture
And so, naturally, I checked it out and started listening.
This was a particularly enjoyable hybrid book. Part memoir and part history book, Jabbar took us on his journey as a kid, born Lew Alcindor, to fit in, and find himself through the prior work of other African Americans.
One of my favorite parts of the Harlem Renaissance is jazz. It was a pleasure listening to Jabbar go through the clubs in Harlem, the music, the musicians, and the dancing of the time period. I wish I could have heard Duke Ellington and Lena Horne at The Cotton Club, and while I find the ‘whites only’ restriction of the era absolutely repulsive, exploiting the talent of black Americans for money by catering only to white American audiences, to hear that kind of talent? What an amazing opportunity.
Jabbar also spoke about Zora Neale Hurston (author of, most notably, Their Eyes Were Watching God), Langston Hughes (one of my favorite poets and one of the poets I studied during a project in high school), Louis Armstrong, and the Harlem Globetrotters, among others. I loved hearing especially about Hughes.
Also: Jabbar gets into how blacks ended up in Harlem in the first place (hint: they were forced out of other areas of the city), so yes, he also went into politics and legal issues black Americans faced during the time period (which makes sense, since it was the height of Jim Crow).
He also tracked his personal journey, discovering these artists, how his mentors helped him, how they helped him become a better kid, a better basketball player, and eventually a better man.
The coolest thing about Kareem is that he is so much more than a basketball player, and he contributes so much more to our culture than just basketball – although he has no problem talking basketball with fans and seems to enjoy using basketball as a key to unlocking other people’s other interests.
“If the pinnacle of my influence as a human being was perfecting the sky hook, I would not feel very satisfied.” – Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
I loved this contribution to our cultural understanding. It was informative, interesting, and fun. I highly recommend it to anyone who is a fan of Kareem’s and basketball, but also to fans of jazz, history, art, New York, and any other number of things that intersect in the Harlem Renaissance. It was a really enjoyable book.
Dad Is Fat
Dad Is Fat is one of several books by comedians I’ve read over the last few years. This is also one of the ones I used to forget how disappointing I found the New York Islanders in the second round of the 2016 Stanley Cup playoffs.
I was a bit hesitant to listen to this one. I am not one of those people who loves children. I find children tend to make most people a lot less interesting because people seem to think 1) I deeply care about everything their child does 2) they don’t need to have anything else to talk about except their children I barely care about anyway.
Conversations tend to go like this:
Me: Seen any movies lately?
Friend: I saw a video my significant other took of our child! Want to watch?
Me: Sure.
*3 Hours Later*
Friend: And THIS is a video of our child taking a dump on the bathroom floor AFTER getting off the potty!
Me: Oh is that so? *quietly removes friend’s contact information from phone*
Anyway, in spite of my initial reluctance, I enjoyed this book a lot, mainly for the reasons that 1. I find Jim Gaffigan’s comedy funny and 2. Jim Gaffigan’s stories about parenting his children are basically the stories my parents told me about parenting me and my sister.
Jim and his wife have 5 children in a small New York City apartment. That’s basically all you need to know going in, and his ongoing theme is basically “I don’t know what I’m doing.”
My parents also had no idea what they were doing, and have told me so on several occasions now.
But Gaffigan’s descriptions of children’s music, books, television, interaction with each other and strangers, and all of that? My parents told me those stories, and they’re a hundred times funnier here.
This was one of the many audiobooks I listened to at work, and I highly recommend experiencing Dad Is Fat as an audiobook. Gaffigan reads it himself, which makes it very enjoyable. I’m finding most books done by funny people are best when you hear them read by the author rather than read on your own. The author is able to give the best delivery of the material.
A lot of comedians repeat their standup material in their books, but Gaffigan doesn’t do that here. There’s a little recycle material, but not much. Definitely worth the read/listen. It’s a quick listen and a quick, easy read and I highly recommend it, even as someone who has no children and doesn’t typically enjoy hearing about other people’s children.
Argo: How the CIA and Hollywood Pulled Off the Most Audacious Rescue in History
Argo: How the CIA and Hollywood Pulled Off the Most Audacious Rescue in History is an autobiographical memoir by Tony Mendez and Matt Baglio, and was adapted by Ben Affleck into an Academy Award winning film of the same name. It was originally an article for Wired magazine, and was expanded after declassification of documents into a much more detailed story.
I go through phases periodically where I watch a bunch of movies and read their source material. In this case, it was was the other way around, where I audiobooked the source material first and then watched the film.
Mendez was a CIA technical operations officer in the 1970s, decorated and widely recognized for his work in evacuating 6 American diplomats during the Iranian Hostage Crisis. Called “The Canadian Caper,” the effort took the cooperation of the CIA, the Canadian government, and several Hollywood professionals, including makeup artists John Chambers and Robert Sidell, and Sidell’s wife, Joan.
Spoiler alert: they get the stranded Americans out of Iran. That wasn’t the most interesting part of this story.
The most interesting part of this memoir was finding out 1. how the CIA operated at the time and 2. how the whole thing sounded like amateur hour.
IIRC, Mendez was hired into the CIA as an artist. He copied stuff, did forgeries, etc… if the CIA had any kind of super advanced tech it wasn’t in this book, or it’s so dated to 2016 that I didn’t realize it was considered advanced tech at the time.
Originally an artist, it was clear Mendez’s role grew by the time the Iranian Hostage Crisis took place. Mendez’s main job was getting the American hostages to believe their cover stories enough to get them out of Iran, which was no easy feat. The key to being a convincing liar was believing the lie, and it was difficult to get the scared Americans to believe what they were saying about themselves, which was total BS.
It was an incredibly dangerous operation, because if they had been discovered there was a good chance they’d be executed. But again, what was really fascinating to me was how incredibly low tech it was. It was drawing up passports that passed inspection and coming up with a solid cover story – the cover story being they were Canadians scouting film locations in Iran for a science fiction film, called “Argo.” (Duh, right?)
The film that came from Mendez’s memoir is a very good film but it didn’t do a good job with 2 things. It took a loooot of dramatic license. There were a lot fewer imminent danger scenarios than depicted in the film, however, this was a film and you have to keep an audience engaged.
The other thing was the film seriously downplayed the role of the Canadian government in the rescue of the hostages. The Canadian Ambassador and Embassy played crucial roles in rescuing the Americans. Mendez gives this credit, the film doesn’t. The film also makes it look as the British and New Zealand embassies turned the American hostages away – this isn’t what happened. The British, in particular, took a great risk taking in the hostages, only moving them because it was deemed too dangerous for them to stay there. The British Embassy, IIRC, was the target of attacks itself. New Zealand had organized a place for the Americans to stay if they needed to change locations and drove the Americans to the airport when it was time to leave Tehran.
It’s understandable why a lot of this was changed for film purposes – it would have been a 4 hour film – but it was hurtful to these countries anyway. Affleck tried to smooth things over but it wasn’t much help. President Carter even commented (paraphrasing), “This was mostly a Canadian achievement. Ken Taylor (the Canadian ambassador) is the real hero of the story.”
Anyway, flawed film aside, Argo was a really interesting “inner workings of the CIA” book, which I highly recommend if you’re interested in contemporary world history.
words in scarlet ink 