This is a memoir by actor, singer, dancer, all around awesome hedonist Alan Cumming (I fell for him in SpyKids, though you may remember him from Broadway’s Cabaret, or The Good Wife, or “This is Masterpiece Mystery”). It is mostly just vignettes of his life, from a cross-country trip with his dog to how he entertained Elizabeth Taylor at Carrie Fisher’s birthday party, augmented with pictures he’s taken. He’s led an interesting life, working on many … Continue reading You Gotta Get Bigger Dreams by Alan Cumming →
You’ll Grow Out of It is a series of autobiographical essays by professional funny person Jessi Klein. I picked it up on pub day entirely because of things I’d been hearing about it, celebrities I love talking about it on Twitter, and several great reviews from sources I trust (i.e. the A.V. Club and Sloane Crosley at the New York Times). For a time, Klein was a writer on Saturday Night Live and she’s now a … Continue reading You’ll Grow Out of It by Jessi Klein →
May is Mental Health Awareness Month and I’m certainly no stranger to the trials and tribulations of keeping up with one’s own mental health, not to mention the mental health of my mother. (It’s exhausting sometimes, isn’t it?) So this May, I wanted to read something that I could identify with and that would allow me to further spotlight the importance of mental health discussions. I’ve been a longtime fan of Hyperbole and a Half … Continue reading Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh →
This is Tina Fey’s movie based on Kim Barker’s memoir, The Taliban Shuffle: Strange Days in Afghanistan and Pakistan, about a reporter’s experiences in Kabul, Afghanistan, from 2003-2006. In 2003, Kim is working behind the scenes at some news network (I don’t think it’s named in the movie), when she’s called into a meeting (of the people that are moderately qualified that also don’t have spouses or children) where they are asked if they’d like … Continue reading Movie Review: Whiskey Tango Foxtrot →
The Secret Loves of Geek Girls is an anthology that combines prose writing, illustrations, and short comics by many different authors. All of the entries explore the ways in which women who identify as geeks experience romance. There are countless variations on this theme – some people write about their first crush, some about a divorce, some about how fan fiction shaped the way they talk about sexuality. The general theme is romance but the … Continue reading The Secret Loves of Geek Girls ed. by Hope Nicholson →
Reading Mindy Kaling’s new book feels a lot like sitting down and talking to your best friend or rather, by the time you’re done, you wish Kaling was your best friend. She’s less neurotic than the character she plays on The Mindy Project but just as funny, and she’s wonderfully honest and self-deprecating. Want to know how to look like a Hollywood starlet? She recommends hiring a team of highly paid hair and makeup people, … Continue reading Why Not Me? by Mindy Kaling →
Voracious is a lovely book that can be read in many ways – as a cookbook, as a memoir, as a coming of age story, as a love letter to New York City, and as literary criticism. Above all, it’s a book about how books and food become part of our emotional life. Cara Nicoletti was an English Lit major in college and went on to be a chef, a butcher, and the writer of … Continue reading Voracious: A Hungry Reader Cooks Her Way Through Books by Cara Nicoletti →
I’ve been a fan of Jenny Lawson’s blog The Bloggess for a long time–she’s a truly funny writer who posts stories about her crazy childhood, her crazy adulthood, and balances them all with reflections on mental illness. Furiously Happy is the same way–it’s two parts humor and one part discussion of something that most people find hard to talk to about. It’s one of those rare books that makes you snort-laugh in public and also … Continue reading Furiously Happy by Jenny Lawson →
In her memoir, You’re Never Weird On The Internet (Almost), Felicia Day explains how being a weird person with a weird upbringing led to her weird and highly successful career as an actress, writer, and producer in the Internet world. It’s a cute, engaging memoir that sounds just like Felicia sounds in all her other endeavors – smart, self-deprecating, funny, and insecure. It’s also short and fairly superficial. Felicia shares some very personal things but … Continue reading You’re Never Weird on the Internet (Almost) by Felicia Day →
This is a tiny independent movie that explores the messy, glorious, horrific, and amazing inner life of a teenage girl and how the world is utterly unprepared to allow girls to be girls. It marks the sexual coming-of-age of a 15 year old, Minnie, in 1976 San Francisco, which begins when she enters into a sexual relationship with her mother’s boyfriend. It’s based on a critically-acclaimed graphic novel by Phoebe Glockner. This movie touches on … Continue reading Movie Review: The Diary of a Teenage Girl →
It’s not secret that I am an unashamed Laura Ingalls Wilder fangirl. I was given Little House in the Big Woods at about 7, and have carefully rebuilt my read-to-shreds copies from when I was a kid to the expensive heavy duty paper, full color illustration ones. I wanted a sunbonnet, so I could wearing it trailing down my back. The first time I ever tried to make a recipe based on vague instructions in … Continue reading Pioneer Girl by Laura Ingalls Wilder →
