In Case You Missed It: Backlist Book Love (July 23)
Memoir edition!
It’s time for another edition of ICYMI: Backlist Book Love, the feature where I share books that came out more than a year ago but which still deserve your love and attention!
A confession: While I am, as usual, providing my affiliate links to Bookshop, I listened to all of these — because they are all read by their authors! And that is just such a treat. If you can get these in audio, I highly recommend it.
As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride, Cary Elwes
Published October 2016
This is an incredibly fun, but also very touching and heartfelt, retrospective of the making of The Princess Bride. Elwes provides the narrative of how the film came together from his own point of view, but also features many interviews from others involved with the production, including Robin Wright, Wallace Shawn, Billy Crystal, Christopher Guest, Mandy Patinkin, William Goldman, Norman Lear, and Rob Reiner. It’s really an incredible story of how people can come together to create an incredible story.
Plus, I could listen to Cary Elwes talk forever.
You’re Never Weird on the Internet (Almost), Felicia Day
Published April 2016
This was one of those books that I found exactly when I needed to. In late 2017, I was, frankly, miserable. I was coming out of an absolute tailspin, the culmination of a couple of traumatic years (personally and politically), and in the midst of learning a sharp lesson about why you shouldn’t make big life decisions while in the middle of a nervous breakdown. I was in a new city, where I knew no one, and painfully lonely, and also struggling with the delays related to the release of my debut novel.
This book made me feel so seen. Felicia Day writes with the perfect mix of poignancy and humor about being a weird child who grows into a perfectionist, people-pleasing adult, desperately trying to carve out a creative career while worrying all the time that you just don’t have what it takes. She and I are not exact contemporaries, but we’re close to the same “internet generation”, as Gretchen McCulloch would put it, so many of her experiences as a young geek thoroughly resonated with me, but it was her stories of living with and learning to deal with an anxiety disorder and, well, nervous breakdowns that had me in tears. I go back and listen to some segments of this from time to time, when I have that need to feel seen again.
Drama: An Actor’s Education, John Lithgow
Published October 2012
This was one that surprised me. I like John Lithgow, but he’s not a large enough figure in my pantheon of favored celebrities that I’d rush to read his memoirs — but my mother read it, thought I’d like it, and commended it to me, and I’m so glad she did. The book focuses almost entirely on how Lithgow came up as an actor before his tv career got going, and it gives an inside look at just how hard making a living on the stage can be. The best parts, though, explore the influence of his father on his life. Arthur Lithgow was a Shakespeare enthusiast as well as an actor, director, and producer, but one who never achieved much success — but kept on trying. Lithgow’s memories of him are touching, but also allow him to explore how much Shakespeare has to teach about acting, so of course I loved those portions.
And, in this edition, a bonus fourth recommendation! Alright, this one technically breaks my “not within the last year” rule, but only by a couple of months, and frankly it’s just so wonderful that I couldn’t possibly leave it out of this list.
Making It So, Patrick Stewart
Published October 2023
I haven’t even finished this yet, but I knew immediately it was going to be a fave. Sir Patrick starts by giving a detailed view of his childhood in West Yorkshire, including his first performances in “amdrams” (amateur dramatics), which eventually led him, through so many steps, to the star he is today. So many of his stories are self-aware and self-deprecating, so real and personable. (It was, for instance, comforting to hear that Sir Patrick Stewart once ballsed up an entrance every bit as badly as I have done in my own modest stage time!) Throughout his stage work, his career brushed up against so many other luminaries, many of whom I had no idea he’d worked with. (One of his earliest gigs was a world tour with Vivien Leigh!) The stories show so much of his generosity as an actor, too, and how much he cares both about telling a good story and being good to everyone, on- and off-stage/set, who helps make those stories happen. He is, of course, wonderful to listen to, and his wit and charm absolutely come through.
I really cannot recommend this highly enough, particularly for anyone who’s ever spent some time treading the boards.
