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3.92 AVERAGE
3.92 AVERAGE
emotional
funny
reflective
medium-paced
Mara Wilson has lived a simultaneously extraordinary and perfectly normal life. She lost her mom to cancer when she was very young and had to deal with problems with her friends and her love interests like tons of other people, but she was also able to spend a lot of time around adult actors who cared about her, and having adults in your life that are your friends and not your parents' friends is not that usual. They were also well-known, but I think that's besides the point. I'm really glad she had so many people that cared about her growing up, because living with undiagnosed OCD must have been awful.
She seems like a great person, with insecurities, like anyone else, and I'm sure she's really fun to be around. I wish this book had been written after she came out so we could have gotten her feelings about that part of herself too, but I'm not complaining. This was really heartwarming.
She seems like a great person, with insecurities, like anyone else, and I'm sure she's really fun to be around. I wish this book had been written after she came out so we could have gotten her feelings about that part of herself too, but I'm not complaining. This was really heartwarming.
Somehow, despite having almost nothing in common, I feel as though Mara Wilson is a true kindred spirit. I laughed and cried (in public, whoops) and loved every second of this book. It's a testament to her skill as a storyteller that a stranger's public airing of her insecurities and neuroses and experiences in a world that's completely different than the one I grew up in could still feel so personal and revelatory. Five stars for sure.
Beautifully written, relate-able, funny, and poignant. One of my favorite books of 2016, and one of the best memoirs I've read.
Maybe I'm super emotional (...) but the parts about her mom killed me. I hate when moms die. Mine is gunna live forever though, so I'm not worried.
I wasn't a fan of the prudish sex stuff in the beginning, she might have been better starting the book off with something else. But it picked up and there were some fun stories in there. The glee club thing seems unreal to me, can't believe that was actually a thing.
The only thing I don't like about these types of memoir non-fiction books is the fact that the stories aren't told chronologically. she tells some story in the beginning, mentioning her friends and her mom, and we only find out in later stories that she had trouble with her friends and had OCD all throughout childhood and that her mom died when she was super young. I don't know, it makes the earlier stories feel like she's intentionally leaving out key things because she's saving them for later. I guess I just like more linear stories. But I get that this wasn't a story--it was a collection of nonfiction essays. So it gets a pass.
Anyway, four stars because it almost made me cry >___> like multiple times.
I wasn't a fan of the prudish sex stuff in the beginning, she might have been better starting the book off with something else. But it picked up and there were some fun stories in there. The glee club thing seems unreal to me, can't believe that was actually a thing.
The only thing I don't like about these types of memoir non-fiction books is the fact that the stories aren't told chronologically. she tells some story in the beginning, mentioning her friends and her mom, and we only find out in later stories that she had trouble with her friends and had OCD all throughout childhood and that her mom died when she was super young. I don't know, it makes the earlier stories feel like she's intentionally leaving out key things because she's saving them for later. I guess I just like more linear stories. But I get that this wasn't a story--it was a collection of nonfiction essays. So it gets a pass.
Anyway, four stars because it almost made me cry >___> like multiple times.
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
fast-paced
funny
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
