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mdt82's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
sad
fast-paced
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault and Incest
Interesting, entertaining, and emotional. I enjoyed her story immensely and her narration was fantastic.mariahistryingtoread's review against another edition
5.0
TW: Alison Arngrim was raped by her older brother as a child for several years. She discusses this at length throughout the book as it has a major impact on many of her decisions both consciously and subconsciously.
I read The Way I See It a couple months ago and posted the review a week or so ago. Spoiler alert: it's not that good. Melissa Gilbert's Prairie Tale is a lot better, but I am unsurprised to find that it is not enough to knock Confessions of a Prairie Bitch off the top spot. I knew from the get go that Alison Arngrim's would be my favorite from the title alone.
Alison Arngrim played Nellie Oleson, the most hateful, spoiled little girl on the prairie. She was second only to her mother Harriet Oleson and even then it was a close race most of the time. At least, Nellie was redeemed in the end. Harriet just adopted another awful child to repeat the cycle.
It's not really fair, but I pretty much never believe that a celebrity author wrote a book on their own. I'm sure there are multi-talented superstars out there that have. I'm sure that there are authors that I praise for their originality and turn of phrase who aren't as much of an island as they'd like to pretend. I assess on a case by case basis accordingly.
In any case, I definitely feel like Alison Arngrim had a lot of influence over the telling of this memoir regardless of how much she, herself, specifically wrote. It reads exactly like her tone of voice. Admittedly, I listened to the audiobook where she served as the narrator so that had a fair amount of influence over my experience. Either way the end result was that I came out of reading this book feeling like I was given exclusive access to life I couldn't imagine surviving let alone thriving.
Her mixture of self deprecation and brass was delightfully entertaining. Yet underneath the bravado was a clearly compassionate, thoughtful person who had been dealt a bad hand at life. She refused to let it get her down for long, but there was deep pain there that she was quite candid about. She made her mistakes and she owned up to them with great humor. I loved how she was willing to make fun of herself. Plus, the jokes were actually funny.
If you ever wondered why child stars more often than not end up in tragic circumstances, this book is a great look into the type of people who perpetuate the corruption. Alison has a lot of love for her parents and they obviously cared for her. Still, there's no getting around the fact that their emotional neglect and unstable lives is the basis for many a devastating child star spiral. Alison was extremely lucky she was able to largely avoid some of the worst, most common pitfalls.
Even if you've never watched an episode a day in your life, it's a notable read on its own. Alison is an interesting person who has a unique point of view that is worthy of attention regardless of your familiarity with her celebrity status. I highly recommend giving it a read.
I read The Way I See It a couple months ago and posted the review a week or so ago. Spoiler alert: it's not that good. Melissa Gilbert's Prairie Tale is a lot better, but I am unsurprised to find that it is not enough to knock Confessions of a Prairie Bitch off the top spot. I knew from the get go that Alison Arngrim's would be my favorite from the title alone.
Alison Arngrim played Nellie Oleson, the most hateful, spoiled little girl on the prairie. She was second only to her mother Harriet Oleson and even then it was a close race most of the time. At least, Nellie was redeemed in the end. Harriet just adopted another awful child to repeat the cycle.
It's not really fair, but I pretty much never believe that a celebrity author wrote a book on their own. I'm sure there are multi-talented superstars out there that have. I'm sure that there are authors that I praise for their originality and turn of phrase who aren't as much of an island as they'd like to pretend. I assess on a case by case basis accordingly.
In any case, I definitely feel like Alison Arngrim had a lot of influence over the telling of this memoir regardless of how much she, herself, specifically wrote. It reads exactly like her tone of voice. Admittedly, I listened to the audiobook where she served as the narrator so that had a fair amount of influence over my experience. Either way the end result was that I came out of reading this book feeling like I was given exclusive access to life I couldn't imagine surviving let alone thriving.
Her mixture of self deprecation and brass was delightfully entertaining. Yet underneath the bravado was a clearly compassionate, thoughtful person who had been dealt a bad hand at life. She refused to let it get her down for long, but there was deep pain there that she was quite candid about. She made her mistakes and she owned up to them with great humor. I loved how she was willing to make fun of herself. Plus, the jokes were actually funny.
If you ever wondered why child stars more often than not end up in tragic circumstances, this book is a great look into the type of people who perpetuate the corruption. Alison has a lot of love for her parents and they obviously cared for her. Still, there's no getting around the fact that their emotional neglect and unstable lives is the basis for many a devastating child star spiral. Alison was extremely lucky she was able to largely avoid some of the worst, most common pitfalls.
Even if you've never watched an episode a day in your life, it's a notable read on its own. Alison is an interesting person who has a unique point of view that is worthy of attention regardless of your familiarity with her celebrity status. I highly recommend giving it a read.
mollybonovskyanderson's review against another edition
4.0
Biggest takeaway: Hollywood is messed up. But Alison Arngrim is an inherently awesome person who has shown impressive strength and compassion in the face of it all.
shutterjess's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
skylaturner's review against another edition
emotional
funny
informative
lighthearted
reflective
sad
fast-paced
5.0
heathervickery's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
5.0
I loved this book