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3.47 AVERAGE
3.47 AVERAGE
Look, I’m sure Anna Faris is a delightful person, and there’s some of her work I’ve really enjoyed. But, book writing is not her thing. While books by celebrities like Tina Fey and Trevor Noah really elevated the genre of celebrity memoirs, Faris’ memoir/self-help guide is very “meh.”
Overall, the book lacked focus and was pretty boring. It was supposedly meant to impart some relationship and life advice on the reader; however, advice was few and far between, and what little she did offer was kinda shitty! She’d be like “here’s a story about something I did/some guy!” and then that would be it. No reflection on the story or how it shaped her decisions later on. The chapter about her pregnancy and the birth of her son was great, though. A bright spot in an otherwise lackluster book.
Overall, the book lacked focus and was pretty boring. It was supposedly meant to impart some relationship and life advice on the reader; however, advice was few and far between, and what little she did offer was kinda shitty! She’d be like “here’s a story about something I did/some guy!” and then that would be it. No reflection on the story or how it shaped her decisions later on. The chapter about her pregnancy and the birth of her son was great, though. A bright spot in an otherwise lackluster book.
I found it so gosh darn relatable. Despite the mis-pronunciation of our name, I appreciated almost everything Anna had to say about love and life and being a mother. A few topics seemed to be revisited a little too frequently, but overall, still loved it.
3.5/4
I want to start off by saying that I love Anna's podcast. That being said, there was a week where I completely forgot that I had this book downloaded. It was during the holidays, but I still forgot that I could be listening to it. One lesson that I took away is that nobody has their life figured out no matter how successful they seem. And Chris Pratt seems like an amazing person based on Anna's observations of him.
I want to start off by saying that I love Anna's podcast. That being said, there was a week where I completely forgot that I had this book downloaded. It was during the holidays, but I still forgot that I could be listening to it. One lesson that I took away is that nobody has their life figured out no matter how successful they seem. And Chris Pratt seems like an amazing person based on Anna's observations of him.
This book was gifted to me and sat untouched for a while, until I moved it into a certain room of the house (coughcough, winkwink) where it became my official backup read. I totally expected to almost hate read it, as I am not her biggest fan (I tried to be, I REALLY did), but you know what - it's not bad. Anna Faris writes with the same humor she displays on social media and in other interviews, but it's a little less grating, and the scatterbrainedness of it comes off as charming in this medium. I went through a period of reading a lot of celebrity memoirs/autobiographies in college, so I've had some duds and some gems, and this one sits firmly in the middle - maybe even leaning slightly to the good side.
I love Anna & Chris and it was fun to read about their time here in Washington. Funny and so so honest - I just wish I would have known that Anna wanted to officiate a wedding so badly, I would have asked her to do mine! :)
I’d rather round up than down for this one, 3.5 stars. It felt like fluff. Like she was scratching at the surface of what could’ve been some great narratives.
Audiobook. Since I listen to the podcast I assumed this would be much of the same but I was surprised by some of the honesty and earnestness of it.
My feelings on this book are so mixed. Many times when I listen to memoirs/essays by celebs I admire, I come away feeling like I want to be friends with that person (see: Sara Bareilles, Anna Kendrick). Not so with Anna Faris. Anna Faris seems like a perfectly lovely, charming person with whom I have almost nothing in common and therefore don’t find relatable. That’s no fault of hers or mine, but it does affect my feelings when listening to her book. Her outlook on a lot of things is pretty different from mine so I wasn’t able to really connect to much of what she was saying.
First, the positives: The chapter about her son, Jack, tugged at my heartstrings. I also liked what she had to say about not trying to live up to other people’s expectations of you or their timeline for you. She talked about people always asking when she was going to have another kid and I so relate to that. When I was married, everyone wanted to know when we were having kids. Now that I’m in a new relationship, everyone wants to know when we are moving in together or getting married. People mean well; they just want to share in excitement and happiness with you, but i wish everyone would just butt out. There are reasons I didn’t have kids with my ex-husband, and there are reasons I’m not moving in with my boyfriend, and none of those are anyone else’s business.
One of the main issues I have with this book is that it seems like a lot of it was filler because she didn’t have enough material to make a full-length book. So she padded it with some transcripts from her podcast (did you know she has a podcast?) and ask-the-audience lists. Much of what we get are the opinions and advice of her podcast listeners and Facebook followers, and not really her.
Another thing that made the timing of the publication of this book weird is her split with Chris Pratt. So much of the book gushes about their relationship and how romantic and amazing and wonderful he is, but the couple announced their split right before publication. Awkward? It makes one wonder what happened to break them up. Which sounds really creepy to say, as I firmly believe it is no one’s business what happens in a relationship other than the people in that relationship. But when my own marriage ended, it was a long time coming. You know how FB has those “on this day” things where you can see the things you posted in previous years? There’s nothing positive about my husband or marriage for a while before we finally split up. If you were adept at reading between the lines you wouldn’t be surprised at all. But we stayed together until we had exhausted every avenue and tried everything to save our marriage. We stayed together until it was clear that the relationship was dead beyond hope of any resuscitation. I know it’s not my business and I don’t know the intimate details but it just seems like their breakup came out of nowhere. I’m sure it’s not that simple, of course. They have a child together and I’m sure they didn’t make their decision lightly. But getting a glimpse into how happy they seemed to be just makes the split seem abrupt. And it’s odd to ask for privacy during a breakup when you’ve just written a book about your relationship.
I also think readers who’ve seen more of Faris’ work will enjoy it more than I did. I’ve never seen any of the Scary Movies, and I don’t watch her sitcom. I’ve seen her in a couple things and thought she was fine, but haven’t really followed her career. I probably wouldn’t have read this had it not been recommended by a friend, and I don’t think I would have been missing very much.
First, the positives: The chapter about her son, Jack, tugged at my heartstrings. I also liked what she had to say about not trying to live up to other people’s expectations of you or their timeline for you. She talked about people always asking when she was going to have another kid and I so relate to that. When I was married, everyone wanted to know when we were having kids. Now that I’m in a new relationship, everyone wants to know when we are moving in together or getting married. People mean well; they just want to share in excitement and happiness with you, but i wish everyone would just butt out. There are reasons I didn’t have kids with my ex-husband, and there are reasons I’m not moving in with my boyfriend, and none of those are anyone else’s business.
One of the main issues I have with this book is that it seems like a lot of it was filler because she didn’t have enough material to make a full-length book. So she padded it with some transcripts from her podcast (did you know she has a podcast?) and ask-the-audience lists. Much of what we get are the opinions and advice of her podcast listeners and Facebook followers, and not really her.
Another thing that made the timing of the publication of this book weird is her split with Chris Pratt. So much of the book gushes about their relationship and how romantic and amazing and wonderful he is, but the couple announced their split right before publication. Awkward? It makes one wonder what happened to break them up. Which sounds really creepy to say, as I firmly believe it is no one’s business what happens in a relationship other than the people in that relationship. But when my own marriage ended, it was a long time coming. You know how FB has those “on this day” things where you can see the things you posted in previous years? There’s nothing positive about my husband or marriage for a while before we finally split up. If you were adept at reading between the lines you wouldn’t be surprised at all. But we stayed together until we had exhausted every avenue and tried everything to save our marriage. We stayed together until it was clear that the relationship was dead beyond hope of any resuscitation. I know it’s not my business and I don’t know the intimate details but it just seems like their breakup came out of nowhere. I’m sure it’s not that simple, of course. They have a child together and I’m sure they didn’t make their decision lightly. But getting a glimpse into how happy they seemed to be just makes the split seem abrupt. And it’s odd to ask for privacy during a breakup when you’ve just written a book about your relationship.
I also think readers who’ve seen more of Faris’ work will enjoy it more than I did. I’ve never seen any of the Scary Movies, and I don’t watch her sitcom. I’ve seen her in a couple things and thought she was fine, but haven’t really followed her career. I probably wouldn’t have read this had it not been recommended by a friend, and I don’t think I would have been missing very much.