Scrappy Little Nobody by Anna Kendrick

You may know Anna Kendrick from her starring role in the Pitch Perfect series, or perhaps her Oscar nominated role in Up in the Air. Maybe you recognize her as Jessica, the snarky friend from the Twilight movies. Or maybe you are one of the people who remember her roles in independent films like Camp, where she plays a "scary little girl". No matter what the role, there is no denying that Anna Kendrick is a actress on the rise, and Scrappy Little Nobody gives an inner look at how this all happened.

Anna describes her ascent from tiny Maine theater to Broadway to Hollywood with ease. Her first big break on Broadway was due to trusting parents sending her with her 14 year old brother to the big city on their own. Her breaks in movies come a little harder, as she explains to high school friends that the Sundance she is at, is the SUNDANCE where celebrities go. And while everyone else was staring college, she was giving acting a full on go, which forced her to grow up quickly. Even as her fame started to rise, her budget did not quite reflect that, and there are some regrettable fashion choices along the way.

Scrappy Little Nobody is one of those books you'll race through to laugh with Anna about her life, and ridiculousness of it all. Not quite a celebrity tell all, not quite a rise to the top story, but a life in progress view that will endure you to this performer. Fans of celebrity memoirs, such as Judy Greer's I Don't Know Where You Know Me From and Aisha Tyler's Self Inflected Wounds won't be disappointed.

Why Not Me? by Mindy Kaling

The always funny Mindy Kaling is back with another hilarious read, picking up where her New York Times best selling Is Everyone Hanging Out Without ME? (And Other Concerns) left off. Why Not Me? touches on subjects like her days as writer and actress for The Office, writing, starring in, and producing The Mindy Project, how she truly feels about her friends getting married, awkwardly filming sex scenes, her friendship with B.J. Novak, and body image. And in true Mindy fashion, she goes off on ridiculously, funny tangents.

With her usual wit and charm, Kaling writes as if you're having an actual conversation with her over a cup of coffee or a few drinks. Just your average girl, she dreams about what her life would've been like had she not moved to LA and would've married a Jewish guy like she always planned. She understands what it's like to be thirty-something while all of her friends are getting married. Mindy Kaling candidly writes about her body, and how she's [still] learning to embrace her curves.With parts that are laugh out loud funny, Kaling's new book is difficult to put down. It's no wonder she's currently Hollywood's it-girl.

Born With Teeth by Kate Mulgrew

These days, you’re most likely to recognize longtime actress Kate Mulgrew from her role as “Red” Reznikov on the Netflix series Orange Is the New Black.  But Mulgrew has a varied acting history that spans decades.

 In her new memoir, Mulgrew talks in detail about many of the stages of her life.  She details her upbringing in a large, Catholic family on a beautiful Iowa farm, going to New York to study acting with Stella Adler and the death of her younger sister.  A young Kate has to make a decision to work on not one, but two prestigious projects while quitting her training.

She has several intense romantic relationships and as a young woman, becomes pregnant and gives the baby up for adoption with no knowledge of the child’s whereabouts.   This painful decision colors much of her future and mental health but Mulgrew continues working at a staggering pace.  She eventually marries and has two sons with artistic director Robert Egan. By the end of the book, the reader sees two of the actress’s biggest life events: the search for her biological daughter and her role as Kathryn Janeway on Star Trek: Voyager. 

The actress who plays colorful roles on the stage and screen is no less vibrant in real life.  Mulgrew’s memoir is written with honesty, wit, and beautiful language.  Check out Born With Teeth from the library today!

My Mother Was Nuts by Penny Marshall

Celebrity memoirs fall into two categories for this reader: those who you feel you could be best friends with, and those who live lives so differently from you, it's best to admire them from afar. Penny Marshall spans both of these categories in her memoir My Mother Was Nuts. From her childhood in the Bronx to her days starring on Laverne and Shirley to her directing days Penny Marshall gives snippets of many parts of her life.

Famous friends pop up in just about every chapter, and she is frank about her family, past marriages and health issues.Whether you are a fan of Laverne and Shirley or a League of Her Own, behind the scenes stories will have you turning the pages. Reading the book was like having a long conversation about life with Penny Marshall, and it is easy to assume the the audio book read by the author would be an amazing listen.

Check out My Mother Was Nuts @ the library!

I Don't Know Where You Know Me From by Judy Greer

You've seen her in a movie, TV show, or even a commercial. Perhaps you just caught an episode of Two and a Half Men, or watched 13 Going on 30 with a friend. Or was it The Descendants, or that episode of The Big Bang Theory? Or maybe you just saw that Framily commercial.

The actress you are thinking about is Judy Greer, and while you might not remember what you saw her in, she has been in over 80 movies and TV shows. In I Don't Know Where You Know Me From, she gives readers a peak into her life growing up, how she got started acting, and a little bit about her family. The book is full of short essays about the hows and whys of who she is, and the people who made her this way. From a look back at her childhood in a suburb of Detroit to her college years in Chicago and her current life in LA, reading I Don't Know Where You Know Me is like meeting a new friend who just happens to have worked with some of the biggest movie stars on the planet.

If you liked the memoirs by Tina Fey and Mindy Kaling, check out Judy Greer's book. Judy Greer's honesty, humor and yes brief insights into the world of Hollywood is a refreshing look at the life of a co-star.

Check out I Don't Know Where You Know Me From @ the library!

At Night We Walk in Circles by Daniel Alarcon

At Night We Walk in Circles is a book for the patient reader. Its exposition slowly sets the stage for the meeting of the two main characters: Henry the playwright and Nelson the actor. Nearly fifteen years earlier, during a war of rebellion in an unnamed South American country, Henry had been imprisoned for writing a seditious play, “The Idiot President.” Now that politics and rebellion are no longer an issue, he has planned a revival of the play with a three-man touring group.  Nelson, a rather naïve and directionless young man, joins the cast, leaving behind his widowed mother and estranged girlfriend, Ixta.  As the troupe travels inland, performing in small mountain villages, Henry tells Nelson more about his imprisonment. In the last village, Nelson becomes involved with the elderly mother of a ruthless drug dealer, who believes Nelson is her long-lost youngest son. When he begins to regret having ended his relationship with Ixta, he suddenly bolts, deserting the mother, heading back to the city and angering the drug dealer who sends his thugs after Nelson to exact revenge. Back in the city, Nelson is a changed man, more aggressive and more resolved to revive his relationship with Ixta, who is pregnant and living with another man. Eventually, a tragedy occurs and although a mysterious narrator has been hinting at a bad outcome for Nelson throughout the book, the reader is taken by surprise by the actual event. 

Check out At Night We Walk in Circles @ the library!

Snobs by Julian Fellowes

Many of you probably know that Julian Fellowes writes for the beloved English period drama Downton Abbey.  You may even know that he won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for the film Gosford Park in 2002.  But did you know that he used to be an actor?  And that he's also a novelist?  His 2004 novel simply titled Snobs takes a look into a modern day Downton Abbey-type manor house.  But lest you think this book is all "Upstairs vs. Downstairs," let me assure you that it is not.  It is really about how the class system is very much alive and well in England to this day.  And how the aristocracy treats everyone else.  It is a comedy of manners- or perhaps, a lack-there-of.

Snobs is written mostly from the point of view of an actor who was born an aristocrat, and he tells the tale of Edith Lavery and the Broughtons, who hold the seat as to the Marquess of Uckfield.  Edith, who was brought up in an upper-middle class household by a mother who longed to be debutante, is a very attractive blonde who agrees to go along with her mother's plans for coming out and taking an active roll in London's debutante season.  Nearly nine years later, Edith is working a boring desk job and hasn't landed a rich husband- or any husband at all.  While visiting the friends in Sussex, Edith, our narrator and their host Isabel Easton, decide to take a public tour of the nearby manor house Broughton Hall.  The group run into one of the members of the family while on the tour and Charles Broughton (heir to the Marquess and one of England's most eligible bachelors) takes a shine to Edith.  Months later, the narrator and Edith are both invited to join the Eastons at Ascot in London.  The group run into Charles again and the Earl manages to convince Edith to join him for tea.  The rest, as they say, is history.

Charles eventually proposes to Edith and being the pragmatic individual that she is, Edith accepts.  But life as an Earl's wife is hardly what she imagined it would be.  First, there's Charles mother, Lady Uckfield (known affectionately by the ridiculous nickname "Googie"). Lady Uckfield probably hates Edith with a venomous passion but seeing as manners and decorum dictate that she act as if she love Edith, never shows her true feelings.  Googie knows that Edith is not a true aristocrat and that is the one failing that Edith can never make up no matter how hard she tries.  Edith is, and always will be, an outsider.  Then there's the fact that Charles, while a good, loyal, man is rather...boring.  And though Edith plays her part and immerses herself in running flower shows, working with local charities and enjoying life in a grand house, she finds herself to be very unhappy.

Almost a year into their marriage, the Broughtons decide to let a production company film a period drama on the estate.  Our narrator secures a role in the production and is there to witness Edith finally come off the rails.  Throwing all caution and common sense to the wind, Edith begins an affair with the film's handsome leading man, leaves Charles and sets up shop with her new lover in London.  Our poor narrator is then forced to become a sort of go-between for Edith and the Broughton family.

Snobs is a novel about the less glamorous side of the English elite and can be practically summed up in the following quote:

"The English, of all classes as it happens, are addicted to exclusivity.  Leave three Englishmen in a room and they will invent a rule that prevents a fourth joining them."

A delightful read for any who enjoy English history and culture.

Slimed! The Oral History of Nickelodeon's Golden Age by Mathew Klickstein

Did you ever wish you could take the physical challenge to get out of a test? How about wishing for a best friend who would climb through your window? Do you still look above for the slime when someone says "I don't know?" Do you wish you could submit stories for the approval of the midnight society?

Now, you are either confused,or reliving some of the best TV memories from your childhood. If you picked the latter, then Slimed! is the book for you. Mathew Klickstein has gathered interviews from Nickelodeon executives, show runners and actors from the early days, meaning the 1980's and early 1990's. From the people trying to start a network for kids, to the teens starring in the shows, no one is left without a say. And no matter if you dreamed of winning big on Double Dare, or just wishing you could go to Camp Anawanna, no early show is left untouched.

This is definitely for those readers who remember the early days of Nickelodeon, however even if you caught the shows in re-run, or just want to know more about the early days of a growing television channel, Slimed is a must read!

Check out Slimed! @ the library!