Five Celebrity Memoirs to Curl Up With This Fall

Revealing 2009 Books About Favorite Stars

Sep 23, 2009

What is better than curling up with a glass of wine and a good book? Especially a book that is a voyeuristic peek into the imperfect life of a favorite celebrity?

Here are five books that promise to be a captivating read on sommer rainy, autumn afternoon.

1. Kathy Griffin Memoir: Official Book Club Selection: A Memoir According to Kathy Griffin

Someone need a laugh? Just like her comedy routines, Griffin’s book, written in her outspoken, scratchy voice is promised to be entertaining as a mixture of revealing personal history and outrageous humor.

In his Entertainment Weekly book review, Henry Goldblatt says the book,“is everything you'd expect. What makes it a terrific read, though, is all the stuff you wouldn't expect: binge eating (her own, not Paula Abdul's); her conviction that her late brother was a child molester; and her unflinching accounts of her plastic surgery and her divorce.”

Her book has earned an Amazon.com reader rating of 4.5 stars and the following comments:

“KG is a real person who actually has something to say beyond some narcissistic rendition of her "discovery" and ascent.”

“Parts of it will rip your heart out while others will make you laugh out loud.”

“Griffin infuses her life story with gossip and irreverence that will keep you reading and make you sorry that there is no more to read when you have closed the covers.”

Losing Patrick Swayze at 57, after his battle with pancreatic cancer, reminds everyone that “Stars” are human. He will live on in “Dirty Dancing”, as well as his endearing role in “Ghost”, which was televised right after his death. Ghost’s ending, as Demi Moore watches him walk into the light, felt like a goodbye salute to this talented actor.

His book is a combination love story and memoir of his battle with cancer. In a USA Today September 22, 2009 article, “Swayze shares the good times, and bad, in his 'Life's memoir”, Craig Wilson says, “The book, which Swayze wrote with his wife, Lisa Niemi, is filled with optimism despite the fact there was no cure for his cancer.”

This shocking, revealing tell-all, as disclosed in People Magazine and on Oprah’s recent show, discloses the shared drug use and incestuous relationship she had with her father, John Phillips of Mamas and the Papas fame. The incest and drug abuse reportedly lasted for ten years and was to blame for her firing from “One Day at a Time” in 1980.

Augusten Burroughs reviews the book as follows: “Rich with compassion, forgiveness, and wisdom, this is a brave memoir executed with an unwavering loyalty and commitment to truth”.

4. Farrah Fawcett Memoir by Alana Stewart: My Journey with Farrah: A Story of Life, Love and Friendship

Alana Stewart (Rod’s Stewart’s Ex), and Farah Fawcett were friends for thirty years. When Farrah was diagnosed with rectal cancer in 2006, Alana accompanied Farrah at every challenging step during her battle with cancer. Their journey was chronicled in a diary and video by Alana, and used to write this book.

Insight into Farrah’s life is undoubtedly appealing to millions of fans, however, the book has been rated only 3.5 stars and received these comments by Amazon.com readers:

“Stewart's sense of entitlement and self-pity feeds Alana's fear of old age, alone, without financial means.”

“I bought this book because my husband is battling cancer, and I thought I would get some insight into Farrah's treatment overseas. Instead, I got a "journal" written by a selfish, immature woman who claims to be Farrahs' best friend.”

In her Memoir, Melissa, contrasts the idyllic picture of life she lived onscreen in “Little House on the Prairie” as Laura Ingalls, to her real life as an adopted daughter to show business parents. Melissa writes of the pressures she felt to appear perfect in the midst of her unstable, dysfunctional home life, and shares her partying, love adventures with heart throbs such as Rob Lowe and Billy Idol, and her struggles to reach the place she is today as a confident woman in a loving marriage.

“I would have preferred to keep her up on a pedestal but despite the revelations regarding her less than perfect behavior, the book kept my attention and moved along at a good pace.”

“My boyfriend saw nothing but my face buried in this great book over one solid weekend.”

After reading these memoirs, fans will be thankful for their average lives, as they realize that the road to fame and fortune is often bumpy and painful!

The copyright of the article Five Celebrity Memoirs to Curl Up With This Fall in Actor Biographies is owned by Jan Peterson. Permission to republish Five Celebrity Memoirs to Curl Up With This Fall in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.