I listened to this book on Audible, and it was narrated by the author. This was such a fun, quick read, and I enjoyed hearing about Lauren's life.
Format: Audible Audio Book
Genre: Biography/Non-Fiction
Length: 4 hours, 36 minutes
Publisher: Penguin Random House (November 29, 2016)
Star Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Mr. Darcy‘s Rating: “You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you.”
A Chasing Mr. Darcy Review
I am a super Gilmore Girls fan. So much so, that I have my top three favorite episodes ever, and I watch them when I don't have anything else to watch on streaming. My favorite episode, for anyone interested, is You Jump, I Jump Jack, closely followed by A Deep Fried Korean Thanksgiving and They Shoot Gilmore's, Don't They?. I love Lorelei and Rory, and I especially found a new appreciation for Lorelei in the reboot Netflix made a few years ago. I was so excited to listen this book about her life and work, and it did not disappoint!
Here’s a plot synopsis from GoodReads: In this collection of personal essays, the beloved star of Gilmore Girls and Parenthood reveals stories about life, love, and working as a woman in Hollywood—along with behind-the-scenes dispatches from the set of the new Gilmore Girls, where she plays the fast-talking Lorelai Gilmore once again. In Talking as Fast as I Can, Lauren Graham hits pause for a moment and looks back on her life, sharing laugh-out-loud stories about growing up, starting out as an actress, and, years later, sitting in her trailer on the Parenthood set and asking herself, “Did you, um, make it?” She opens up about the challenges of being single in Hollywood (“Strangers were worried about me; that’s how long I was single!”), the time she was asked to audition her butt for a role, and her experience being a judge on Project Runway (“It’s like I had a fashion-induced blackout”). In “What It Was Like, Part One,” Graham sits down for an epic Gilmore Girls marathon and reflects on being cast as the fast-talking Lorelai Gilmore. The essay “What It Was Like, Part Two” reveals how it felt to pick up the role again nine years later, and what doing so has meant to her. Some more things you will learn about Lauren: She once tried to go vegan just to bond with Ellen DeGeneres, she’s aware that meeting guys at awards shows has its pitfalls (“If you’re meeting someone for the first time after three hours of hair, makeup, and styling, you’ve already set the bar too high”), and she’s a card-carrying REI shopper (“My bungee cords now earn points!”). Including photos and excerpts from the diary Graham kept during the filming of the recent Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life, this book is like a cozy night in, catching up with your best friend, laughing and swapping stories, and—of course—talking as fast as you can.(less)
I always go into a celebrity memoir with a bit of trepidation. I mean, how much could I possibly relate to someone with unlimited resources and access to the best things in life? I'm also always scared I'll find out the person I've put on a pedestal will turn out to be, well, a big jerk. I was a little scared to listen to this book because I didn't want the woman I'd put on a pedestal, ie Lorelei Gilmore, to be tarnished.
I"m happy to report that Lauren Graham is as wonderful as her characters have been throughout the years. Many of you know her from Gilmore Girls or Parenthood or the multitude of roles she's played in between. I think her ability to connect with her audience stems from her acting coming from such a sincere place; she talks in her book about choosing roles that feel right for her, not just taking a role because it's available. She talks about lessons she learned to get to this point, like an audition that required nudity when she was trying to get her union card. It didn't feel right to her, and she knew the role wasn't right for her. I think this type of self-awareness is important in any career, not just acting, because it's really necessary in today's world to know your limits.
I particularly enjoyed her discussions about Gilmore Girls and the cast from the show. I always envisioned them as one big family off set as well as on, and it was nice to hear anecdotal evidence that the cast was amiable. Her stories were at turns light hearted and poignant, and I really liked her ability to turn what seemed like a small story into a life-teaching moment. Her frankness and openness about how much Lorelei Gilmore and Rory Gilmore mean to her was laced with such sincerity it brought a few tears to my eyes at times. Gilmore Girls as a show is tied to so many memories I have from college; that's when me and my mom discovered the show. I remember we stalked our local Sam's Club to get the seasons on DVD so we could catch up, and we sailed through the episodes, each one better than the last. My grandmother was never a fan because she said, and I quote, "They talk too much and too fast." My grandma was onto something obviously because that is what the show was known for!
Lauren Graham, as an extension of Lorelei, is also tied to many memories from college. Watching the shows with my mom and then forcing my male best friends to watch them when I was sick are some of my most fun memories. To this day, when I need a comfort show, Gilmore Girls is one of the shows I turn to. I can't fathom how much the show and cast means to Lauren, and how much joy she got out of the reboot. It was interesting to learn more about her backstory too, and to understand how she got to Gilmore Girls and subsequently Parenthood.
The book has many funny moments and many poignant moments about her personal life as well. I enjoyed her openness about Peter, their connection, and their relationship. It was such a normal thing to talk about in the book that I felt like I was having a conversation with an old friend or a family member, and it just made me feel warm and fuzzy inside. She talked about waiting for the right moment, both in life and in love, and how hard that waiting is. That particularly resonated with me as sometimes I feel like losing hope that I'll ever find the life partner I want. She said, "A train is coming. In fact, it may already be on the way. You just don't know it yet." Such a small phrase, but one full of hope!
I also liked this gem: "Life doesn't give you what you want exactly when you want it. Otherwise, it wouldn't be called life. It would be called vending machine." This mix of comfort with humor is just the Gilmore way, and it suited Lauren perfectly.
Talking As Fast As I Can is the perfect book for any Gilmore Girls or Parenthood fan out there! I highly recommend it on Audible; there's just something extra about a book read by the author!
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