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This review originally appeared on the book review blog: Just One More Pa(i)ge.
Confession: I love Gilmore Girls. Love. Love. It’s cheesy and girly, but it has some of the best (read also: fastest) dialogue of any show I’ve ever seen and I identify pretty hard with Rory’s love of books. It’s one of the only shows I’ve watched all the way through more than once. Definitely a not so guilty pleasure of mine. So, when I saw Lauren Graham wrote this book that was at least mostly about her experience with Gilmore Girls, both the first time around and the reboot (and can I just mention how excited I was for that?!), I knew it would only be a matter of time before I read it. Or, as has been the norm for me recently, listened as she narrated it herself.
This book was fast and fun, just like Lorelai Gilmore (and, I assume, Lauren Graham herself). We get the typical background information: a couple funny childhood stories, the just starting out as an actor stories, the “my big break” story, the random funny stories (her time on Project Runway, for example), the advice/personal reflections stories (i.e. the Hollywood diet and exercise advice), etc. And then the part that I was most looking forward to: her reflections on Gilmore Girls. I really enjoyed the way Graham talked about it. It was super interesting to me that she had never actually watched the show before, instead preferring not to watch herself on screen and therefore to avoid self-critique, etc. That seems so smart. And it gave a really unique perspective for her to write from. I mean, we get the normal thoughts and feelings and situations that she is able to remember from the time, and looking back. But then, she walks through each season, one at a time, giving the reader a little intro, and then a “Times Were Different,” “Fashion and Hair,” “What I Love,” and “Season Finale” blurb for each season. It was just really cool to read through these reflections that Graham is, essentially, having for the first time as she watches for the first time something she experienced years ago. Definitely one of my favorite parts of the book.
Then she talks through her experiences after those 7 seasons, primarily regarding her time on the show Parenthood (which I’ll admit I haven’t watched, not because it doesn’t look amazing, but because honestly every commercial I saw for it looked so real-life funny and serious that I was pretty sure I’d never get through an episode without balling my eyes out…). But it was neat to hear the differences between the two shows and how she ended up “meeting” her now husband on the set (they played siblings, which is pretty funny). In this section of the book, she also talks about her experience writing her novel, Someday, Someday Maybe, that she discusses as decidedly not autobiographical, despite what everyone says (I have not read it, so I have decided to believe her). I have always wanted to write a novel, so I appreciated her musings about it, plus the discoveries she makes and advice she gets on how to write efficiently.
And then we are back to Gilmore Girls (yay!). The details on how things got started and the messiness of the process was not something I really expected, but I guess it makes sense. There’s a lot going on in showbusiness… And this time, Graham still hasn’t watched the 4-part series, hasn’t watched herself reprising Lorelai, but we get something almost better. She kept a little journal while filming this time and we get to read a whole series of her favorite passages. So good. Her voice comes through clearly in the writing and the insights into the process and revisiting all the old characters and story lines is priceless (for me…and it seems like it was for Graham as well). Mmmmmmm.
On theme with the end of the Gilmore Girls revival, the same thing Graham chooses to finish this book with, I’ll finish with a 4 word “ending.” I adored this book! (Whispered: but is this truly the end??)
Confession: I love Gilmore Girls. Love. Love. It’s cheesy and girly, but it has some of the best (read also: fastest) dialogue of any show I’ve ever seen and I identify pretty hard with Rory’s love of books. It’s one of the only shows I’ve watched all the way through more than once. Definitely a not so guilty pleasure of mine. So, when I saw Lauren Graham wrote this book that was at least mostly about her experience with Gilmore Girls, both the first time around and the reboot (and can I just mention how excited I was for that?!), I knew it would only be a matter of time before I read it. Or, as has been the norm for me recently, listened as she narrated it herself.
This book was fast and fun, just like Lorelai Gilmore (and, I assume, Lauren Graham herself). We get the typical background information: a couple funny childhood stories, the just starting out as an actor stories, the “my big break” story, the random funny stories (her time on Project Runway, for example), the advice/personal reflections stories (i.e. the Hollywood diet and exercise advice), etc. And then the part that I was most looking forward to: her reflections on Gilmore Girls. I really enjoyed the way Graham talked about it. It was super interesting to me that she had never actually watched the show before, instead preferring not to watch herself on screen and therefore to avoid self-critique, etc. That seems so smart. And it gave a really unique perspective for her to write from. I mean, we get the normal thoughts and feelings and situations that she is able to remember from the time, and looking back. But then, she walks through each season, one at a time, giving the reader a little intro, and then a “Times Were Different,” “Fashion and Hair,” “What I Love,” and “Season Finale” blurb for each season. It was just really cool to read through these reflections that Graham is, essentially, having for the first time as she watches for the first time something she experienced years ago. Definitely one of my favorite parts of the book.
Then she talks through her experiences after those 7 seasons, primarily regarding her time on the show Parenthood (which I’ll admit I haven’t watched, not because it doesn’t look amazing, but because honestly every commercial I saw for it looked so real-life funny and serious that I was pretty sure I’d never get through an episode without balling my eyes out…). But it was neat to hear the differences between the two shows and how she ended up “meeting” her now husband on the set (they played siblings, which is pretty funny). In this section of the book, she also talks about her experience writing her novel, Someday, Someday Maybe, that she discusses as decidedly not autobiographical, despite what everyone says (I have not read it, so I have decided to believe her). I have always wanted to write a novel, so I appreciated her musings about it, plus the discoveries she makes and advice she gets on how to write efficiently.
And then we are back to Gilmore Girls (yay!). The details on how things got started and the messiness of the process was not something I really expected, but I guess it makes sense. There’s a lot going on in showbusiness… And this time, Graham still hasn’t watched the 4-part series, hasn’t watched herself reprising Lorelai, but we get something almost better. She kept a little journal while filming this time and we get to read a whole series of her favorite passages. So good. Her voice comes through clearly in the writing and the insights into the process and revisiting all the old characters and story lines is priceless (for me…and it seems like it was for Graham as well). Mmmmmmm.
On theme with the end of the Gilmore Girls revival, the same thing Graham chooses to finish this book with, I’ll finish with a 4 word “ending.” I adored this book! (Whispered: but is this truly the end??)