Introducing Celebri-Reads

So, this should be of no surprise to anyone who has been hanging out here for a while, but just in case this is news to you: I love popular culture. I love TV, I love movies, I love actors and actresses, I love the crazy, messed up, sometimes glitzy, sometimes vapid world of Hollywood, I love it all.

I also really, really love books.

Needless to say, the “celebrity memoir” is one of my favorite genres to read. I can’t remember exactly which book started it all… it might have been Bossypants by Tina Fey, but it might have been earlier than that too. I love Candy Girl: A Year in the Life of an Unlikely Stripper by Diablo Cody, and Yes Please! by Amy Poehler. Recently, I’ve read and adored This Will Only Hurt a Little by Busy Philipps and Choose Your Own Autobiography by Neil Patrick Harris.

Now, once upon a time, I tried to form a book club. It went very poorly, lol. I think we made it three months? We weren’t really sure what to read or where to meet, both of which are pretty significant elements of, you know, having a book club.

Then, I joined a long-distance book club. We had a Facebook group and we met via video chat once a month. This, it turned out, was an awesome idea. The not awesome part? The theme of the book club was Pulitzer Prize Winners. Spoiler Alert: most Pulitzer winners are total snooze fests. It’s hard to stay invested in something when you hate the book every month.

But, through all this I learned that it is helpful for a book club to have some sort of theme to guide it, and that long distance book clubs where you meet via video chat and coordinate through something like a Facebook group actually work kinda well. And I know I love pop culture, and I especially love celebrity memoirs, so…

Meet my new baby!

There is not a small percentage chance that this could end up being a book club of one. I acknowledge and understand that’s a possibility. But, even if I can’t convince any of my friends that they should be as obsessed with celebrity memoirs as I am, it does make a pretty cool reading challenge for me every month (and gives me an excuse to break out of other genre ruts that I tend to get in, and might even prevent me from a genre rut with celeb memoirs).

In order to get the ball rolling for me – and anyone I can convince to join me – I’ve picked out one celebrity memoir per month for February, March, and April. Assuming I can get people on board, we’ll take suggestions and vote on future months. If it ends up just being me, well, I’ve already got my list going…

Are you a celebrity memoir fan? What are some of your favorites? Leave ’em in the comments or tweet me at @ThatColette so I can expand my reading list!

Also, if you have any book club tips and tricks, lemme know those too.