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The Stars in Our Eyes: The Famous, the Infamous, and Why We Care Way Too Much About Them
From bestselling author Julie Klam comes a lively and engaging exploration of celebrity: why celebrities fascinate us, what it means to be famous today, and why celebrities are so important.
“When I was young I was convinced celebrities could save me,” Julie Klam admits in The Stars in Our Eyes, her funny and personal exploration of fame and celebrity. As she did for subjects as wide-ranging as dogs, mothers, and friendship, Klam brings her infectious curiosity and crackling wit to the topic of celebrity. As she admits, “I’ve always been enamored with celebrities,” be they movie stars, baseball players, TV actors, and now Internet sensations. “They are the us we want to be.” Celebrities today have a global presence and can be, Klam writes, “some girl on Instagram who does nude yoga and has 3.5 million followers, a thirteen-year-old ‘viner,’ and a Korean rapper who posts his videos that are viewed millions of times.”
In The Stars in Our Eyes, Klam examines this phenomenon. She delves deep into what makes someone a celebrity, explains why we care about celebrities more than ever, and uncovers the bargains they make with the public and the burdens they bear to sustain this status. The result is an engaging, astute, and eye-opening look into celebrity that reveals the truths about fame as it elucidates why it’s such an important part of life today.
“When I was young I was convinced celebrities could save me,” Julie Klam admits in The Stars in Our Eyes, her funny and personal exploration of fame and celebrity. As she did for subjects as wide-ranging as dogs, mothers, and friendship, Klam brings her infectious curiosity and crackling wit to the topic of celebrity. As she admits, “I’ve always been enamored with celebrities,” be they movie stars, baseball players, TV actors, and now Internet sensations. “They are the us we want to be.” Celebrities today have a global presence and can be, Klam writes, “some girl on Instagram who does nude yoga and has 3.5 million followers, a thirteen-year-old ‘viner,’ and a Korean rapper who posts his videos that are viewed millions of times.”
In The Stars in Our Eyes, Klam examines this phenomenon. She delves deep into what makes someone a celebrity, explains why we care about celebrities more than ever, and uncovers the bargains they make with the public and the burdens they bear to sustain this status. The result is an engaging, astute, and eye-opening look into celebrity that reveals the truths about fame as it elucidates why it’s such an important part of life today.
233 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 18, 2017
40 people are currently reading
1369 people want to read
About the author
Julie Klam
20 books308 followersJulie Klam grew up in Bedford, NY. She has been a freelance writer since 1991, writing for such publications as “O, The Oprah Magazine,” “Rolling Stone,” “Harper’s Bazaar,” “Glamour,” "The Washington Post" and “The New York Times Magazine.
A graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, she was a writer for VH1’s Pop-Up Video, where she earned an Emmy nomination for Special Class Writing.
A New York Times Bestseller, she has written Please Excuse My Daughter, You Had Me At Woof, Love at First Bark, and Friendkeeping and The Stars In Our Eyes (all Riverhead Books)
She lives in Manhattan with her family and dogs.
A graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, she was a writer for VH1’s Pop-Up Video, where she earned an Emmy nomination for Special Class Writing.
A New York Times Bestseller, she has written Please Excuse My Daughter, You Had Me At Woof, Love at First Bark, and Friendkeeping and The Stars In Our Eyes (all Riverhead Books)
She lives in Manhattan with her family and dogs.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 97 reviews
August 20, 2017
Reading a light, fluffy book is like drinking wine. More specifically, some light, fluffy books are like drinking one or two glasses of wine: Everyone involved is witty, laughing, and having a good time, and no one has any regrets the next day. Other light, fluffy books are more like drinking the whole bottle: You're left with the numbed-out feeling that you've killed a lot of brain cells, and you need some time to recover before you feel like yourself again. With The Stars in Their Eyes, I initially felt like I'd be drinking only one or two glasses, but regrettably by the end I'd drunk the whole bottle.
It all began so promisingly! Julie Klam started off talking about the celebrity obsessions of her younger years: Reading teenybopper magazines like Tiger Beat to learn about teenybopper stars like Leif Garrett; reading the teenage-girl magazines like Seventeen and recognizing all the most-featured models (my own fave was Jennifer Connelly); being obsessed with Broadway musicals, particularly Annie and its star, Andrea McArdle; harboring vague fantasies of being a child star herself. Klam and I are close in age and I related to all of this. It was honestly super fun to relive that time through Klam's experiences, and I found the author to be genuinely (and surprisingly) funny. Her interviews with former child stars extended this feeling and were fascinating in exactly the way I hoped this book's exploration of fame would be. At this point I expected the book would continue on in this vein, with Klam tying various examinations of celebrity to various stages of her life—a memoir of her life via her fandom. The personal element she brought to the early parts of this book were what made it fun and unique.
Unfortunately, from there the book became a more generic exploration of celebrity, looking at breakups, scandals, reality TV, and (zzzz...) celebrity athletes, among other topics. None of these chapters were particularly deep or had anything new or particularly interesting to say, and the writing got progressively worse as it went on—which was confusing because Klam is clearly capable of writing well. The book is also interspersed with "intermissions," wherein Klam's friends recount their own encounters with celebrity. These intermissions made the book feel even more disjointed, but since a lot of Klam's friends are novelists, many of them were able to write entertaining, likable anecdotes—which had the unintentional effect of making Klam's own writing seem even worse by comparison.
So... yeah, don't bother with this. As fate or the Free Library of Philadelphia would have it, this book and Anne Helen Petersen's Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud came off hold for me at the same time, and this book definitely suffered from following that one. If you really want to read about celebrity, I would suggest you check out Petersen's superior book. As for me, I suspect The Stars in Our Eyes will disappear from my memory as quickly as if I really had drunk a full bottle of wine while reading it. That's not really an experience I needed or wanted. I wish I'd just had a real glass of wine and read a different book instead.
It all began so promisingly! Julie Klam started off talking about the celebrity obsessions of her younger years: Reading teenybopper magazines like Tiger Beat to learn about teenybopper stars like Leif Garrett; reading the teenage-girl magazines like Seventeen and recognizing all the most-featured models (my own fave was Jennifer Connelly); being obsessed with Broadway musicals, particularly Annie and its star, Andrea McArdle; harboring vague fantasies of being a child star herself. Klam and I are close in age and I related to all of this. It was honestly super fun to relive that time through Klam's experiences, and I found the author to be genuinely (and surprisingly) funny. Her interviews with former child stars extended this feeling and were fascinating in exactly the way I hoped this book's exploration of fame would be. At this point I expected the book would continue on in this vein, with Klam tying various examinations of celebrity to various stages of her life—a memoir of her life via her fandom. The personal element she brought to the early parts of this book were what made it fun and unique.
Unfortunately, from there the book became a more generic exploration of celebrity, looking at breakups, scandals, reality TV, and (zzzz...) celebrity athletes, among other topics. None of these chapters were particularly deep or had anything new or particularly interesting to say, and the writing got progressively worse as it went on—which was confusing because Klam is clearly capable of writing well. The book is also interspersed with "intermissions," wherein Klam's friends recount their own encounters with celebrity. These intermissions made the book feel even more disjointed, but since a lot of Klam's friends are novelists, many of them were able to write entertaining, likable anecdotes—which had the unintentional effect of making Klam's own writing seem even worse by comparison.
So... yeah, don't bother with this. As fate or the Free Library of Philadelphia would have it, this book and Anne Helen Petersen's Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud came off hold for me at the same time, and this book definitely suffered from following that one. If you really want to read about celebrity, I would suggest you check out Petersen's superior book. As for me, I suspect The Stars in Our Eyes will disappear from my memory as quickly as if I really had drunk a full bottle of wine while reading it. That's not really an experience I needed or wanted. I wish I'd just had a real glass of wine and read a different book instead.
June 23, 2017
Pages and pages of affable, banal nattering about celebrity culture. The author muses about people's investment in celebrities, with reference to her own feelings when Brad and Jennifer split. She muses about the rise of reality shows, and watches some with her aunt, who likes them a lot. Etc etc. Not possible to actively dislike it, but not a lot of 'there' there.
June 11, 2017
***********ARC GIVEAWAY***********
Very interesting read. Entertaining and insightful.
Very interesting read. Entertaining and insightful.
May 7, 2017
I won't pretend to be an unbiased observer about a book where I appear in a chapter, but Julie is a terrific person who writes a terrific book, whether I'm in it or not. STARS is a clear-eyed examination of what we get out of celebrities and why we keep going back, but the author is also still unapologetically a fan, which makes it less social criticism, more what Julie does best; the book version a fun drink or two with a friend. A friend who, in this case, just saw Bette Midler at Duane Reade and wants to tell you all about it. The "Intermission" stories of people meeting celebrities are gossipy fun; the Phillip Seymour Hoffman story in particular made me smile.
But that's what the whole book will do; make you smile.
But that's what the whole book will do; make you smile.
April 11, 2018
3.75 stars. The author offered some interesting insights but also added her own love for celebrities which made listening about it funny and relatable. The best part of listening to this were definitely all the celebrity encounter stories from different people- we really do put celebrity's on a higher plane, don't we? 😂
June 11, 2017
Loved loved Julie Klams new book.Julie talks about our fascination never ending curiosity about celebrities.She had me laughing hysterically from her description of Jennifer Lopez&Ben Affleks relationship she basically never felt they had chemistry,There is a very special real life emotions from mentions of her divorce which was done privately since they are not celeberties whose divorces are front page news.Another wonderful read written in Julia Klams special way,
September 23, 2021
Highly readable exploration about the nature of fame and celebrity. Finished it in one day. Nice juicy interviews with, and anecdotes of, those who are semi-famous, are friends with the famous, were once famous, and are still famous. Most interesting are insights into child stars that now lead normal productive lives outside the glare of celebrity. The interview with Tim Hutton was particularly insightful: He was the son of a famous actor, married and had a child with someone famous, and won an Oscar at a very young age.
June 5, 2017
i win this book, i enjoy the book , peoples tell stories about celebrity , it funny at time . it a good little book . why we care about them.
May 31, 2017
This is a Goodreads win review. This is such a cute book about why we a culture are fascinated with the infamous, the famous and celebrity,s. I could relate to the book because for 60 years I have lived where famous people live and work. My father was an extra and a stand in for Grant Withers in Hollywood. I was a food server so I came in contact with famous people often. They were all kind and nice to me. This book is a joyful romp while the author is fascinated with famous people and she interviewed a few for this book.
July 6, 2017
This was a quick enough read, and her interviews were fun, but it was a bit bland after having read Too Fat Too Slutty Too Loud a few weeks ago. I had been hoping Klam would dig into WHY we feel compelled to feed the celebrity machine but she stayed pretty surface level, in my opinion. Her interviews were nice (hey, Timothy Hutton) but I would have liked an interview with an uber-celebrity (like maybe Emma Watson) to get into sudden-fame-in-the-social-media-world. I enjoyed the "celebrity encounters" stories Klam included at the end of each chapter (one about Ron Jeremy actually had me laughing out loud).
August 21, 2017
This book started out well - an examination of celebrity told by someone who longed to be a child star and appears to know quite a few - but was ultimately disappointing. The structure felt quite haphazard and half baked, and was just loosely related paragraphs by the end.
Another problem I had with this was that I am about 20 years younger than the author, and spent a lot of time Googling the celebrities (mostly 80s actors) that she mentioned. Perhaps readers who have more idea who she is talking to and about will get more out of the sections where she interviews them, but I didn't find them all that interesting or insightful.
(If you want to read a similarly critical but excellent review of this book you should check out Julie's review!)
Another problem I had with this was that I am about 20 years younger than the author, and spent a lot of time Googling the celebrities (mostly 80s actors) that she mentioned. Perhaps readers who have more idea who she is talking to and about will get more out of the sections where she interviews them, but I didn't find them all that interesting or insightful.
(If you want to read a similarly critical but excellent review of this book you should check out Julie's review!)
November 11, 2019
What a disappointing tone. She switches between being "just like us" and meeting famous stars and telling us about growing up in a house with a tennis court and going to basketball games with David Letterman. Not only did the author miss the mark on tone, but she also ends up with a book entirely about herself: who she interviewed or how she is personally connected to them. "Our" in the title has nothing to do with the reader at all.
August 1, 2017
I have been into pop culture my entire life. There's a picture of a toddler-aged me sitting on the couch, reading a People magazine. I've subscribed to Entertainment Weekly almost since its inception. I loved getting Premiere every month. (Moment of silence for Premiere.) So yes, I am a huge fan of pop culture. With that, of course, comes a fondness for celebrities in general and a bunch in particular. (I have very strong feelings about almost all of them, and asked Julie Klam in a Tweet not to ruin Connie Britton for me.)
If you are also into celebrities and pop culture, this is a book for you. She talks to celebrities I love (JULIE WARNER OMG; I love Tommy Boy, as do many people my age, but she was also in Indian Summer, this amazing independent movie most people have not seen---which, frankly, is a travesty) and respect (basically everyone else; I want to be friends with Timothy Hutton!) and shares fun celebrity encounters that her friends have had. (NOTE: Many of Julie Klam's friends are authors and so, to me, are celebrities in their own right. There was much freaking out as I read the book.)
This book is a complete delight. There is something in here for all the pop culture fans (reality TV, if that's your thing; the feelings of watching celebs fall; celeb breakups---I was actually heartbroken when Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins broke up---basically everything). All I want in the world is to hang out with Julie Klam, eat ice cream and talk about celebrities. And if there's anything wrong with Connie Britton, I don't want to know. She's an actual treasure. So is this book.
Highly recommended.
November 4, 2017
A book about celebrities, why we idolize them, and how it has changed over the years. The topic is very interesting, and it is very relevant to the modern world, and it gets you thinking. The author really puts into perspective how who we idolize has changed, and the underlying reasons we even idolize celebrities so much, and the rise of them. It gets you thinking about celebrities you like, why you like them, and how they influence you. Fans of sociology will like this book. However, I was expecting a lot more from this book. It's such a good topic, and you could easily delve very deep into this topic- like perform social experiments, write about sociology articles, research, statistics, etc. She could have mixed in psychological reasoning on the impact of celebrities, how we are blinded by them, etc. I just feel like there was so much you could do with this book! Instead, the author ended up repeating the same 4 points again and again throughout the book. It was like 200 something pages of her opinion again and again. I definitely think stating your opinion is important, but in this book it felt like it was based on nothing. She just randomly kept talking about celebrities she likes/used to like, and how it changed throughout her life, and her thoughts on celebrities. I feel like it was too personal, and didn't leave enough space for the readers to be intrigued. I thought this book would have insightful quotes, that would be thought-provoking, but instead I just read pages on pages of some author telling me about celebrities they like. Additionally, she added real life stories of people's encounters with celebrities, which made it feel more like a blog-post than a novel.
June 10, 2017
I received this book for free through Goodreads Giveaways and have chosen to give my honest opinion about it.
I think the philosophy, reasoning, and just the journey to discover the conclusions of this book was immensely satisfying and intriguing to learn about. At some points, certain details became trivial and seemed to almost blur the main focus, but for the most part it was very well written, organized, and presented! I enjoyed it!
I think the philosophy, reasoning, and just the journey to discover the conclusions of this book was immensely satisfying and intriguing to learn about. At some points, certain details became trivial and seemed to almost blur the main focus, but for the most part it was very well written, organized, and presented! I enjoyed it!
April 6, 2017
Instantly engaging and utterly unputdownable!
November 26, 2017
More like 2.5 stars. Loved reading the celebrity sighting moments, but felt the author spent most of the book explaining her premise and never truly wrote it. Also, a lot of name dropping, which I expected, but was annoyed with after awhile.
May 26, 2021
This book was the perfect level of mindless yet interesting for my first air travel in over a year.
April 18, 2017
As I was scrolling through my Instagram feed I found myself thinking about this book. Why do I follow all of these people I don't know?! What makes them so special/interesting/worthy of my time? WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE? Some of them aren't household-name celebrities. Some of them are "celebrities" in their respective bubbles (yoga, literature, succulents, moms). Some are just random people.
But those questions I asked above, Julie Klam digs into that a little in this easy-to-read & entertaining look at CELEBRITY. If you're expecting a real in-depth psychoanalysis of why we're obsessed as a culture...you won't find that here. She interviews interesting people and includes these great little "intermissions" at the end of each chapter--quick stories from people who have had interactions with celebrities.
But those questions I asked above, Julie Klam digs into that a little in this easy-to-read & entertaining look at CELEBRITY. If you're expecting a real in-depth psychoanalysis of why we're obsessed as a culture...you won't find that here. She interviews interesting people and includes these great little "intermissions" at the end of each chapter--quick stories from people who have had interactions with celebrities.
July 7, 2017
The Stars in Our Eyes
Julie Klam
This is a short non-fiction book about the celebrity culture in which we currently live. It is interesting and definitely worth the time to read it.
The cover of the book says "The famous, the infamous, and why we care way too much about them". I expected more research than the two studies that were described in the book. However, both of them were fascinating. One was a study of monkeys that proved that even monkeys are enthralled by alpha or celebrity monkeys. The second study tested which celebrities were people's favorites and why. Basically, celebrity worship is in both our DNA and our brains so it is unlikely to stop soon.
The rest of the book was interviews with people that are successful in their own field, including some actors, about how they felt about celebrities. Some had good insights.
My favorite part of the book was the intermissions at the end of each chapter. They were descriptions of meeting stars in person. The story about Mohammad Ali was very heartwarming and funny.
If you like non-fiction, this is a nice light vacation read.
I received an advanced reading copy of this book in a Goodreads giveaway but that has not impacted my review. The book will be published on July 18, 2017.
3.5 stars rounded up to 4
Julie Klam
This is a short non-fiction book about the celebrity culture in which we currently live. It is interesting and definitely worth the time to read it.
The cover of the book says "The famous, the infamous, and why we care way too much about them". I expected more research than the two studies that were described in the book. However, both of them were fascinating. One was a study of monkeys that proved that even monkeys are enthralled by alpha or celebrity monkeys. The second study tested which celebrities were people's favorites and why. Basically, celebrity worship is in both our DNA and our brains so it is unlikely to stop soon.
The rest of the book was interviews with people that are successful in their own field, including some actors, about how they felt about celebrities. Some had good insights.
My favorite part of the book was the intermissions at the end of each chapter. They were descriptions of meeting stars in person. The story about Mohammad Ali was very heartwarming and funny.
If you like non-fiction, this is a nice light vacation read.
I received an advanced reading copy of this book in a Goodreads giveaway but that has not impacted my review. The book will be published on July 18, 2017.
3.5 stars rounded up to 4
June 4, 2017
I won this book on Goodreads. It is an interesting book on why we pay attention to celebrities. There are several different reasons and the author explores all of them. At the end of each chapter there are a few accounts of different celebrities someone has run into.
June 28, 2017
You can also find this review at https://booksbestfriendblog.wordpress...
Note: I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Let me begin by saying that while I was kinda meh about this, I do think it is a book a lot of other people will like. I am not the People or EW reading type, and I have never watched reality TV. I thought this was going to be a more scientific look at the concept of celebrity and why we are so invested in others we will never know personally, similar to this BBC article. Instead it was Klam and her family members’ personal thoughts on celebrities and interviews with stars (more reasonable B-level stars, not A-listers or current mega-celebrities) sprinkled throughout.
While I was disappointed that this was not a more rigorous view of the topic, Klam herself is hilarious and I loved her stories. My one complaint is when she examined the pitfalls of being a celebrity and the constant media scrutiny, she used examples from stars that were famous before 2000. While I believe they did face intense pressure and media scrutiny, the more widespread use of the internet and social media since then makes their experiences extremely outdated compared to what mega-celebrities go through today. It would have been interesting to view fame through today’s lens with Twitter, Instagram, and 24/7 celebrity “news” sites.
I recommend this to anyone looking for a quick and funny take on celebrities and fame, but don’t expect any rigorous analysis or new insights.
Note: I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Let me begin by saying that while I was kinda meh about this, I do think it is a book a lot of other people will like. I am not the People or EW reading type, and I have never watched reality TV. I thought this was going to be a more scientific look at the concept of celebrity and why we are so invested in others we will never know personally, similar to this BBC article. Instead it was Klam and her family members’ personal thoughts on celebrities and interviews with stars (more reasonable B-level stars, not A-listers or current mega-celebrities) sprinkled throughout.
While I was disappointed that this was not a more rigorous view of the topic, Klam herself is hilarious and I loved her stories. My one complaint is when she examined the pitfalls of being a celebrity and the constant media scrutiny, she used examples from stars that were famous before 2000. While I believe they did face intense pressure and media scrutiny, the more widespread use of the internet and social media since then makes their experiences extremely outdated compared to what mega-celebrities go through today. It would have been interesting to view fame through today’s lens with Twitter, Instagram, and 24/7 celebrity “news” sites.
I recommend this to anyone looking for a quick and funny take on celebrities and fame, but don’t expect any rigorous analysis or new insights.
December 9, 2017
https://oneblogtwobroads.blog/2017/12...
This book was right up my alley! Julie Klam and I are somewhat of the same cloth. We enjoy our celebrities. I may not be as fascinated by Jennifer Aniston as she is but I have always been intrigued by them. It goes back to reading my mom’s Photoplay and Silver Screen magazines when I was a child. That life just looked so glamorous. Ms. Klam goes into the differences of those old times when studios ruled what we saw, to today where everything seems to be fair game. It is an interesting look on why we are so obsessed with celebrities and how it seems now, anyone can be one. (Kadarshians, hint hint)
I loved the little intermissions after each chapter where different people gave their brushes with celebrities. Lots of fun! And the author herself is very, very funny. This was just a joy to read.
This book was right up my alley! Julie Klam and I are somewhat of the same cloth. We enjoy our celebrities. I may not be as fascinated by Jennifer Aniston as she is but I have always been intrigued by them. It goes back to reading my mom’s Photoplay and Silver Screen magazines when I was a child. That life just looked so glamorous. Ms. Klam goes into the differences of those old times when studios ruled what we saw, to today where everything seems to be fair game. It is an interesting look on why we are so obsessed with celebrities and how it seems now, anyone can be one. (Kadarshians, hint hint)
I loved the little intermissions after each chapter where different people gave their brushes with celebrities. Lots of fun! And the author herself is very, very funny. This was just a joy to read.
July 15, 2018
I would count myself among those who are ambivalent about celebrities and stars. I rarely watch movies, I don’t read tabloids or entertainment magazines and I pay little attention to stories or articles about celebrities. My motive for reading this book was a curiosity about why people obsess about the famous. It was an interesting glimpse. I am no more interested in celebrities than I was before (and I needed to google an embarrassing number of names that she dropped) but I found that Ms Klam was engaging and I enjoyed the foray into a “foreign” world.
January 2, 2020
This was a quick and read. Not a hefty or academic study of celebrity but a fun and anecdotal one. I don't think Klam is really arguing that people should no longer pay attention to celebrities, but just think a bit of the cost of celebrity even as we feel through their lives. Which I think we are all aware of, to an extent. And sadly there have been more developments in Jennifer Aniston's life since the publishing of this book. Oh.
December 22, 2017
I wanted to love this book but it was really awful. At the same time that Klam is saying celebrity has always existed and we've always had famous people, she's griping about how celebrities today can be anyone and how youtube and paris hilton suck, instead of being critical in any productive way! so i stopped reading it. i've read so many more amazing things written by my peers on tumblr.
August 7, 2017
Not sure how this book got published--it's ill-conceived from the start because it really doesn't analyze what the subtitle says. The author instead somehow thinks we should care about her childhood crushes and spends much of the book rambling about outdated celebrities. She interviews a few "famous people" for the book but they aren't exactly household names. The first is Quinn Cummings. Seriously? You want to write a book about celebrity and pick someone who had a very short career (only a 1977 famous movie role and a guest on a dozen TV shows) but no longer works in the business. Bad start. Then Timothy Hutton. Okay, well, he was big in 1980 but notorious for being difficult to deal with. She now is "friends" with him after they began messaging on Facebook (weird) and she makes the silly claim that he's not like other stars that have had hair dyed or botox. Has she seen the guy? His hair is very dyed! So she works hard to try to make a guy with a bad reputation look good here.
In between these names get ready for stories about her love of Annie (even the unknowns that played the role on stage) and her still being upset about the breakup of Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston. You read that correctly. That's about as current as the book gets.
It essentially is her justifying her idolizing of minor actors, and then trying to question why people do that. She doesn't really give an answer. She supposedly is making points throughout the book about how we are all addicted to famous people and includes stories of everyday fans that encounter celebrities. But most of these stories are dull and feel like padding.
The book is short because she really doesn't have much of a point to make. It's simplistic and might have worked 20 years ago, but now just seems very outdated and is extremely boring, unless you like listening to a woman chatter on and on about pretty much nothing. This kind of book might work for snotty-nosed New Yorkers that might be impressed at a cocktail party by a naval-gazing author who used to work at VH-1, but the typical reader should avoid it.
In between these names get ready for stories about her love of Annie (even the unknowns that played the role on stage) and her still being upset about the breakup of Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston. You read that correctly. That's about as current as the book gets.
It essentially is her justifying her idolizing of minor actors, and then trying to question why people do that. She doesn't really give an answer. She supposedly is making points throughout the book about how we are all addicted to famous people and includes stories of everyday fans that encounter celebrities. But most of these stories are dull and feel like padding.
The book is short because she really doesn't have much of a point to make. It's simplistic and might have worked 20 years ago, but now just seems very outdated and is extremely boring, unless you like listening to a woman chatter on and on about pretty much nothing. This kind of book might work for snotty-nosed New Yorkers that might be impressed at a cocktail party by a naval-gazing author who used to work at VH-1, but the typical reader should avoid it.
April 28, 2018
As someone who's always been fascinated by celebrity culture, I was very excited to read this. I had high hopes that it would be like Trainwreck by Sady Doyle or Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud by Anne Helen Petersen, and unfortunately, this book didn't even come close to that.
In the beginning of the book, Julie says this book will be about dissecting why some celebrities remain famous, what the cost of fame is, and why we love and care so much about these stars.
And I don't think Julie managed to do this in her book. I thought we would get some thought provoking chapters and instead what we got were some very superficial insights into these concepts.
It came across more like Julie telling us which celebrities she grew up obsessing over and which ones she supported or didn't support given their scandals or backgrounds. While that's fine and she did write with some funny anecdotes, I found myself waiting for more serious discussions about the intersection between the media, celebrities, and the rise of social media.
And while I enjoyed reading about people's brief interactions with celebrities, they ended up taking up most of the chapters and it always felt like the chapters ended abruptly before anything was seriously explored.
It was a fun and quick read, but don't go in thinking you'll get a great examination into the psychology of society's obsession with fame, Hollywood, and celebrities.
If you're looking for that, I definitely recommend reading the two books I mentioned in the beginning!
In the beginning of the book, Julie says this book will be about dissecting why some celebrities remain famous, what the cost of fame is, and why we love and care so much about these stars.
And I don't think Julie managed to do this in her book. I thought we would get some thought provoking chapters and instead what we got were some very superficial insights into these concepts.
It came across more like Julie telling us which celebrities she grew up obsessing over and which ones she supported or didn't support given their scandals or backgrounds. While that's fine and she did write with some funny anecdotes, I found myself waiting for more serious discussions about the intersection between the media, celebrities, and the rise of social media.
And while I enjoyed reading about people's brief interactions with celebrities, they ended up taking up most of the chapters and it always felt like the chapters ended abruptly before anything was seriously explored.
It was a fun and quick read, but don't go in thinking you'll get a great examination into the psychology of society's obsession with fame, Hollywood, and celebrities.
If you're looking for that, I definitely recommend reading the two books I mentioned in the beginning!
July 2, 2021
I waffled about whether or not this deserved a higher rating, since the writing wasn't unbearable and it was a relatively breezy read. Ultimately, though, I gave it one star because it adds next to nothing to the conversation it sets out to have.
The subtitle seemed to promise a thoughtful, thoroughly researched, and well-argued exploration of fame and celebrity. That is not what I got. Many of the chapters included "interviews" with "celebrities," which really served no other purpose than to illustrate how well-connected Klam believes herself to be. She spends a chapter on reality TV-generated celebrities recapping a binge-watching session with her television-loving aunt, squandering an opportunity to really explore a fascinating subset of fame and notoriety. She covers the public's fascination with Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston's divorce by talking about how hard *she* took it, even recounting how she had to talk it through with her therapist - without really trying to examine WHY those emotions existed in the first place.
By the end of this book, I was hoping that Klam would answer the question set forth in her subtitle: why do we care way too much about celebrities? She didn't. I left this book with nothing more than I had going into it, other than the warm feeling I got while reading about another person's memory of a pleasant subway ride with Philip Seymour Hoffman.
The subtitle seemed to promise a thoughtful, thoroughly researched, and well-argued exploration of fame and celebrity. That is not what I got. Many of the chapters included "interviews" with "celebrities," which really served no other purpose than to illustrate how well-connected Klam believes herself to be. She spends a chapter on reality TV-generated celebrities recapping a binge-watching session with her television-loving aunt, squandering an opportunity to really explore a fascinating subset of fame and notoriety. She covers the public's fascination with Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston's divorce by talking about how hard *she* took it, even recounting how she had to talk it through with her therapist - without really trying to examine WHY those emotions existed in the first place.
By the end of this book, I was hoping that Klam would answer the question set forth in her subtitle: why do we care way too much about celebrities? She didn't. I left this book with nothing more than I had going into it, other than the warm feeling I got while reading about another person's memory of a pleasant subway ride with Philip Seymour Hoffman.
November 23, 2017
A fun view of pop culture and celebrities--talented and non-talented. If you are an avid reader of People Weekly and/or Entertainment Weekly, you'll enjoy this light-hearted look at why we might have a obsession with our favorite stars. If you don't and aren't aware of who is who in the Kardashian family, it might not be that interesting.
Also, sprinkled throughout the book are "intermissions" with people describing their celebrity encounters which made me think of a few "non-encounters" I've experienced. One was when we were waiting in the foyer of a popular Palm Springs restaurant. After we were seated my spouse commented on how Justine Bateman was standing right next to us. Huh. I had no clue. Of course, then I had to crane my neck to see if she had been seated anywhere close to us. Then there was the time I almost mowed down Don King in a Vegas airport. Again, no clue.
My take-away is I have no desire to be famous.
Also, sprinkled throughout the book are "intermissions" with people describing their celebrity encounters which made me think of a few "non-encounters" I've experienced. One was when we were waiting in the foyer of a popular Palm Springs restaurant. After we were seated my spouse commented on how Justine Bateman was standing right next to us. Huh. I had no clue. Of course, then I had to crane my neck to see if she had been seated anywhere close to us. Then there was the time I almost mowed down Don King in a Vegas airport. Again, no clue.
My take-away is I have no desire to be famous.
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