As a huge fan of Gilmore Girls and Lauren Graham, I was quite excited to read this book. Finally! A chance to read about all of the behind-the-scenes goodies from the original run of the show, how everyone got cast, funny anecdotes and heartwarming stories about each of the cast members, etc. While we get that to some extent in the final chapter that includes diary entries from her time on the revival, the chapter about the original Gilmore Girls run was highly disappointing. Instead of a chapter that provided stories that only Lauren Graham could tell, she decided to rewatch all seven seasons and provide glib remarks about what she saw. "Can you believe I wore so much blue eyeshadow? What was I thinking!" "Wow, Rory's boyfriends are hunky. I can see why teams formed!" It felt like a whole lot of meaningless fluff. I'm sure I could go online and find a hundred different blogs from fans who could make those exact same observations. If she wants to go through and commentate on the 7 seasons of the show, fine, but that should be used as a framing device to provide memories with a bit more substance. If she can't remember anything, then she should've asked her publicist to pull from old interviews she did during the time and just try to jazz them up a bit. Given the subtitle of the book and the timing of when it was released, the Gilmore Girls chapters are, I'm sure, the most highly anticipated ones by the fans. And while the revival chapter was much improved, the lack of interesting material about the original series almost made me not want to finish. (For goodness sake, there was more substance in the chapter about her guest judge role on Project Runway than about Gilmore Girls. Really?)
The most distinct part about the book was Lauren's voice throughout. If you've ever seen her on a talk show, you know that she's adorably flighty but brilliant, jumping from one thought to the next in a flustered, giggly way that somehow never makes her look like a bimbo but just that her thoughts race much faster than the conversation can keep up with. That same quality shines through in the book, which at times can be delightful and at other times can be a detriment to the quality of the book. The tone works really well when she's talking about her superficial observations about Hollywood, weight loss, her many years of singledom, etc., but can border on annoying when it seems like we're about to dig in with a specific story about Parenthood or her friends or Gilmore Girls. When I read Amy Poehler's autobiography, some of my favorite sections were when she would dig in and spend a paragraph talking about how she saw a person in her life. She'd mention a few unique characteristics, where she met them, what they mean to her today, and so on. Even though I knew who Adam Scott was (or at least who he portrays himself to be from what I've seen on TV), seeing him from her perspective fleshed out his character in the context of the book. It's a basic guideline for any book: introduce your characters. Maybe it was because Lauren was in such a rush to finish this on time, but I feel like that part completely got overlooked. Everyone flits in and out of her story without any formal introduction, and although I know who Amy and Dan are and I know that she's close to her Parenthood children, it feels like these are only wisps of individuals with nothing solid to grab onto. The closest we come to getting something substantial is on the chapter where she discusses her boyfriend, Peter Krause, but even there, the descriptions seem superficial. I know now that he's really into the outdoors, but I know nothing about why, after all of her years of success as an independent woman, he was the one that was special enough to include in her life. And it's not like I'm looking for sordid details, but I've only seen about half a season of Parenthood. I don't know anything about him. He's just "guy dating Lauren who loves the outdoors." It's hard to feel any sort of emotional connection over that.
The final few chapters were quite strong. I loved that she included some diary entries from her time on the revival set, and her reaction to the final four words were hilarious and reflected my thoughts as well. The chapter that talked about writing was interesting too, though mostly because the several pages of writing advice she had received from a mentor of hers were quite good and something I might refer to.
(Side note: she makes a weird observation in this chapter about how after she wrote her novel, people were a bit skeptical that she had written it herself. She tries to blame this on misogyny. And look, I think there are a lot of hurdles women need to overcome to get ahead in the world, and society is structured to benefit the patriarchy most of all. But people weren't skeptical of her book because she's a woman. They were skeptical because she was an actress who never published a book before and was writing a book that seemed loosely biographical. Pretty much any famous Hollywood actor or actress could "write" a book and get it published because publishers know that the name recognition alone will sell enough books to justify the cost of publication. Ghost writing is common, and many actors and actresses can "write" a book without writing a book. It's great that she did it herself, but the skepticism is justified--and has nothing to do with the fact that she's a woman.)
Overall, I'm disappointed. I love Lauren, and there are certainly parts that are enjoyable because she seems like such a gem of a person, but this book was way too rushed and lacks the insight and depth I was hoping for.