NFL
By Rick O’Donnell
I’m back with yet another Team NBS Book Club pick for all you readers out there. Not going to lie, my guilty pleasure has been autobiographies these days. Not the “tell-all” books that try to drag other celebrities into each other’s messed-up worlds. No, I like the more honest, relatable experiences that might not be a direct reflection of my own. However, I connect with these nonetheless.
The hardest part of sticking to those qualities is choosing the right celebrity memoir to read. It’s easy to find a celebrity whose career you’ve enjoyed and want to know more. More often than not, it feels like those books are 30% stories from the celeb in question. The other 70% is fluffed up by someone who interviewed them and turned it into a book. That cannot be said of this Book Club pick, You With The Sad Eyes by Christina Applegate.
This particular pick was one of the better biographies that I’ve read in recent memory. Everyone sees the characters celebrities portray in the spotlight. We don’t always get their struggles put on display for the whole world to see. That is, unless you believe every tabloid out there.
In You With The Sad Eyes, Applegate dives deep into her personal life from an early age and puts things in a different perspective. Away from the public eye at the time, she shares her stories of abuse, body image, and self-doubt, propped up by diary entries from her younger days that show the headspace she was in at the time.
These entries from her diary lend strength and authenticity to her story. While most of the readers may never have, and hopefully never will, have gone through these experiences, at times, the “suffer in silence” feels relatable. However, don’t misunderstand the tone and direction of this one. Applegate goes into some stories about initially walking away from Married … with Children because she felt it wasn’t the role for her. Eventually, she’d circle back and lean into the comedy roles. There’s something about that which lends to how people can grow when you push past your doubts and take a chance on yourself. The role itself would span an 11-season TV series, starting with a role that was initially turned down. These types of stories are the ones worth reading.
Too often, people want the inside scoop to know the real dirt on the events they remember living through. If you’re going in expecting that type of story, you’ll be sadly mistaken. However, if you want a real and raw memoir on what it takes to keep battling, then You With The Sad Eyes is exactly what you’d be looking for. The pages are filled with honesty and realness that is rarely seen.
