Series: N/A
Genre: Nonfiction - Autobiography
Publication: November 15th 2016 by Touchstone Books
Format: Audiobook
Source: Library
Rating: ★★★
Synopsis: Even before she made a name for herself on the silver screen starring in films like Pitch Perfect, Up in the Air, Twilight, and Into the Woods, Anna Kendrick was unusually small, weird, and “10 percent defiant.”
At the ripe age of thirteen, she had already resolved to “keep the crazy inside my head where it belonged. Forever. But here’s the thing about crazy: It. Wants. Out.” In Scrappy Little Nobody, she invites readers inside her brain, sharing extraordinary and charmingly ordinary stories with candor and winningly wry observations.
With her razor-sharp wit, Anna recounts the absurdities she’s experienced on her way to and from the heart of pop culture as only she can—from her unusual path to the performing arts (Vanilla Ice and baggy neon pants may have played a role) to her double life as a middle-school student who also starred on Broadway to her initial “dating experiments” (including only liking boys who didn’t like her back) to reviewing a binder full of butt doubles to her struggle to live like an adult woman instead of a perpetual “man-child.”
Enter Anna’s world and follow her rise from “scrappy little nobody” to somebody who dazzles on the stage, the screen, and now the page—with an electric, singular voice, at once familiar and surprising, sharp and sweet, funny and serious (well, not that serious).
Thoughts: I'd been eyeing this for a while, since it was published actually, but I don't normally read non-fiction so I didn't give it a shot until now because I was planning on going to watch Pitch Perfect 3 (which I didn't) and I am glad I got around to it.
While Anna Kendrick's life isn't particularly interesting, and she hasn't done too much in her acting career, she is a down-to-earth actress and reminded me that actors are just regular people too. She's so honest in this book about everything, from how she became an actress, to her upbringing, to guys and dating, etc. that when I was done, I felt like she and I were really good friends. I went and followed her on all her social medias and wanted to just say hi to her because it felt natural. Her biography exposed her life and personality, and I just want to chat with her every day.
I can't say that the whole biography was great. While it was awesome to learn about her, and listening to her audiobook was actually awesome because it was like she was telling me all these stories over a phone call, I felt that the writing was sort of all over the place. Her anecdotes kept flip flopping back and forth, and there was no actual time line she followed because she focused on sections of specific topics which kept bringing her back to events she had already discussed. The end of the book also had tons of small sections of things, and it almost felt like I was listening to a dictionary definition of that specific topic. The sections had a tiny story and then the next section began, and it sort of felt like filler because she needed more pages to get the book published.
Overall, I enjoyed it. It wasn't the greatest biography I've read but the experience of listening to the author read her own biography has left me wanting more and I have already picked up another. So thanks for that, Anna.
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