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(Penguin Random House Canada, Gotham Books, Touchstone, HarperCollins, Amazon)

Dear Squawkers,

Note from Lainey: A mailbag question from Lucie turned into a reading guide. And there’s only one person here who could have come up with it. She has a PhD in celebrity memoirs, it’s her kink. She literally squealed when she read Lucie’s message. Here’s Duana’s response, inspired by Lucie.

Question from Lucie:

What are the best actors’ and directors’ memoirs? Not just from a gossip perspective but also from a craft/business perspective?

There have been many, many pieces I’ve been proud to write, but arguably there’s none I’ve unwittingly prepared for so thoroughly, for literal years/decades. After combing through my library, I’ve determined the only possible way to structure this answer is to go by categories.

What follows is a very

non-exhaustive list of biographies or autobiographies that I have personally read and can speak to – although I know for sure there are countless others I’ve read and forgotten because of how not-memorable they turned out to be.

For the most part, these books are both well-written

and first-person written – which is to say that while there are undoubtedly very talented ghostwriters involved in some of these books (Jessica Simpson is open about hers, as is Gabrielle Union, and I’m sure there are others), many of them are authored by people who pride themselves on being writers, so they’re a good read as well as good juice.

It goes without saying that the vast majority all have non-showbiz elements and “let me include my family lore” chapters, but all are good gossip so let me rip open my diary, by which I mean my Kindle, to expose you to the categories that have gotten the most reading time…

A peek into my Kindle - celebrity edition

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