My Favorite Autobiographies of 2022

 

    On October 24, 2022, the world lost a giant, even though he only stood 4' 11". Leslie Jordan was an absolute joy to watch in everything he did as an actor and performer, and, by all accounts, he was an absolute joy to everyone who ever worked with him or spent any time around him. We listened to his most recent autobiography, How Y'all Doing? this year and his first book My Trip Down the Pink Carpet last year, and we enjoyed every second of it. I highly recommend the audio versions with Leslie narrating.

    Penny Marshall's autobiography, My Mother Was Nuts, was originally published in 2012, and it's another audiobook must - I mean, how could you not want to listen to Penny Marshall tell her own story. And who knew that Laverne Defazio was the Queen of the entertainment world? Be prepared for lots and lots of namedropping, but it's not just namedropping. These are real stories, real truths, about herself and her friendships and relationships. (Did you know she dated Art Garfunkel?) It was a very fun listen.

    Mel Brooks is an absolute national treasure, and it will be a dark day when he passes. We also listened to his autobiography, All About Me. Not surprisingly, the book is kind of a frantic ride through his professional career, with each chapter  basically dedicated to a particular work or job, and it is much heavier Mel's professional life than his personal live, but that's OK. If you're a fan of Mel Brooks' work, there is so much to learn here.

    One theme that runs through all these books is friendship. All of these people were (are) fantastic friends and loyal forever. They all believed in helping their friends whenever and however they could, and their friends, returned their love and loyalty.  

    Essayist and humorist David Sedaris returned to top form this year with his release of Happy Go Lucky. I've always been a huge fan of Sedaris, but I honestly haven't loved his last few books. Happy Go Lucky is a return to his best. While he may not be everybody's cup of tea, and his stories about his and his family's weirdness to the nth degree may seem unbelievable, or at least a little exaggerated, his stories are always funny, tragic, insightful, provocative, and evocative all at the same time. In this book, he really focuses on his father who died recently in his late 90s. This is another author who was made for audiobooks.

    Let's go a little more historical for the last recommendation, An Englishman in the Seminole War. John Bemrose arrived in America, alone at the age of 16, in 1831. He found himself headed south to the wilds of Florida and enlisted in the Second Seminole War. In the 1860s, he wrote a series of letters to his son in which he recounted his life in service. They are full of detail about battles and personalities in the war. The letters were kind of forgotten until his great grandson rediscovered them and edited them to create this book. It's a great memoir of a period and events which most Americans know little of. Randal Agostini did an excellent job of editing and transcribing the letters; it reads well.