Title: Talking As Fast As I Can
Author: Lauren Graham
Publication Date: Nov. 29, 2016
Find: Amazon | Goodreads
Other Books by Author: Someday, Someday, Maybe
In this collection of personal essays, the beloved star of Gilmore Girls and Parenthood reveals stories about life, love, and working as a woman in Hollywood—along with behind-the-scenes dispatches from the set of the new Gilmore Girls, where she plays the fast-talking Lorelai Gilmore once again.
In Talking as Fast as I Can, Lauren Graham hits pause for a moment and looks back on her life, sharing laugh-out-loud stories about growing up, starting out as an actress, and, years later, sitting in her trailer on the Parenthood set and asking herself, “Did you, um, make it?” She opens up about the challenges of being single in Hollywood (“Strangers were worried about me; that’s how long I was single!”), the time she was asked to audition her butt for a role, and her experience being a judge on Project Runway (“It’s like I had a fashion-induced blackout”).
In “What It Was Like, Part One,” Graham sits down for an epic Gilmore Girls marathon and reflects on being cast as the fast-talking Lorelai Gilmore. The essay “What It Was Like, Part Two” reveals how it felt to pick up the role again nine years later, and what doing so has meant to her.
Some more things you will learn about Lauren: She once tried to go vegan just to bond with Ellen DeGeneres, she’s aware that meeting guys at awards shows has its pitfalls (“If you’re meeting someone for the first time after three hours of hair, makeup, and styling, you’ve already set the bar too high”), and she’s a card-carrying REI shopper (“My bungee cords now earn points!”).
Including photos and excerpts from the diary Graham kept during the filming of the recent Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life, this book is like a cozy night in, catching up with your best friend, laughing and swapping stories, and—of course—talking as fast as you can.
An American actress, producer, and debut novelist best known for playing Lorelai Gilmore on Gilmore Girls and Sarah Braverman on Parenthood.
Graham’s debut novel, Someday, Someday, Maybe is a work based on a fictionalization of her experiences in the New York acting scene in the mid-1990s.In May 2013, the book entered the New York Times best seller list.
Graham signed a deal with Warner Bros. Television and Ellen DeGeneres’ production company A Very Good Production to adapt it into a TV series. The script will be written by her.
Knowing that I already love Girlmore Girls as much as I do, I knew that Talking As Fast As I Can would be an enjoyable read for me.
I haven’t read many autobiographies because I tend to get bored with them easily. But, Lauren Graham is just as funny without as a script as she is with one. This leads me to believe that her two favorite characters of mine–Sarah Braverman of Parenthood and Lorelai Gilmore of Gilmore Girls–have as much of Lauren Graham as I assumed they did.
I could almost hear Graham’s voice inflections as she jokes and reminisces about her time on Gilmore Girls. It was a lot like getting an extra episode of my favorite show.
There was more to Talking As Fast As I Can, however. I enjoyed the peak into Graham’s past as she shares her journey on how she came to be the entertainment virtuoso that she is now. I was able to laugh out loud at her hilariously endearing hiccups along the way.
I haven’t yet read her Someday, Someday, Maybe. Even knowing that it’s not a biographical look at Graham’s life, I’m eager to read it just to get another morsel of Lauren Graham’s winning charisma.
