HAVE I TOLD YOU THIS ALREADY?

The lovable actor returns with another lively set of personal essays.

Best known for her role as Lorelai Gilmore on Gilmore Girls, Graham writes with humor, authenticity, and humility. She gracefully tackles topics ranging from her first car in Los Angeles—a rusty, “1991 lime-green Honda Civic” with “a spot on the driver’s side where you could see through to the ground below”—to the nuances of talking about emotionally difficult subjects, like growing up without her mother present. Graham, the author of a novel and two previous essay collections, presents a charming and candid depiction of life as a celebrity that reminds us they are, in fact, just like us, with their own struggles, triumphs, and insecurities. Recounting one interview with a magazine journalist, she writes, “I talked about the years I spent studying acting, what it was like to leave New York, my hopes and dreams for the show. At the end, I asked her if she had gotten what she needed and she said she had, but she also seemed a little disappointed. ‘I guess—I thought you’d be funnier,’ she said.” Graham doesn’t shy away from seemingly taboo topics, including aging in Hollywood, which she discusses with her characteristic humor and warmth: “This change sneaks up on you, and like any sneak, it gives you a bit of a scare.” When discussing her early attempts to land an acting gig and her job as a Barney’s sales clerk, where she occasionally saw famous people, she is equally charming. “These…sightings,” she writes, “taught me that famous people are always much tinier and even more depressingly beautiful in person, and it seemed impossible that I’d ever go from demonstrating a family card game or recommending an appropriate level of workplace blouse sheerness to becoming one of them.” Graham’s own celebrity status feels incidental in a collection that can stand on its own wit.

Fun, candid tales of Hollywood make for entertaining reading.