I am in no way putting down Ms. Spears or her book. The Woman in Me is a quick, entertaining read that, for me, unfortunately seemed to spend more time on the celebrity gossip topics and too little on the legal wranglings involved with ending her conservatorship. More often than not, we read celebrity memoirs to be entertained, and The Woman in Me definitely fits that bill.

As we all know, for every mega-hyped book, there are many excellent books that fly more under the radar. For readers looking for a celebrity memoir that is more of a full-bodied life story, or those that found The Woman in Me served to whet their appetite for even more celebrity accounts, following are six older, lesser known, or under-hyped celebrity biographies, journals, and essays that are all excellent reads.

Trejo: My Life of Crime, Redemption, and Hollywood by Danny Trejo

Recounting the truly unbelievable life that he has led, Danny Trejo takes the reader through his heroin addiction, to prison, through sobriety and recovery, and on to Hollywood in a book that is nothing short of incredible and inspirational. 

Starring in hundreds of movies and television shows (that is not an exaggeration as his IMDB listing includes over 400 roles), Trejo has become the most well known scene-stealing “bad guy” on screen. But as he makes quite clear in Trejo: My Life of Crime, Redemption, and Hollywood he is so much more than that off-screen.

The most common word used through every review of his book is “raw” and it is easy to see why as his clear and honest words take the reader from some of the lowest low’s imaginable and on to redemption and success.

Grace Notes: My Recollections by Katey Sagal

Some of Katey Sagal’s most well-known works are Married With Children, 8 Simple Rules, Futurama, and Sons of Anarchy, but she has been in dozens and dozens of roles since the early 70’s – and even that list practically ignores her music career (which you should not do!)

Grace Notes is written as a series of essays, as if she was recounting events for her friends or family, and that is exactly the voice that comes through her writing. These are most certainly not the recollections of Peggy Bundy or Gemma Teller. Sagal speaks openly and honestly about being in and around the entertainment industry for her entire life. She recounts the deaths of her parents, her very public pregnancy loss, and so many other ups and downs of life as she puts forth her struggles and successes in both her personal and professional life. This is one of those books that will stay with you long after you have finished reading.

Taste: My Life Through Food by Stanley Tucci

If you scan the reviews of Taste: My Life Through Food, the word you will see repeated over and over again is “charming”. From seeing many interviews and appearances by Stanley Tucci, that comes as no surprise.

Written as something of a companion piece to Tucci’s previously released cookbooks, Taste: My Life Through Food takes the reader behind the recipes, telling the stories of where they come from, describing the emotions and memories associated with them, and giving behind the scenes tales from some of his “foodie” movies, such as Julie & Julia and Big Night.

The role food plays in our lives in so many ways other than simple sustenance is beautifully illustrated in Tucci’s work.

Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey

In this one case, I am going to highly, highly recommend the audio version of Greenlights. Audio versions of books are always great, but this is a particularly special case. I am convinced that listening to McConaughey himself tell you these stories in his slow Southern drawl is simply a different experience that you just can not get by reading the book yourself. (On the other hand, however, there are family and childhood pictures in the physical book that you miss out on with the audio).

An unusual combination of a memoir and a guidebook, Greenlights is a thoroughly enjoyable read, but it also contains some nuggets of wisdom that it’s safe to say everyone needs to hear!

I Was Better Last Night by Harvey Fierstein

There is a chance you might not know his name, but I can almost guarantee that you know his incredibly unique voice. A Tony-award winning actor and playwright, he has spent decades on stage and screen, and in I Was Better Last Night, Fierstein opens up about everything: sex, romance, excesses, addictions, conflicts, and ultimately wisdom and success.

At times hilarious, and at times heart-breaking, Fierstein’s memoir is thoroughly entertaining, but also thought-provoking as societal and cultural shortfalls and changes (particularly regarding the gay community) are laid bare.

Finding Me by Viola Davis

I am not sure if I can call Viola Davis’s Finding Me under-hyped, as it was an Oprah’s Book Club pick (so it clearly received some degree of attention). But it can never receive enough attention, in my opinion.

This powerful, inspirational story will grab hold of you from the very first written words, and simply will not let go. This truly unflinching look at the life of a woman who has clawed her way out of tragic, traumatic beginnings and has fought to find her purpose, self-love, and acceptance with a ferocity that jumps right off of the page.

You will find the word “masterpiece” used frequently in reviews of this book, and having read this, you will almost certainly have to agree with that description.

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The concept of Greenlights, and the origin of the title, is that greenlights tell us to continue along our path, both in traffic as well as in life. We like finding a greenlight, though we recognise finding a greenlight is a combination of both skill and luck. McConaughey also talks about how sometimes we come to red lights or yellow lights, but these can ultimately become greenlights. It may be a matter of timing, perhaps we needed our attention drawn to something before we proceed, or maybe even a bit of a detour. The idea though, is to look at how we see challenges in life, and how we respond to them, because that is up to the individual and that has everything to do with the outcome we get.

Using this concept, McConaughey looks back over his first 50 years and illustrates how some of his red lights turned green and how he has always kept his eyes open for the next green light. There are journal entries, poems written in junior high, and bumper sticker slogans throughout, but this is primarily a memoir full of engaging stories.

From his early home life with parents who divorced each other twice and married each other three times, to the chance meeting in a bar that led to his first role (as Wooderson in Dazed and Confused), his explosion into stardom following the release of A Time To Kill, the Rom-Com era he fell into, to his resurgence in popularity with projects like True Detective and Dallas Buyers Club that culminated in his Best Actor Oscar, we learn what else was going on in his life and in his mind, and how he coped with, and at times even orchestrated, the various highs and lows. Much of his personal life is also examined, from the lows, such as the infamous arrest in Austin, Texas when he was naked and playing the bongo drums, to the highs of meeting his wife and the births of each of their children. The reader gets the sense throughout that this is a man who has truly opened up about what he has learned in his time on this planet.

The physical book has photographs that obviously someone listening to the audio version will not see. With the audio version, McConaughey tells these stories with the charisma of Buster Moon (Sing), the sincerity of Jake Brigance (A Time to Kill), and on occasion the philosophical melancholy of Rustin Cohle (True Detective). But there is undoubtedly a “feel good” quality to the entire book. In the world we are living in today, this is just the right book to sit down with, and exhale.

Greenlights is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore.

Will you be picking up Greenlights? Tell us in the comments below!

Synopsis | Goodreads

From the Academy Award®–winning actor, an unconventional memoir filled with raucous stories, outlaw wisdom, and lessons learned the hard way about living with greater satisfaction

I’ve been in this life for fifty years, been trying to work out its riddle for forty-two, and been keeping diaries of clues to that riddle for the last thirty-five. Notes about successes and failures, joys and sorrows, things that made me marvel, and things that made me laugh out loud. How to be fair. How to have less stress. How to have fun. How to hurt people less. How to get hurt less. How to be a good man. How to have meaning in life. How to be more me.

Recently, I worked up the courage to sit down with those diaries. I found stories I experienced, lessons I learned and forgot, poems, prayers, prescriptions, beliefs about what matters, some great photographs, and a whole bunch of bumper stickers. I found a reliable theme, an approach to living that gave me more satisfaction, at the time, and still: If you know how, and when, to deal with life’s challenges—how to get relative with the inevitable—you can enjoy a state of success I call “catching greenlights.”

So I took a one-way ticket to the desert and wrote this book: an album, a record, a story of my life so far. This is fifty years of my sights and seens, felts and figured-outs, cools and shamefuls. Graces, truths, and beauties of brutality. Getting away withs, getting caughts, and getting wets while trying to dance between the raindrops.

Hopefully, it’s medicine that tastes good, a couple of aspirin instead of the infirmary, a spaceship to Mars without needing your pilot’s license, going to church without having to be born again, and laughing through the tears.

It’s a love letter. To life.

It’s also a guide to catching more greenlights—and to realizing that the yellows and reds eventually turn green too.

Good luck.

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For thousands of generations, the Gunslingers were knights. Sworn to protect us from the coming of the dark.

After much anticipation, the first trailer for the adaption of Stephen King‘s The Dark Tower has arrived and it’s packed full of mystery, fantasy and guns aplenty!

Based on the best-selling series, the film follows the last Gunslinger, Roland Deschain (Idris Elba), who has been locked in an eternal battle with Walter O’Dim, also known as the Man in Black (Matthew McConaughey). Roland is determined to prevent him from topping the Dark Tower, which holds the universe together. With the fate of the worlds at stake, including Earth, good and evil will collide in the ultimate battle as only Roland can defend the Tower from the Man in Black.

Fans of the series have been anxiously awaiting the trailer as only a few stills and a teaser have been published and now only four months remain until the film is released. The Dark Tower has already faced a long road with the film originally being developed by JJ Abrams until Ron Howard took over in 2010. Yes, 2010. It was then announced in 2015 that Nikolaj Arcel would direct the film with a 2016 release date, however, Sony pushed back the release date twice.

It is said the film will be both an adaption and a sequel to the eight-novel book series, so we could be in for a movie franchise if all goes well. Who knows though, it could end up being another seven years until we get a sequel!

Starring Idris Elba (Thor), Matthew McConaughey (Dallas Buyers Club), Katheryn Winnick (Vikings), Abbey Lee (Mad Max: Fury Road) and Tom Taylor. The Dark Tower hits cinemas in August.

What did you think of the trailer? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

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