Description
Product Description
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
A hilarious, heartfelt, and refreshingly honest memoir by the beloved comedic actress known for her roles on Freaks and Geeks, Dawson’s Creek, and Cougar Town who has become “the breakout star of Instagram stories...Imagine I Love Lucy mixed with a modern lifestyle guru” (The New Yorker).
“You guys!! Busy is a legit writer with a voice as clear as a bell. This book is honest, funny, intimate, and well-observed by a person who has observed some sh*t.”
—Tina Fey
“Judy Blume meets Karl Ove Knausgaard meets one brave woman from Arizona. On the page, Philipps’ toughness shines through—a rare and feminine ethical code; devoted and blunt. It’s a thrill to watch her stumble right up until the very moment she storms the f*cking gates.”
—Miranda July
There’s no stopping Busy Philipps. From the time she was two and “aced out in her nudes” to explore the neighborhood (as her mom famously described her toddler jailbreak), Busy has always been headstrong, defiant, and determined not to miss out on all the fun. These qualities led her to leave Scottsdale, Arizona, at the age of nineteen to pursue her passion for acting in Hollywood. But much like her painful and painfully funny teenage years, chasing her dreams wasn’t always easy and sometimes hurt more than a little.
In this stunningly candid memoir, Busy opens up about chafing against a sexist system rife with on-set bullying and body shaming, being there when friends face shattering loss, enduring devastating personal and professional betrayals from those she loved best, and struggling with postpartum anxiety and the challenges of motherhood.
But Busy also brings to the page her sly sense of humor and the unshakeable sense that disappointment shouldn’t stand in her way—even when she’s knocked down both figuratively and literally (from a knee injury at her seventh-grade dance to a violent encounter on the set of
Freaks and Geeks). The rough patches in her life are tempered by times of hilarity and joy: leveraging a flawless impression of Cher from
Clueless into her first paid acting gig, helping reinvent a genre with cult classic
Freaks and Geeks, becoming fast friends with
Dawson’s Creek castmate Michelle Williams, staging her own surprise wedding, conquering natural childbirth with the help of a
Mad Men–themed hallucination, and more.
Busy is the rare entertainer whose impressive arsenal of talents as an actress is equally matched by her storytelling ability, sense of humor, and sharp observations about life, love, and motherhood. Her conversational writing reminds us what we love about her on screens large and small. From film to television to Instagram and now to the page, Busy delightfully showcases her wry humor and her willingness to bare it all.
“I’ve been waiting my whole life to write this book. I’m just so grateful someone asked. Otherwise, what was the point of any of it??”
Review
“You guys!! Busy is a legit writer with a voice as clear as a bell. This book is honest, funny, intimate, and well-observed by a person who has observed some sh*t.”
—Tina Fey
“Judy Blume meets Karl Ove Knausgaard meets one brave woman from Arizona. On the page, Philipps’ toughness shines through—a rare and feminine ethical code; devoted and blunt. It’s a thrill to watch her stumble right up until the very moment she storms the f*cking gates. Also: just as casually addictive as her Instastories but no guilt because it’s a book.”
—Miranda July
“If you think you know Busy from her Instagram stories, you don’t know the half of it. This book delves deeply and candidly into Busy’s life in a way that will surprise and delight you. She does not shy away from the darker stories, but she’ll make you laugh (hard) while you read them. You might not even know if the tears or from laughter or sorrow or recognition. You will see yourself in the book. You can’t help it. We are lucky to have Busy’s rigorously authentic book (personality) in