“An honest look at being a woman in midlife, offering fellow women a blueprint for aging into loving oneself.” — USA Today
“This thoughtful, bighearted book is sure to be a hit with Bertinelli fans and those with an appetite for stories of hard-won self-acceptance. A warmly intimate memoir.” — Kirkus Reviews
“In a series of brutally frank essays, Bertinelli looks back on the emotional struggles and triumphs of her life. By turns raw and inspiring, this contains a little bit of wisdom for everyone.” — Publishers Weekly
★ 11/29/2021
In a series of brutally frank essays, Bertinelli (Losing It), host of the Food Network show Valerie’s Home Cooking, looks back on the emotional struggles and triumphs of her life. Sharing her “efforts to, at sixty-one years old, set aside the land mines of denial, negativity, and self-hate” that she cultivated during her decades-long acting career, she contends with her weight gain after losing 50 pounds and posing on the cover of People Magazine in a bikini (“I was happy that day although I almost fainted on the set”); conveys her deep grief around the death of her ex-husband Eddie Van Halen, who died from cancer in October 2020; and revels in her joy at winning two Emmy Awards for her TV show. She doesn’t mince words when speaking of her body image issues, the challenges she faced as an actor (“the process made me anxious”), or how she overcame her shortcomings and learned to accept her appearance (“whether I was a size two, an eight, or a twelve, I was still me”). As Bertinelli works through her pain, she offers rewards in the form of sumptuous recipes—including, notably, her spinach-crab dip, her mother’s unbeatable lasagna, and Sicilian Chocolate Love Cake. By turns raw and inspiring, this contains a little bit of wisdom for everyone. (Jan.)
06/01/2022
From her sparkling introduction to the closing credits, actress Bertinelli lays down the highs and lows of her recent life and explains how she got to this point in time, where she seems to have found the inner peace that she has long sought. This listening experience is like a one-sided, intimate conversation between friends, with a few recipes sprinkled in for good measure. The use of stream of consciousness to tell her story results in passages jumping back and forth in time. While this may have worked well in a book, it results in duplication of phrases of anecdotes within her narrative—enough duplication that listeners may wonder if the repetition is a production error. Bertinelli infuses a wide range of emotions into her reading, as the perky actress swings from cheery and bright with occasional chuckles when talking about love and kindness to a dark, profound feeling of sadness when recalling the loss of her parents and beloved ex-husband to the surprising wonder and joy in the peace she has found within herself after turning 60. VERDICT Many will relate to Bertinelli's story and applaud her honesty.—Stephanie Bange
08/01/2021
In I Came All This Way To Meet You, New York Times best-selling author Attenberg explains that as the daughter of a traveling salesman she came by her wanderlust naturally and shows how reflecting on her early years during her travels led her to writing—and particularly her theme of troubled families (75,000-copy first printing). Award-winning actress and Food Network star Bertinelli follows up her No. 1 New York Times best-selling memoir Losing It with inspiration as she turns 60 in Enough Already (100,000-copy first printing). In High-Risk hom*osexual, a memoir ranging from funny (a baby speaking an ancient Jesuit language) to heartbreaking (the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando), Gomez explains how he came to embrace his gay, Latinx identity within a culture of machismo. In This Boy We Made, Harris relates her efforts to determine what is suddenly wrong with her bouncy 22-month-old boy in a system frequently inhospitable to Black mothers and her discovery when meeting with a geneticist that she has medical issues of her own. In Admissions, James relates the complications of being a diversity recruiter for select, largely white prep schools after attending The Taft School as its first Black legacy student. Attorney, podcaster, and Extra correspondent Lindsay discusses growing up in Dallas, TX; her career in law; and why she chose to be the first Black Bachelorette on The Bachelor in Miss Me with That. Miller reveals how he made the Jump, taking Nike's Jordan Brand from a relatively modest $150 million sneaker producer to a $4.5 billion worldwide footwear and apparel phenomenon while also recalling his teenage jailtime and the nightmares from which he still suffers and arguing for criminal justice reform and greater educational opportunities for the currently or formerly imprisoned. After her mother, actress Roseanne Barr, moved the family to celebrity-soaked Hollywood from working-class Denver, using personal details from their lives there for her sitcom's storylines, the teenaged Pentland endured anxiety and eating issues and various 1980s-sanctioned self-help interventions while muttering to herself This Will Be Funny Later (evidently proved here). In Lost & Found, the Pulitzer Prize-winning New Yorker staffer Schulz explores the bittersweet reality of meeting the woman she would marry just 18 months before losing her father. Readers Rise with Vonn as she earns 82 World Cup wins, 20 World Cup titles, seven World Championship medals, and three Olympic medals to become one of the top women ski racers of all time. Raised in Albania, the last Communist country in Europe, where the final tumble of Stalin's and Hoxha's statues soon led to economic chaos, political violence, and the flight of the disillusioned, Ypi has earned the right more than most to ponder what it means to be Free.
Actor Valerie Bertinelli gives an affecting narration of her heartfelt memoir about love, family, grief, and food. In a warm, conversational tone, she urges listeners to be more intentional about finding joy in their lives. She is a delightful storyteller as she shares anecdotes about her television work, including her recent projects for The Food Network, as well as remembrances of cooking Italian recipes with her family and Indonesian dishes with her former mother-in-law. Best of all is her pride in her son, Wolfgang, and her affection for her late husband, musician Eddie Van Halen. The care this couple displayed for each other, even after their divorce, will inspire listeners to find the best in others. A rewarding listen. M.J. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
Actor Valerie Bertinelli gives an affecting narration of her heartfelt memoir about love, family, grief, and food. In a warm, conversational tone, she urges listeners to be more intentional about finding joy in their lives. She is a delightful storyteller as she shares anecdotes about her television work, including her recent projects for The Food Network, as well as remembrances of cooking Italian recipes with her family and Indonesian dishes with her former mother-in-law. Best of all is her pride in her son, Wolfgang, and her affection for her late husband, musician Eddie Van Halen. The care this couple displayed for each other, even after their divorce, will inspire listeners to find the best in others. A rewarding listen. M.J. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
2021-11-24
The actor and Food Network host dishes up delightful recipes as she reflects on how she learned to see beyond a troubled self-image and embrace joy.Bertinelli (b. 1960) seemed to live a charmed life throughout her adolescence and early adulthood. Catapulted to fame as a teenager in the 1970s sitcom One Day at a Time, she went on to win two Golden Globe Awards and marry her rocker “soulmate,” Eddie Van Halen. But her early TV successes did not bring about the movie career she desired, and her husband became a substance abuser whose volatility led a reluctant Bertinelli to file for divorce. These “currents of unhappiness, sadness, and discontent” caused her to struggle with her weight and, later, to take on work as a spokesperson for Jenny Craig. This decision, which Bertinelli thought would fix her problems, instead put her in an “all-or-nothing situation where the stakes were not only disappointment but also public shame and humiliation if I didn’t reach my goal, to say nothing of the devastation that this would cause privately.” Reflecting on her choices, the author realized that her poor body image was the result of growing up with parents who did not express personal pain and a mother who “ended up on a lifelong diet because she ate her feelings instead of working to understand them.” Ultimately, however, food allowed Bertinelli to redefine her life. A trip to Italy led to the publication of a cookbook, two popular cooking shows, and release from the self-isolating “dieting mindset” that had imprisoned her. The author now understands food as the thing that brings friends and family together even during dark times—e.g., the pandemic lockdowns or the final months of her beloved ex-husband’s battle with cancer. Interspersed throughout with the author’s favorite recipes, this thoughtful, bighearted book is sure to be a hit with Bertinelli fans and those with an appetite for stories of hard-won self-acceptance.
A warmly intimate memoir.
