What To Read

Movie awards season is hurtling towards its regularly scheduled dramatic close, Oscar Night, and if you’re like us, you’re saving Sunday, March 12, to watch the live telecast of the 95th Annual Academy Awards. We spend all year in between Oscar ceremonies watching the nominees — on screen and off — while parsing their movies and dishing on their relationships (and, this year, predicting who else might get slapped on live television).

We’re so invested, sometimes we crusade to defend our favorite actors and auteurs from social media slings and arrows. And when we’re curious enough about their lives, we pick up their memoirs. But not all celebrity memoirs shine with the charisma we cherish onscreen — if they're not dishing, we’re not giving up our hard-earned cash. So we’ve compiled our own collection of the best celebrity memoirs. From the best Hollywood tell-all books where every line seemingly trips over an A-lister, to heartbreaking stories about the costs of Hollywood success, here is a cinematic page-turner for every reader. —Erica Landau

Hello Molly! by Molly Shannon

"Parts are as plain and strong as Hemingway, with some internal monologues that are downright Joycean. Really. It’s very sad and very, very funny. Redemptive and uplifting and all those corny words." —Alexandra Jacobs, The New York Times

The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher

“Carrie Fisher doesn’t hold back on how she feels about life inside the Star Wars industrial complex.” —J. D. Biersdorfer, via The New York Times

Finding Me by Viola Davis

"The book that made Viola Davis an EGOT winner is one of the more vulnerable celebrity accounts I’ve ever read. I generally don’t use this word, but the amount this woman overcame is inspirational." —Barbara VanDenburgh, via Twitter

My Life So Far by Jane Fonda

“At first you think how much more readable her book would be if an editor had chopped out large chunks of ponderous psychic burrowing. But then you realize it all has to be in there, in her own voice. Otherwise, you wouldn't appreciate what a broken doll Jane Fonda is, how achingly poignant her story is and how much she's accomplished despite hideously dysfunctional parents who left her unable to comprehend or savor how smart and talented and pretty she was.” —Maureen Dowd, via The New York Times

Stories I Only Tell My Friends by Rob Lowe

“With a title like Stories I Only Tell My Friends, you expect dirt — you know, the good stuff. And Rob Lowe, the genial TV mainstay, whose three-decade showbiz career stretches back to Brat Pack stardom and beyond, is happy to oblige.” —Adam Markovitz, via Entertainment Weekly

Brave by Rose McGowan

“Today I finished #Brave by @rosemcgowan. A truly powerful transformative read. Thank you for sharing your strength your passion & pain. I urge everyone to read it. Especially fellow men. Think, question and challenge. Change starts with us. We can do better. We must.” —Sam Gibbins, via Twitter

A Story Lately Told (2013) and Watch Me (2014) by Anjelica Huston

"The first volume of Anjelica Huston’s memoir, published last year, was notable for being a celebrity memoir with barely any celebrity in it … It was a well-written book, in an understated, matter-of-fact kind of way, and got some nice reviews. But we were all secretly waiting for volume two and the appearance of Jack Nicholson, Huston’s on-off lover for 17 years. And now — rejoice! — here it is. Watch Me is jam-packed with celebrities. In fact, it’s nigh-on impossible to get to the end of a sentence without having tripped over a roster of A-list names." —Elizabeth Day, via The Guardian

Me: Stories of My Life by Katharine Hepburn

“Hepburn’s writing falls between showbiz gossip and purple prose … What mercifully pulls all this together is the theme of ego — Hepburn’s inner “me” who can finally speak, now that her body is frail. She is very candid about her ambition and narcissism, and her constant, prickly need for reassurance. In the very touching chapter entitled “Voice”, she recounts her vain, lifelong dream to be a singer. Of her movie roles, she self-mockingly remarks: “Naturally, I’m adorable in all of them." —Adrian Martin, via filmcritic.com.au

Out of the Corner by Jennifer Grey

“She takes us on a wild ride through her star-studded youth (belting show tunes with Stephen Sondheim), her star-studded coke binges, and her many bad romances, featuring Johnny Depp, Matthew Broderick and a creepy zillionaire who flew the teenage Grey to Rio, where she tumbled into a bizarro situation involving her comic idol Gilda Radner.” —Sarah L. Kaufman via Washington Post

Public Places by Siân Phillips

"[Phillips is] an outstanding writer. Public Places, the second volume of her autobiography, published this week, deals with her 20-year marriage to O'Toole. At times, the book romps along like a romantic novel — 'I could no more resist him than stop breathing' — at others, it reads like a feminist tract, an object lesson in how not to ruin your life." via The Guardian

The Kid Stays in the Picture by Robert Evans

"Now Mr. Evans's most brazen production turns out to be his memoir, a boastful, name-dropping account of high and low times in the limelight. … The Kid Stays in the Picture is shallow, self-aggrandizing and, at crucial moments in Mr. Evans's checkered legal history, notably evasive. But don't even try to put it down." —Janet Maslin, via The New York Times

Love, Pamela by Pamela Anderson

"The most disappointing thing about Love, Pamela is that it doesn’t come in a form that can be injected directly into your veins. Anderson is a natural storyteller, which shouldn’t come as a surprise; her ability to sustain a personal narrative is what’s kept her in the public eye for going on four decades. Love, Pamela is a dazzling and occasionally dizzying ride through this period, in which vivid scenes of ’80s and ’90s decadence bump up against blind items about Russian oligarchs and brief but iconic celebrity cameos." —Jessica Pressler, via The New York Times

Hollywood memoirs for Oscars season - and beyond

As you gear up for the Academy Awards or reel in their aftermath, take a moment to experience the glitz and glamor of Hollywood through the personal lens of its stars. Whether you're interested in a good laugh, an inspirational story, or the gritty reality behind the scenes, there’s a title on this list of celebrity tell-all books that’s sure to immerse you. So, make some popcorn, settle in your favorite reading spot, and get ready to dive into the other side of Hollywood's velvet curtain with a celebrity memoir.