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Summary: Hollis Gillespie is talented beyond all mortal boundaries
Review: The title and the author photo spurred me to buy this book (that should tell you something about me) without knowing anything about Ms. Gilespie or her work. Thank God I did because I don't know when I've enjoyed a book more.
Ms. Gillespie reminds me of David Sedaris in that she has an interesting past, an engaging and very funny sensibility, and each story brilliantly blends an undercurrent of sweetness and poignancy with the humor. I think Sedaris fans will like Hollis' work as well.
Gillespie is a genius at being authentic and funny and with tying together Life's insanity and beauty. If all this makes the book sound mawkish then I'm being misleading because while I was moved, mostly I was vastly entertained. I even laughed out loud in parts which I promise you I NEVER do.
I worship you Hollis!
So buy the book already!
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Summary: Hollis Gillespie has star power, sex appeal and tennis legs.
Review: This book awakens something inside of me, something I can't put my finger on, but I know it's a good thing. I couldn't put the book down not even when I was wetting my pants... Hollis has the the wit of Lucile Ball, and legs like Ann Miller. What a lovely combination. I think this book would make for a zanny movie and I think the part of Daniel should be played by Jude Law, Grant should be played by RuPaul and Lary by the guy who played Krammer.....and Hollis should be played by Laura Dern.....How does that sound?
Thanks for an excellent read Hollis Gillespie....
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Summary: Poignant and Wickedly Funny!
Review: This book had me gasping and saying, "How horrible!" Then cackling with delight. Hollis Gillespie is brilliantly talented. She had me laughing one minute, and brought a tear to my eye the next. I hated to put it down. A very entertaining read.
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Summary: Had me laughing out loud!
Review: This book was a real page turner! This collection of randomly assorted personal accounts by the author, really allows its reader to say to oneself, "I'm not so weird after all." Her collection of strange obsessions and proclamations makes even the most insecure freak, feel right at home. The term "freak", in a GOOD way. This book also emphasizes the value of the various human connections we make throughout our lives. The assorted adventures the author described sharing with her compadres throughout her book is almost envious. A definitely, highly recommended read.
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Summary: a comic tragedy
Review: This important writing by hollis gillespie made me laugh, it made me cry, it made me love her, it made me hate her. The book is almost too real, a little close to home, like sharing her diary with the world to see. Hollis has obviously been influenced greatly by her mother and her father, in all the best and worst kinds of ways. Her friends are delightfully real as well. I feel as if i know lary, daniel, and grant. Secretly, hollis is in love with grant. She has taken that forbidden step into "not caring" which is the door through which greatness is reached while still carrying with her an intense sense of heart and soul. This is a must read for anyone who has ever dreamed of living life to it's fullest, who has ever dared to take a leap into joy and wonder. If you are one who has decided to live as if there is no tomorrow, read this before you go...you will get a glimpse of boundless eternity.
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Summary: A Jolly Good Read!!
Review: This thankfully honest and descriptive book is hilarious and touching. I cramped up my laugh muscles on the story about Hollis getting saved every Sunday in church until finally one of the little church ladies decided to tell her she was saved enough times her Òsoul would be all right.Ó ItÕs a joy to find a book that can take the dark tough subjects and hang them out like sunny clean laundry!
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Summary: Bleachy-Haired Honky (...)
Review: Unapologetic bleached-blond flight attendant (I can just imagine her sassy repartee as she holds the mic on a plane that's just come down to a bouncy landing in SFO - does she work for Southwest?) and NPR commentator Gillespie dishes up to readers much more than "coffee, tea, or milk." She delivers humor, one-liner after one-liner, cameos of an assortment of her outrageous friends of all possible sexual genders, and chronicles of her lifetime of hilarity.
Some refer to this book as a memoir, but I can't see how anyone could make that label stick. There's no through line, no sense of logical progression from beginning to end, no real character growth. Gillespie is Gillespie at the beginning, and she's the same Gillespie at the end of this 279-page ride - but still, it's a fun ride.
This is a perfect book to leave on the bathroom counter for a few days. The chapters are short, short, short, probably designed to be read aloud on a quickie NPR spot of 2-3 minutes duration. Each is complete within itself, so it's easy to put the book down at chapter's end. The next time you pick it up, you'll probably flip through and begin reading at a different section altogether.
This totally irreverent (the title might give you a clue that the author is not a disciple of the religion of Political Correctness), raunchy, bawdy, silly, over-the-top collection of essay-ettes provides lots of giggles and a few moments of honest epiphany.
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Summary: Bleached Blonde White Woman Runs Riot
Review: We all know someone like the author, Hollis Gillespie. Outrageous, hilarious, living life to the fullest, ignorant of house cleaning behaviours, and more to the point someone who would be such a good friend! Hollis has depicted her life in a series of vignettes searching for a home to buy in Atlanta.
Hollis found the title of her book one day when she was driving, and almost ran over a man she didn't see. He yelled at her "You Bleachy-Haired Honky Bitch!" *%$*%$ etc., and Hollis realized she had found the title of her book.Hollis tells us of her life with her parents- a father who is an alcoholic and unable to maintain a steady job. Her mother,who had wanted to become a beautician, but became a weapons designer instead. Hollis, her brother and two sisters moved with her parents from job to job all over the country. It is in this manner that Hollis developed her pysche or what she calls one. She is a little off-center, a little too cute at times. Hollis believes that one must live their life to the fullest- why go half-way, push the throttle. And that is exactly what she does. She moves to Greece to become a serious writer and has more funny and interesting experiences because she is so open to them. She used to love to drink and take a few drugs and to go to carnivals, and she did this with her friends. Daniel, Grant and Lary are a big part of this book- many of the subtle and not so subtle yarns are about these three men. Hollis is most herself it seems when she is using four letter words, and this may be off-putting if you don't understand the context. Each autobiographical tale that composes this book does not seem to follow any order- unless random order is what you are seeking. Hollis is a regular commentator on NPR's "All Things Considered" and writes a column called "Mood Swing" in an Atlanta alternative weekly. Hollis writes well, and if the articles in this book followed some sort of series I would have found it more put together. As is, the book is well done and we understand a little better how Hollis has become the original she is. Highly recommended. prisrob
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Summary: Um, this is supposed to be funny and poignant?
Review: What a load of crap this book turned out to be. It's not a complete wash out because it did make me laugh occassionally but all of these descriptions about how poignant the book is are BS. Hollis, honey, stop letting your emotional life be dictated by television. Geez, that passage about your Dad seeing you in the middle of the night dancing on the lawn and how he thought you were flying was the worst piece of dreck I've read in years. What, has writer's block forced you to crib from old scripts of "Life Goes On?" Here's a tip it would have been far more interesting if you'd bothered to delve into why your parents behaved the way they did. Who were they as people? How did they end up the way they did and consequently how did YOU end up the way you did. David Sedaris is much better at this than you are. Maybe because he's a better writer? I don't know. Simply put, you needed to work on about 4 more drafts of each of these essays before you should have even considered publication. Having said that, I'll still give you 2 stars because it did make me laugh at some points and your grasp of puncutation marks is exquisite.
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Summary: Needs editing
Review: Wow, I really didn't enjoy this book, but I guess that's what I get for judging a book by its cover. I saw the bold title, interesting jacket art and sassy author photograph and thought, cool, this should be a good read. But it wasn't long before I was actually forcing myself to finish the book, that's how bad it was. Hollis Gillespie has some good stories to tell, but they are not presented in any sort of order, and are referred to over and over. For example, before page 100, she's already repeated her friend Grant's "you gotta have vision" and "I'm the happiest man alive" speeches. She also has a handful of phrases that she overuses to an obnoxious degree, like "Jesus God!" or "crack house," as well as more tedious offerings like "a (...) the size of a sewage pipe," "wailing like a sick sea elephant," or "nothing like [etc.] to (...) up your day." She also has a bad habit of starting a chapter with a bold statement (like "I tried to poison my mother"), then slowly backpedaling to reveal a pretty innocuous event ("well, actually I just brought her a dead fish from a pond when I was 8"). The author writes in the introduction that the book is basically a collection of journal entries. A good editor could have pieced the stories together in a more chronological and meaningful manner, eliminated the repetitious storytelling, removed all the recurring phrases, and toned down the hyperbole. Hollis is a decent writer with ideas, but if she ever pitches a second book, her publisher should absolutely demand better editing. There is no shame in refinement.
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