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Yahoo
02-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Celebrities tell all about aging, marriage and Beyoncé in these 10 bingeable memoirs
Hot weather is the perfect season for some hot gossip. Don't forget a juicy celebrity memoir in your beach bag this summer – there's nothing like a little industry drama to keep you company in the sand. Or, if nonfiction isn't your thing, check out some of the fiction titles on our summer most anticipated list. This year has seen plenty of binge-worthy new memoirs, like Jeremy Renner's retelling of his near-fatal snowplow accident, Brooke Shields' meditations on aging and Joan Didion's previously unpublished diary entries while in therapy. This list has something for everyone, with never-before-seen stories from Hollywood A-listers to content creators to sports icons. Brooke Shields' latest memoir is a vulnerable conversation about aging and womanhood. In 'Brooke Shields Is Not Allowed to Get Old,' she argues that we need to destigmatize menopause and increase options for women who 'suffer in silence,' like hormone therapy and intervention. Her memoir touches on motherhood, friendship in middle adulthood, ambition and medical discrimination, including a nonconsensual surgery she experienced. Christie Brinkley's memoir packs in a lot, from her early modeling days to her romance with Billy Joel to her survival of a helicopter crash in 1994 and finding out her ex-husband Peter Cook cheated on her with an 18-year-old. Come for the charming story behind the song 'Uptown Girl,' and stay for an intimate look at Brinkley's passions and career. 'Matriarch' gives an inside look into the life of the businesswoman, designer and mother of Beyoncé and Solange Knowles. Tina Knowles shares her battle with breast cancer, the ups and downs of her marriage, discovering Beyoncé's talent and the early days of the 'Cowboy Carter' singer's relationship with Jay-Z. 'The Next Day: Transitions, Changes and Moving Forward' feels like 'a walk with a smart friend, one who takes counsel and shares hard-won advice,' USA TODAY's Laura Trujillo writes. Melinda French Gates takes readers through the transition period after her 27-year marriage to Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates ended, also touching on motherhood, guilt and childhood heroes. The actress and content creator's debut memoir gives readers a more intimate glimpse behind her 'Days of Girlhood' social media series and transition. Dylan Mulvaney unpacks the transphobia, backlash, acceptance and, ultimately, joy in this reflection of her pre- and post-transition life. 'We All Want to Change the World' is Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's 20th book, and it looks back on America's protest movements through the years, from free speech and civil rights to Black Lives Matter. Read for an intimate look at Abdul-Jabbar's first-hand activism experience, including when he met Martin Luther King Jr. Perfect for Hollywood gossip lovers, this memoir from the former head of Vanity Fair has plenty of name drops and insider lore. Among the biggest revelations are the story of how the Oscars' afterparty 'institution' was born and how disgraced film producer Harvey Weinstein got banned from it. If you loved 'The L Word,' check out this memoir from the actors who played Shane and Alice. In 'So Gay for You,' Hailey and Moennig write about their early auditioning days and time on the show, bringing readers into their lasting friendship and what it was like to be the faces of lesbian culture in the early 2000s. You've seen her on "Survivor" and "The Traitors,' but now reality show star Parvati Shallow reveals more about her real life. Before she won a million dollars at 25 after winning "Survivor," she grew up in a Florida commune run by a tyrannical female guru. She's endured the death of her brother, a divorce and public scrutiny. In her memoir, she aims to show readers how she rebuilt her life through radical self-acceptance and self-love. Christine Brown Woolley became famous as the third wife of polygamist Kody Brown on TLC's show "Sister Wives." In this candid tell-all, she reveals how her journey from the child of practicing polygamists in Utah, to reality TV to a new life away from polygamy and the world she once knew. Clare Mulroy is USA TODAY's Books Reporter, where she covers buzzy releases, chats with authors and dives into the culture of reading. Find her on Instagram, subscribe to our weekly Books newsletter or tell her what you're reading at cmulroy@ This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Beyonce's mom, Brooke Shields, best celebrity memoirs to read now
USA Today
15-04-2025
- Entertainment
- USA Today
Melinda French Gates talks fear, freedom of divorce: 'You need separation to make sense'
Melinda French Gates talks fear, freedom of divorce: 'You need separation to make sense' Show Caption Hide Caption USA TODAY's Women of the Year honoree Melinda French Gates won't wait for equality Global advocate and philanthropist Melinda French Gates has spent years serving others but credits her earliest role models for where she is today. USA TODAY On letting go: 'It isn't necessarily easy. We like comfort. We like routine. But it makes space for something else I might not know yet." On aging: 'We used to think of women in that they got to a certain age and they are over the hill or something … but we have so much wisdom in this age.' On parenting: 'I finally learned the good enough parent, I always had this concept of this perfect parent. But the perfect parent is a myth." On Mom guilt: "I learned rupture and repair. Even times I make mistakes, I have to take responsibility for them." When Melinda French Gates shares a story, she makes you feel like a best friend is letting you in on a secret. Her new book, 'The Next Day: Transitions, Changes and Moving Forward,' (Flatiron, 176 pp. out now) isn't so much a memoir or an advice book, but what feels like a walk with a smart friend, one who takes counsel and shares hard-won advice. She also doesn't feel the need to tidy it all up or offer all the answers. 'I wrote this in the middle,' she tells USA TODAY in a call from her office outside Seattle. 'I've gone through some difficult times, and rather than writing safely from the other side, I wanted to write about when you are in those transitions.' Her book tells stories from what she calls the hardest decision of her life: The end of her 27-year marriage to Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates. It also covers leaving for college, motherhood and guilt, her departure from the Gates Foundation last year, and why Alexis Carrington from 'Dynasty' was a childhood role model. The book is honest but doesn't feel confessional. It isn't a tell-all. She shares without oversharing. And she shares with the intent of helping. It's the perfect book club book. French Gates is a philanthropist, businesswoman and advocate for women and girls. In 2019, she committed $1 billion over 10 years to expand women's power and influence. Last May, French Gates announced that as the first step in the next chapter of her philanthropy, she is committing an additional $1 billion through 2026 to advance women's power globally. Her three children are now grown and she is a grandmother to two. And at 60, she says, she's still in transition – and that's exciting. 'Even on your darkest and hardest days, even when it's scary or it feels horrible, there will be a better time. There will be a time when I will look back at this, and there must be something in here that will be beautiful,' she says. 'Maybe I'm learning something. I try to say to myself now in the uncomfortable transitions, 'It's good to be uncomfortable.' I have been through this before. I've been through change, not this kind of change. But I was better last time when I came out the other side.' In life's challenges, there are women who say "I had to go through it, so you should too," and there are women who say, "I had to go through it, so I'll work to make sure you don't." In her new book, French Gates shows she clearly is the latter. She hopes the book is helpful. The thrill, she says, is in hearing what happens after she writes her books. 'The Moment of Lift: How Empowering Women Changes the World,' published in 2019, spawned a series of books sharing more stories of inspiring women. She seems genuinely excited when told that her last book inspired a nonprofit that helps girls graduate from high school in Guatemala to add more education about family planning and contraception. 'I love this,' she says. 'You never know how you inspire something when you put a book in the world.' While at first 'The Next Day' might feel geared toward women in midlife transitions, it actually started as the 2024 Stanford University commencement speech. 'Life comes along, it happens to you and things change,' she says. "There is a lot of beauty and lessons we can learn when the change comes and when transitions happen. I thought, 'I've been through a fair number of transitions now. I'll take the speech and be much more specific.' ' The book feels as applicable to new graduates as it does to someone looking for a mid-career change. It feels both personal and universal. And once again, French Gates is eager to hear from readers: 'I hope you'll let me know in a year what comes from this." She also shares stories from her childhood that illustrate both her resilience and her ambition. One came from what might seem an unlikely source: Alexis Carrington. French Gates grew up in Dallas, where she remembers watching evening soap operas 'Dynasty' and 'Dallas,' which aired back-to-back. 'Alexis Carrington was a flawed character. She had sharp elbows. She was ruthless. But I liked that she was a business woman in a man's world. There weren't that many female characters who were business women on TV,' she says. 'She was also a mom, but what I liked about her was the other women would get dressed up for dinner, and their clothes were beautiful, but she was out in the real world every day. She was competing. I thought it was the coolest thing ever. And I thought, 'I want to be a working woman like her.' ' Now it's her friends who inspire her, many she's known for more than two decades. 'Every Monday morning, whoever is in town, we walk. They have been like truth counsel over time. If I was afraid to take something to them Monday morning, I had to ask myself what is it about my values or what I did that made me uncomfortable with doing that,' she says. She writes of some of those personal moments in the book, including the loss of her friend John Neilson, whose wife Emmy is a close friend. All proceeds from the book will support computer science education in honor of her parents and immunotherapy cancer research in memory of Neilson. 'I think I helped carry her to the other side of her grief. … (Emmy) is one of the people who helped me cross the chasm of my grief when I made the very difficult decision that I needed to leave my marriage,' she says. 'There is a vulnerability in deep, deep friends of being known. The fact that you can be known by them and still be loved and still be OK even in some of your worst moments.' While her ex-husband has talked more extensively about their divorce, calling it his biggest regret, French Gates has been more introspective and quiet. She knew she needed to address it in the book, not only because the divorce was very public but because it has shaped her. 'I put it from my perspective of what was helpful to me, in hopes to be helpful to others going through it,' she says. She writes more about the decision to leave her marriage than the divorce itself. 'There was a whisper that kept coming. I knew things weren't right… When more things and more came up or came to light later, in my case, I would have liked to have turned away from them. It would have been easier, it would have been convenient,' she says. 'But there was just this whisper there. This is not OK. I knew at some point in the deep place that I would be betraying myself if I didn't at least pay attention to that whisper. What the whisper was saying to me was you need separation to make sense.' She writes of the fear of telling her parents, who had been married 63 years, the panic attack when she thought about how "Bill has a reputation for being one of the toughest negotiators in the world." And she writes of curling up in bed with her youngest daughter Phoebe when the news broke, and how they looked at memes and "laughed a little, but I wasn't really in a celebratory mood." She writes about sharing her story with journalist Gayle King as a lesson for others to listen to their inner voice. Now, she looks forward to continuing her work for equality and pushing for women to step into their full power. 'I never thought that when I got to 60 that I'd be so vibrant and wanting to work so much and wanting to take on new things,' she says. 'It's actually really, really exciting.' And, mostly, she says, to take the time in these changing times, to not be in a rush. 'Make yourself pause and see the clearing. What is it I really want to do next?' she says. 'We have to be purposeful enough to let the pause come and not be afraid of it to rush to the other side.'
