Books like My Life as a Goddess — picked by fans

I love showbiz biographies full of the inside dope on glamorous, brilliant people, because I’ve always wanted to be one of those glamorous, brilliant people. 

Mike Nichols knew everyone important in the arts, ate at the most fabulous restaurants, traveled to the most luxurious locations, and owned several grand homes. And I am pleased to report that he was frequently anxious and depressed. 

I find it very reassuring to learn that someone who has everything I’ve ever dreamed of is no happier than I am. I know that sounds a little mean, but I never claimed to be perfect.

I dare you to read this book and not belly laugh at least a half dozen times.

I love that Jenny Lawson can poke fun at herself and her relationships and do so in a way that you can’t help but cheer for her. This book may have the highest laughs per page ratio I’ve ever read.

I am a secular Jew and Anne Lamott is a church-going Christian, but I feel she is my soulmate.

She is so honest, and vulnerable, and hysterically funny that reading her work feels like listening to a good friend sharing her innermost thoughts. I gave this book to someone whose mother was dying, and she claimed that reading it helped get through that dark period.

I would love to have that kind of power as a writer: the power to change people’s lives for the better. I have secretly always wanted to run the world. After all, I couldn’t do a worse job than the jerks that are running things now.

I only discovered David Sedaris' writings a couple of years ago, and already, I have pretty much read everything this man has scribbled. I love how he can take the tiniest moments, like a hotel elevator ride, and then blow it up into a hilarious life lesson.

His family sits at the center of his creative fodder, and his observations on life, death, and love are laugh-out-loud funny. This book is more than just a collection of essays; it is an artfully threaded story of the unique and sometimes complicated love he has for his family. 

Jon Stewart once proclaimed that Richard Pryor, Lenny Bruce, and George Carlin were the “Holy Trinity” of stand-up comedy. After reading Scott Saul’s first-rate biography of Richard Pryor, I was transformed by the detailed writing and Saul’s portrait of an artist who struggled to find his voice. Saul’s premise was not to write a full biography but to examine the life and times of Pryor from his birth to his mid-life successes in 1980. I could not have written a book about George Carlin, Pryor’s contemporary, without Saul’s deeply researched tome. It’s a great read.

I realize I have said this before (probably in this list), but there are not enough words to describe how much I adore this book. I will die on the hill that has me saying, “Ali Wong is the very best at all things funny.” I am obsessed with the sardonic tone, matter-of-fact truths, and the hilarity throughout the tome written for the comedian’s daughters.

I love how the book covers all the need to know from start to finish about being a woman, being someone you like, being a working mom, and, well, just being. Wong tells it like it is in letters to her girls and, in the process, lets the rest of us know, too. The book is undeniably funny, which is a must for me, but I like that it is also vulnerable in places. I learned lessons, tore up, and felt empowered in equal parts… show more.

I love bad-ass women who take the world by storm. I love it when they’re funny. I love it when they share their journey. Amy Poehler, badass writer/comedian, wrote her memoir in the form of a self-help book. The self-help aspect is in disguise, though. You’re supposed to think it’s a memoir/fun celebrity tell-all, but it’s way more than that. It’s a bossy bitchy blueprint on how to get through life with humor and honesty and loads of funny stories. 

Some of her advice: Talk To Yourself Like You’re Ninety and Treat Your Career Like A Bad Boyfriend. Amy’s snarky, smart, and silly stories about her successes and failures inspire me to be a badass, too. Humor and snark and advice. Yes, please!

I love that this book does such a great job of capturing the many incongruities and quirks of life in South Africa, a country with such a complex, troubled history that it is still struggling to reconcile.

It’s a country of immense diversity (racially, politically, and culturally), which leads to some absurd situations. Some funny, some tragic. And it’s set against an incredibly unique and beautiful natural backdrop, and it’s at the bottom of the world, literally representing the global south/periphery. So there’s a ton of dramatic tension inherent.

I also relate with Noah’s story just in terms of the cross-cultural element; growing up with parents from different places and never quite fitting in. And yet he tackles these very serious, very bleak situations and experiences, at both the micro and macro levels, with humor.

Interested in learning more about the life and times of Mort Sahl? Then look no further! Curtis does a remarkable job of putting Sahl’s life and work into historical context, a key to understanding the evolution of stand-up comedy after 1950. The story of Sahl is the story of every comedian who wanted to speak truth to power in a funny way. Sahl shaped the style of George Carlin, Woody Allen, and David Steinberg. Curtis pays tribute to the comedian and the artistic legacy he left us. It was an important resource for my study of George Carlin.

I roll very hard for books about amazing people who make themselves seem human, too, not via false modesty but just people honest about their journey and the mistakes they made along the way.

Tina Fey was the youngest favorite child growing up in Philadelphia and had to learn that the wider world would not always give you a gold star on your homework the way she had always been given as the baby of her family and the only girl. And when she moved to Chicago to make it in sketch and improv comedy, she worked as a receptionist during the day, wrote cold scripts for SNL, and trained at Improv Olympic at night with the likes of Rachel Dratch and Scott Adsit. She was not the best in the room, far from it, and I love her and her clarity and directness for telling us, the reader, how… show more.