Genre: Memoir
Book Type: Audio
Author: Valerie Bertinelli
Narrator: Valerie Bertinelli
Pages / Length: 256 pages / 6 hours and 47 minutes
Publisher: Harvest (January 18, 2022) / HarperAudio
Book Description:
Beloved actress, Food Network personality, and New York Times bestselling author Valerie Bertinelli reflects on life at sixty and beyond.
Behind the curtain of her happy on-screen persona, Valerie Bertinelli’s life has been no easy ride, especially when it comes to her own self-image and self-worth. She waged a war against herself for years, learning to equate her value to her appearance as a child star on One Day at a Time and punishing herself in order to fit into the unachievable Hollywood mold. She struggled to make her marriage to Eddie Van Halen — the true love of her life — work, despite all the rifts the rock-star lifestyle created between them. She then watched her son follow in his father’s footsteps, right up onto the stage of Van Halen concerts, and begin his own music career. And like so many women, she cared for her parents as their health declined and saw the roles of parent and child reverse. Through mourning the loss of her parents, discovering more about her family’s past, and realizing how short life really is when she and her son lost Eddie, Valerie finally said, “Enough already!” to a lifelong battle with the scale and found a new path forward to joy and connection. Despite hardships and the pressures of the media industry to be something she’s not, Valerie is, at last, accepting herself: she knows who she is, has discovered her self-worth, and has learned how to prioritize her health and happiness over her weight. With an intimate look into her insecurities, heartbreaks, losses, triumphs, and revelations, Enough Already is the story of Valerie’s sometimes humorous, sometimes raw, but always honest journey to love herself and find joy in the everyday, in family, and in the food and memories we share.
Thoughts: Overall this was a good biography. I listened to it and LOVE when the author reads the book, as it adds so much to the experience of the novel. Her voice was wonderful and you could hear her feelings as she discussed her life, which for me, adds to the overall effect of the book.
The book itself was good. I liked her message and advice to be "enough already" and not to worry about your flaws. I liked the tip to "feed your soul" and to stop looking at food as a mechanism and to not starve yourself for the sake of an image. She also made a point of mentioning food as a Love Language, and I found interesting and could connect to.
I also found her to be very relatable, especially when she discusses supporting her son and love of her family. I really didn't know much about her past, so found the book entertaining, but wish it went in a more chronological order, and wish it was more "juicy". I enjoyed the recipes throughout, and overall found this to be a very enjoyable book.
Favorite Quotes:
🥘 Gratitude is the staircase you take to get to joy.
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
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