Audiobook: Life Will Be The Death Of Me ... And You Too!

Chelsea Handler is a popular comedienne but for some reason, I haven't seen any of her stand-up or her TV shows/specials. Despite the rock I live under, I know she's a funny woman with strong opinions and Hollywood celeb who pals around with Jennifer Aniston, but that's about all I know about her. 

I went into this eAudiobook, which Handler narrates herself, totally blind. I expected to giggle and guffaw, but what I got was an honest, heart wrenching, introspective journey that has touches of her humour and has a hearty dose of self-discovery. She brings readers inside her heart and her head as she discusses her breakdown after Trump's presidential win, her familial losses, and her journey through therapy.

Chelsea's narration of her book was the icing on the cake. While she speaks rather fast (I decreased the speed to 0.8), I was impressed with her vulnerability as she shares her thoughts and feelings with her listeners, her voice cracking with emotion many times. I dare you not to get choked up as she discusses the death of her brother and her love for her furry family members.

While this is a self-discovery kind of read, Handler still adds bits of humour throughout and giggled at her ardent sexual attraction to 76-year-old Robert Mueller (ex-Director of the FBI) and her fondness for cilantro (and confusion over others hatred for the herb - I'm with Chelsea on this one. Mueller? We'll agree to disagree). The bulk of the book centres on more serious topics of family, loss, politics (her hatred of Trump), her drug use and acknowledging her privilege.

This was my first book by Chelsea Handler, and it won't be my last. Raw, honest and emotional with bits of her signature humour, this wasn't the laugh-a-minute kind of read I had expected, but I was impressed by the uninhibited and candid way she shares her mistakes, successes and her fab vocab. Chelsea Handler is who she is and she's not apologizing for being herself, but instead is making a decided effort to be a better her and challenging us to do the same. How can you not love that?

My Rating: 4 stars

Author: Chelsea Handler

Genre: Non-Fiction, Memoir 

Type and Source: eAudiobook from public library

Narrator: Chelsea Handler

Run Time: 5 hours, 24 minutes

Publisher: Random House Audio

First Published: April 9, 2019

Opening Lines: I don't remember the actor and I don't 

remember the movie but I remember it was 5 o'clock in the 

afternoon and I had just taken a couple of hits off my vamp pen.

Book Description from GoodReads: The funny, sad, super-honest, all-true story of Chelsea Handler's year of self-discovery--featuring a nerdily brilliant psychiatrist, a shaman, four Chow Chows, some well-placed security cameras, various family members (living and departed), friends, assistants, and a lot of edibles.

In a haze of vape smoke on a rare windy night in L.A. in the fall of 2016, Chelsea Handler daydreams about what life will be like with a woman in the White House. And then, Donald Trump happens. In a torpor of despair, she decides that she's had enough of the privileged bubble she's lived in--a bubble within a bubble--and that it's time to make some changes, both in her personal life and in the world at large.

At home, she embarks on a year of self-sufficiency--learning how to work the remote, how to pick up dog shit, where to find the toaster. She meets her match in an earnest, brainy psychiatrist and enters into therapy, prepared to do the heavy lifting required to look within and make sense of a childhood marked by love and loss and to figure out why people are afraid of her. She becomes politically active--finding her voice as an advocate for change, having difficult conversations, and energizing her base. In the process, she develops a healthy fixation on Special Counsel Robert Mueller and, through unflinching self-reflection and psychological excavation, she unearths some glittering truths that light up the road ahead.

Thrillingly honest, insightful, and deeply, darkly funny, Chelsea Handler has written a memoir that keeps readers laughing, even as it inspires us to look within and ask ourselves what really matters in our own lives.