Home Page

Autobiography / Biography   Travel / Places   Cooking / Food   Fashion / Health / Beauty   Other / General / Self-Help   Crafts / Home Improvement   Humor   Blog

Losing It - And Gaining My Life Back One Pound at a Time
by Valerie Bertinelli
Free Press
ISBN 1-4165-6818-2
Published March 2008 - Hardcover - 278 pages - $26.00

If this book wasn't written by a "celeb," I don't think it would have made it to the bestseller list.  For me it was just another spoiled "star" airing her dirty laundry.  Having just done the Jenny Craig diet, a book was a natural tie-in.  The more publicity the better.  Valerie Bertinelli may have had a cute face and been the darling of the eighties, but her story is one we've all heard before.  Low self-esteem, so-I-turned-to-sex-and-drugs-and-food.  So she packed on the pounds as she got older - we all do.  She stayed in a marriage that was doomed.  Many women do.  She joined a weightloss plan (and got paid for it!) and lost weight.  Big deal.  Her story isn't unique and I didn't learn anything new or revolutionary.  Instead, I read how a young woman was seduced by acting, slept with various men (and had no shame in name-dropping which I found distasteful), took drugs, married a rock star, had a kid, cheated on her husband, got cheated on, got divorced, and put on weight.  What do you expect if you have no self-control and stuff your face with three entrées?  Common sense will tell you what.  (Read my book on common sense.)  My advice?  You cannot have and do whatever you want without dealing with the consequences, good or bad, and you should think before you say and do.  Life is a series of choices.  Choose wisely.  I did like the way she and her ex-husband worked hard at giving their only child as normal an upbringing as possible.
Conclusion - Not the best book I've ever picked up.  Get it from your library and save yourself $26.00.
I have to know what "coinfronted" means (page 199).  I never cease to be amazed and annoyed at finding so many errors in books these days.  I never had this before back in the "old days."  And now, in an age when it's so much easier to run through a manuscript on a PC!  People still don't know the difference between insure and ensure.  I came across at least about 10 errors in this book - two in one paragraph!  Twice!  This from a Simon and Schuster imprint?!  Careless and unnecessarily distracting to the reader.  Do read my blog about these kinds of publishing errors.