Status
Publication
Description
Biography & Autobiography.
Essays.
Nonfiction.
Humor (Nonfiction.)
HTML:The New York Times bestselling collection of humorous autobiographical essays by the Academy Award??nominated actress and star of Up in the Air and Pitch Perfect.
Even before she made a name for herself on the silver screen starring in films like Pitch Perfect, Up in the Air, Twilight, and Into the Woods, Anna Kendrick was unusually small, weird, and "10 percent defiant."
At the ripe age of thirteen, she had already resolved to "keep the crazy inside my head where it belonged. Forever. But here's the thing about crazy: It. Wants. Out." In Scrappy Little Nobody, she invites readers inside her brain, sharing extraordinary and charmingly ordinary stories with candor and winningly wry observations.
With her razor-sharp wit, Anna recounts the absurdities she's experienced on her way to and from the heart of pop culture as only she can??from her unusual path to the performing arts (Vanilla Ice and baggy neon pants may have played a role) to her double life as a middle-school student who also starred on Broadway to her initial "dating experiments" (including only liking boys who didn't like her back) to reviewing a binder full of butt doubles to her struggle to live like an adult woman instead of a perpetual "man-child."
Enter Anna's world and follow her rise from "scrappy little nobody" to somebody who dazzles on the stage, the screen, and now the page??with an electric, singular voice, at once familiar and surprising, sharp and sweet, funny and serious (well, not tha… (more)
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Okay, straight up, for the last year-and-a-half this has
Anna is hilarious and REAL. She's one of those famous people who you want to meet not to ask for an autograph but to hang out with just to ask her about how weird it is to be famous.
I first saw her in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and for years afterward thought she was sooo cool and I was really proud she was a Canadian actress (yeah, she's not Canadian ... but she's cool enough to be Canadian). And I didn't first see her in Scott Pilgrim ... I kinda forgot she was in Twilight (sorry, Anna). Beyond learning that she is indeed an American actress, I loved hearing about feisty young Anna going for her dreams.
And she includes lots of fun extras in this book. I particularly loved her special afterward for book clubs. And her About the Author page (I also am shorter in real life).
I could go on and on about how much I adored Anna's voice in this book but I'll start to be repetitive. Just go and get it (you know you need a bathroom book). Now I have an empty spot on the vanity in the bathroom ...
Anna Kendrick seems to have remained very down to earth despite her huge rise to fame, and her first memoir, is not surprisingly very charming and not in the least self centered. If anything, it's self depricating, which
She allows herself to be vulnerable in a way that other celebrities don't seem to be able to, and/or don't want to. It comes across in a way that makes me feel she is un-concerned with being perfect, and more concerned with remaining a normal person despite her celebrity status. She openly talks about insecurities, annoyances, embarrassing stories, etc. in a way that makes it clear, being a celebrity does not mean she doesn't still deal with many of the same day to day crap we all deal with.
I never found the memoir insanely funny, but rather found it extremely witty and smartly funny. It never felt like she was trying to get a laugh, but rather felt like she was just writing as herself, and herself is just a wise ass that happens to be very funny.
There was a lot of heart, humor, truth, and charm to her writing. It was a refreshing read, and overall a good memoir.
I have always been a huge fan of hers, since I first saw her in "Camp," and this book was not a let down. Just a great addition to the reasons why I love her.
My favorite line in the book, one in which I think captures her personality so well, was: "Oh man. Is my Wikipedia page going to say "author" now? That's gonna make me look like such a dick."
I wasn’t expecting any epic revelations,
For a memoir to be appreciated by the reader, it needs to be relatable and believable, and frankly, entertaining. This hit all three for me, a bit of surprise on the ‘relatable’ part. Kendrick had a passage about being ‘nice’, the opposite of which is ‘difficult’ in her industry. She is in a men’s world as am I, and I found her thoughts meaningful. “Nicety percent of the people I’ve worked with who are disruptive or lazy or unskilled or addicts or likely to throw a tantrum are men. Ninety percent of the ones who get called ‘difficult’ are women.” … “I gave up on being Nice. I started putting more value on other qualities instead: passion, bravery, intelligence, practicality, humor, patience, fairness, sensitivity.” In my world, women who choose to do things their own way are more likely to be punished, and more often than not, the women’s approach is simply one that the men choose to not appreciate, and it irritates the shit out of me that it is ‘wrong’ or in Kendrick’s case, ‘difficult’. Fuck ‘nice’!
Back to the book, another relatable theme was the imposter syndrome. Despite having been nominated for a Tony at the age of twelve, and an Oscar for “Up in the Air”, that not-belonging feeling never quite goes away. The fear of not having a next job and the fear of not becoming that self-possessed woman lingers. Despite whatever bravado façade, most women I know in the workplace still feel out-of-place on most days.
Well, read about her youthful adventures into New York to audition for Broadway roles, being slut-shamed in her dating life, her first paparazzi encounter after the Oscar nomination, and the barely surviving IKEA lifestyle through her days of Twilight (steady paycheck) and “Up in the Air” (Indie movies don’t pay much). It’s a lifestyle that most of us would not know otherwise.
I had a hard time deciding how many stars to give this one. Two means it doesn't make it to my desert island (where I don't bring anything I wouldn't read again, but no limit on the number I can bring), but three feels like too much. It's got great humor, but she's too young for even a memoir. You got to have SOMETHING interesting in your life, something with CONFLICT, before you should consider committing pen to paper (or fingers to keys). I would love to see a book by her about something other than herself (like Aziz Ansari did for Modern Romance). But in this one, the stakes are no bigger than unwashed hair.
Kendrick is the narrator of her book and she does a superb job. It has a casual tone that makes you feel like it's just the two of you in a conversation. Scrappy Little Nobody has the same edgy snarkiness that Kendrick's characters often portray in movies. I often wondered if it's her actual personality or if she's giving the people what they want--so to speak. But despite my misgivings, the audiobook was interesting and entertaining. It does feel as if she's being mostly honest with her readers. She doesn't gloss over the bumpy road to stardom or make it sound easy.
Scrappy Little Nobody is must for Anna Kendrick fans who want to get to know her better.
I've always enjoyed Kendrick and have seen several of her films (and heard her sing about a million times, thanks to my young children and the popularity of the film, Trolls) but didn't know a lot about her early career. Her autobiography does a good job of filling in some of the gaps of Anna's childhood career (working on Broadway at twelve - who knew?!), but isn't told in any chronological order, so we don't get a sense of any real span of her career from Point A to B. Most of the book is told in short little bits. Many of them are quite funny stories, and there are some truly laugh out loud moments. In many cases, Kendrick is a very relatable person, who seems like the type of friend you'd like to hang out with. At other points, she seemed a bit whiny, and for me, the book spent too much time with her protesting about some of the travails of being in the celebrity industry. I can only take so much "woe is me" from famous people who write books about their lives.
The book is on more solid ground when we're reading about Anna's early life, where you gain a true admiration for her talent, and with her silly and snarky stories about her misanthropic personality (misanthropes unite!). Still, the jumping back and forth in time makes it hard to get a true trace on the arc of her life at times, and beyond some of the complaining and expounding on the travails of award shows, press junkets, and the like, there wasn't as much about her post-fame life as I was interested in.
If you like Kendrick's films, or her twitter feed, you'll probably enjoy the book and its organization, even if you find yourself wishing for a little more at the end. She's led an interesting life so far, and I'm sure another autobiography down the road would be quite intriguing.
I don't want to give too much away, so I'll just say, definitely read this book, or better yet, listen to the audiobook. The audiobook gives you so much more of her personality and wit. Fair warning, there is a fair amount of sexual content in it, so be prepared for that.
I read it fast, and was expecting yet again another book by a self-absorbed, famous, millennial.
I found myself
I leave the book with respect for Ms. Kendrick, and see her in a whole other light. She seems very, very 'normal,' and a decent human being...bravo. She shows her warts and all...just don't call her nice (read it and you'll understand).
Enjoy the easy read, and support a 'Hollywood-type' who has earned my respect.
It did not disappoint. Unfortunately, it came out a week after the election, so it is possible that it didn’t get the attention it deserved, since we are all (rightfully) freaking the fuck out about actual neo-Nazis in the White House. But if you need a mental health break from calling and writing your representatives, or marching in support of Black Lives Matter or protesting the DAPL, I would like to recommend this to you.
Her essays are laid out in (mostly) chronological order; some are quite intimate, but none delve into the uncomfortable. But the best part is that they all sound exactly like her – or at least the her we see in the media. I don’t know Ms. Kendrick, so theoretically this could all be an elaborately maintained ruse, but more than likely this is just an example of a clever, self-deprecating, strong but at times insecure woman living her life. Yes, she might have a job that is slightly more glamorous from the outside than, say, literally every other job, but she manages to make the challenges she faces as a well-known actress as relatable as her days with no money and no car trying to make it in Los Angeles.
I think the fact that she is incredibly self-aware helps. She doesn’t sell herself short in unbelievable ways, she doesn’t fish for pity or accolades, she is just sharing some stories that readers will find endearing or entertaining (and usually both).
Near the end of the book, she mentions writing a tell-all when she is 70 and done with her career. Again, I’d like to pre-order that one now, because if I’m alive then, I’m going to read that one, and I have no doubt it will be delicious.
I find this book at times funny (actually would laugh out loud) but at other times found it a little rambling. I think if I had found it under
Overall this was OK, but not sure I would really recommend it...but not sure.....
I feel the only way to truly appreciate this book is to listen to Anna Kendrick read it to you. How else will you get all the right inflections and hear the snark in all the right place? She reads it well.
There were chapters that reminded me of my friend April. I
Basically, if Anna ever feels like she wants to leave her house and make a new friend, I might be able to fit her into my very full social calendar.
Great listen!
Having read this and seen quite a few of the movies Anna is in, I imagine in real life she's most like her character in Pitch Perfect. This was an easy read. Fun to hear her inner thinking's. She's just as sarcastic and crass as I imagined she's be.
I listened to the audiobook of Scrappy Little Nobody and Anna reads it herself. Perhaps that amplified her personality and I would have liked the book more in print. What I learned from this book is that sometimes it’s harder to be funny in an essay format than in 280 characters.
Scrappy Little Nobody by Anna Kendrick is look inside of the life of Kendrick herself. Full of stories, some pictures, memories, and everything that makes Anna so relatable to most. She lets her personality flow through the pages making this a fun read and makes the
It did remind me of that viral PSA on social media where you see the young woman having fun in five or six different pictures, but then you're supposed to catch on that she is holding an alcoholic beverage in each one and may have a drinking problem.