You're on an Airplane

June 18, 2018
Actress Posey fashions her clever and playful memoir as a conversation with the reader, who is seated next to her on a plane. Posey was born prematurely, minutes after her twin brother, and raised in the South by her father, a car salesman and Vietnam vet, and her young, fun-loving mother, who placed false eyelashes on infant Posey when she returned home from the hospital. Posey was a natural actor; she performed in a summer camp show at age seven, and by nine knew she wanted to be a movie star. The budding star also frolicked in ditches, decorated her hair with locusts, and took pretend communion with Ritz crackers. She guides readers through her various career steps, from a part on the TV soap opera As the World Turns to indie films such as Party Girl and The Daytrippers and the more recent Café Society and Irrational Man. Posey’s narrative is lighthearted and amusing, and it reveals her strong and independent spirit and serious devotion to acting. Indie film fans will especially enjoy this energetic romp through Posey’s vibrant film career.

July 15, 2018
The "Queen of Indie Film" writes hilariously and thoughtfully about her life and the lives of Gracie, her dog, and other intriguing misfits she's known.Using the conceit that she's relating stories about her life while sitting next to you on a flight--a possibility she laments is increasingly untenable since no one in America talks to strangers anymore--Posey is an amiable, zigzag raconteur. Probably best known for her inspired roles in Christopher Guest mockumentaries like Waiting for Guffman and Best in Show, she now stars on Netflix's Lost in Space reboot. The author was a determined daydreamer and performer from an early age; her father had to fasten jingle bells to her notepad in elementary school so she would remember to write down her homework assignments. Her tendency to choose meaningful projects such as Dazed and Confused or Personal Velocity rather than schlocky studio flicks hasn't helped her finances, but her choices have endeared her to a generation of film buffs who were young enough in the 1990s and early 2000s to understand that independent American cinema at that time was a movement. (In one priceless scene, the author recounts her nauseous reaction to a misogynistic script a casting director gave her: "I...walked outside, where I immediately threw up in one of the enormous potted plants. And then three times more. It was the perfect height, and I paused and felt blessed.") "I'm not great at being a movie star," she writes. "It's either too boring or too much work." This book is one of the most atypical celebrity memoirs in recent memory. The narrative flow is occasionally whiplash-inducing as Posey marches through her life, but she is an irrepressible and appealingly eccentric guide throughout.Resilient and fiercely observant, Posey is an unflinchingly honest and entertaining interpreter of her many stories.

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July 1, 2018
For many women who came of age in the 1990s, actress Posey will forever be the ultimate It Girl. From Hal Hartley's Henry Fool trilogy to House of Yes, the indie screen queen beguiled us with arch flippancy, killer cheekbones, and a perfect smirk?it's impossible to guess how many librarians chose their careers because of Party Girl. Now that Posey has found herself in Perimenopausal Time, she has deigned to bless us with her infinite wisdom and enough personal anecdotes to satiate even her most rabid fans. Glory be: she has a narrative voice! And it's just as funny and insouciant as you might hope! She uses it to tell us practical advice (turbans are flattering on older people, who should wear them whenever possible), anecdotes about the acting biz (who knew actors cry and hug all the time?), and the story of her childhood (Posey's grandma was just as cool as you might have imagined). She also delivers a sobering message: Hollywood can be cruel to even its best, especially when they are women.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)

May 15, 2017

Famously called Queen of the Indies, Posey here lets loose about acting, fame, and her relationships with key directors. This being a celebrity memoir, there's also told-with-humor advice, in this case taken from Posey's legendary Greenwich Village therapist Mildred Newman.

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