All the Lives I Want: Essays About My Best Friends Who Happen to Be Famous Strangers

These reflections aim to reimagine these women's legacies and, in the process, teach us new ways of forgiving ourselves.. From columnist and critic Alana Massey, a collection of essays examining the intersection of the personal with pop culture through the lives of pivotal female figures - from Sylvia Plath to Britney Spears - in the spirit of Chuck Klosterman, with the heart of a true fan. A cultural critique and a finely wrought fan letter, interwoven with stories that are achingly personal, All the Lives I Want is also an exploration of mental illness, the sex industry, and the dangers of loving too hard. These essays are personal without being confessional and clever in a way that invites listeners into the joke. Mixing Didion's affected cool with moments of giddy celebrity worship, Massey examines the lives of the women who reflect our greatest aspirations and darkest fears back onto us. But it is, above all, a paean to the celebrities who have shaped a generation of women - from Scarlett Johansson to Amber Rose, Lil' Kim, Anjelica Huston, Lana Del Rey, Anna Nicole Smith, and many more

This book inspired me to pursue the Unlikeable Woman archetype with a new and unprecedented fervor and has left me with a deligh Jacq T. Alana Massey waxes poetic about Anna Nicole Smith which more people need to be doing. This book inspired me to pursue the Unlikeable Woman archetype with a new and unprecedented fervor and has left me with a delightfully feminist determination to live brazenly and to care less for the #NotAllMen who have disappointed womankind again and again.It makes me wish . Buy this book. Buy this book for your friends. Buy this book for a stranger. Megan I have read this book twice now and I will probably read it again after I write this review. Alana is a clever and insightful writer who beautifully blends together high and low-brow in a way I've never seen before. It is refreshing, honest, and perfectly emotional. Whether or not you consider yourself a person who cares deeply about pop culture, you'll find m. "Cultural criticism worth your time." according to LESReader. Tender and ferocious in equal measure, All the Lives I Want offers a host of new perspectives on our cultural treatment of famous women, and demonstrates new, more gentle ways of approaching them and ourselves. For the weight of the topics, Massey's signature humor shines through, making the book feel more like a conversation than a lecture.