Each April my book club reads a memoir or biography. This year, we selected this book. Betty White has been a beloved TV personality since before I was born. She started back in the 1950s with shows like The Betty White Show and continued into the 21st century in roles on comedies like Hot in Cleveland and a Super Bowl commercial. It was a joy to learn about how involved she was in the rise of television.
She starts with telling briefly of her youth as an only child of very loving parents in Los Angeles. She learned her loved of all animals from them. From there she tells of her love for performing and getting started in TV. As she grows in the new medium, she tells of only a few relationships, one of which becomes a lasting marriage. She continues until the time of the book’s publication in the 1990s. Remarkably, she had nearly thirty years more in TV after the book was published.
This is a quick, easy, entertaining read. While it has Betty’s trademark wit throughout, it also has poignant moments of relationship and loss. I thoroughly enjoyed learning more about a woman who has been a part of most of my life. It made me miss her presence all the more.
My rating: 4/5
