This Is Just My Face: Try Not to Stare

I saw Gabourey Sidibe promoting her book, This Is Just My Face: Try Not to Stare, on The Daily Show, found her as utterly engaging and memorable as an individual as she is an actor and decided to read it immediately. I finished it in less than a few days-possibly within the span of 24 hours. Her book had the trenchant humor and sensibility that I was expecting from I’m Judging You: The Do-Better Manual, which I enjoyed, but found ponderous to read in one sitting.
This Is Just My Face: Try Not to Stare is a memoir about her life, her family, her rise to fame and her struggle with psychological challenges such as a period of depression. I hear a lot about Dorothy Parker’s wit, but know very little about her, but I can imagine the same accolades being showered upon Sidibe. If she ever decides to retire from acting (please don’t), she could have a career as a writer. Her writing style lends itself quite easily to adapting to a one-woman show or at least an audible book. She pulls no punches with the people in her life without being alienating. She unflinchingly speaks the truth while leaving room for processing and possibly changing her mind in the future. We may have lost Carrie Fisher, Elaine Stritch and Joan Rivers, but we got Gabourey Sidibe’s This Is Just My Face: Try Not to Stare and hopefully this is just the beginning of an illustrious writing career.