Scan barcode
odin45mp's review against another edition
4.0
I loved this book! As a socially awkward homeschooled geek, I related to many of her stories and perspectives.
I also appreciated her acknowledgment of mental health issues and anxiety. The more people speak up about them, the less stigma they carry as they stop being part of The Other and we can work together to understand each other.
And after all, "you're never weird on the Internet!"
I also appreciated her acknowledgment of mental health issues and anxiety. The more people speak up about them, the less stigma they carry as they stop being part of The Other and we can work together to understand each other.
And after all, "you're never weird on the Internet!"
kittycat2302's review against another edition
4.0
Delightful, authentic, inspiring... All much like my limited experience meeting/seeing Felicia Day herself. Her voice comes through this book so loud & clear its nearly impossible not to hear her reading it in my head. I appreciate the rawness of some of these stories and the hardness with which her success has been won. Great book, definitely recommend!
jaimie_lynn's review against another edition
4.0
I love Felicia Day. Because of her, I’m not ashamed to show my nerdy side anymore. I’m a Dungeons & Dragons playing, video gaming loving, book reading kind of girl and I show the whole world now without a care. I owe most of that to her.
She was absolutely fearless in this book talking about her anxiety and depression problems. Both of which I have dealt with and still deal with. I don’t go through depressions as much anymore but anxiety is ALWAYS with me. But reading her book helped me feel so inspired! So empowered! So…not alone. I’m starting my own business which is exactly what she did with starting her own thing with Geek & Sundry and The Guild. She talked about how hard it was and all the feelings she had to deal with along the way. I have those same issues but after reading her book, I feel so much better about it.
This book is so Felicia in every way with her quirkiness and wit. She talks about her unorthodox upbringing and her struggles to get into acting. It was fascinating from beginning to end. Truly.
The great thing about this memoir wasn’t just hearing about how she got famous and how hard it was to get where she was. The one thing I love about her, is when you watch her on her internet show, any of them, her Flog, playing board games with friends, talking about books in her book club….she is HUMAN above anything else. Someone you can relate to. Not some celebrity talking about what they just did and how great it is. That is also exactly how her book is too. You can feel the emotion as she talks about her fans or people who have helped her along the way. It’s refreshing. This is definitely a good read!
She was absolutely fearless in this book talking about her anxiety and depression problems. Both of which I have dealt with and still deal with. I don’t go through depressions as much anymore but anxiety is ALWAYS with me. But reading her book helped me feel so inspired! So empowered! So…not alone. I’m starting my own business which is exactly what she did with starting her own thing with Geek & Sundry and The Guild. She talked about how hard it was and all the feelings she had to deal with along the way. I have those same issues but after reading her book, I feel so much better about it.
This book is so Felicia in every way with her quirkiness and wit. She talks about her unorthodox upbringing and her struggles to get into acting. It was fascinating from beginning to end. Truly.
The great thing about this memoir wasn’t just hearing about how she got famous and how hard it was to get where she was. The one thing I love about her, is when you watch her on her internet show, any of them, her Flog, playing board games with friends, talking about books in her book club….she is HUMAN above anything else. Someone you can relate to. Not some celebrity talking about what they just did and how great it is. That is also exactly how her book is too. You can feel the emotion as she talks about her fans or people who have helped her along the way. It’s refreshing. This is definitely a good read!
kylerfrance's review against another edition
5.0
This is one of the most inspiring books. I love it.
crystalstarrlight's review against another edition
4.0
Pre-Review:
And guess what?! She's coming to my area in less than TWO WEEKS!
Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
Bullet Review:
Minus the beginning where she talks about her homeschool life (which was hard for me to read based on my much much more secluded and restricted homeschool experience that, yes, made me very jealous of Day), I rather enjoyed this.
Basically if you wanna know my internal thought process, read this book. I am CONSTANTLY second guessing EVERY interaction and spend more time making sure I leave a positive impact on others, regardless if I ever get anything positive in return.
Full Review:
Reviewing memoirs is a tough thing because, who am I to critique a person's life? At least not behind their back? (I'm totally skilled at the "smile at their face, snark behind their back" technique.)
A person might wonder a few things: Who is Felicia Day and why does she require a memoir? Isn't that as ridiculous as a Justin Bieber or Miley Cyrus memoir? If you are asking those questions - well, this memoir probably isn't for you.
Felicia Day is a former homeschool, former double-major in math and violin, former commercial actress who one day got the crazy idea of doing a webseries about gamers in an online roleplaying game. The videos hit BIG. I remember fondly the days of binge-watching the Guild on not YouTube (YouTube was such a baby back then!).
I guess really one of the reasons Felicia Day's story resonates so well is how eerily it parallels mine. We were both homeschooled. We both were quiet and people-pleasers. We both prioritized college over the rest of the college exeperience. We both got way too involved in gamer culture, during a very low point in our life. And now we both realize the best way to go through life is embracing it whole heartedly.
We did have differences. Reading about her homeschool experience was very hard and somewhat traumatic because it reminded me of how mine was so much more repressive than hers was. (NOTE: And mine could have been worse; I've read the stories.) Music lessons? Too expensive - after being given some music books, I taught myself piano to a point then stopped. Going online and making friends? I had a MySpace for 3 days before my mom shamed me into pulling it down. ("They'll find out where we live and rape us!") MEETING UP with said friends? HELL TO THE NO (see previous question!). Going to museums and zoos and such during school? NOPE - only during summer or spring vacation. What about the unschooling that Felicia had? Absolutely not - 8:00am every morning, I sat at our desk (a square, shaky cardboard table used for putting puzzles together or playing games) and pounded away at math, language arts, "science" for the state-required 180 days a year.
But now this has turned into a review about me and my homeschooling experience and not Day's book.
Once I blew past the homeschooling stuff, I found her adult life as a commercial actress, WoW addict and Guild creator to be very interesting. I LOVED learning the behind the scenes details of the Guild! It really is incredible how the Guild appeared at the perfect time - the web series couldn't have existed earlier and if it were released now, it would get lost in all the other content flooding YouTube.
It's obvious in this book that Felicia Day is a pretty awesome person. She's startlingly frank about her own insecurities and foibles - something that would be easy for an author to skim over. She's frank about being insecure, second guessing herself, her addictive personality (how she kept a boyfriend during her WoW days, I will never know), her depression, her anxiety. All of it is there in pretty stark detail.
While I personally liked Day's memoir, I don't think it has much reach outside of a certain demographic - the ones who follow her on Geek and Sundry, who gobbled up the episodes of The Guild, the ones who follow her acting career in things like Supernatural and Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along. That said, it is refreshingly breezy and light-hearted, so maybe I'm wrong. It was a great soothing read after barreling through a horribly disappointing fictional trilogy for me.
And guess what?! She's coming to my area in less than TWO WEEKS!
Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
Bullet Review:
Minus the beginning where she talks about her homeschool life (which was hard for me to read based on my much much more secluded and restricted homeschool experience that, yes, made me very jealous of Day), I rather enjoyed this.
Basically if you wanna know my internal thought process, read this book. I am CONSTANTLY second guessing EVERY interaction and spend more time making sure I leave a positive impact on others, regardless if I ever get anything positive in return.
Full Review:
Reviewing memoirs is a tough thing because, who am I to critique a person's life? At least not behind their back? (I'm totally skilled at the "smile at their face, snark behind their back" technique.)
A person might wonder a few things: Who is Felicia Day and why does she require a memoir? Isn't that as ridiculous as a Justin Bieber or Miley Cyrus memoir? If you are asking those questions - well, this memoir probably isn't for you.
Felicia Day is a former homeschool, former double-major in math and violin, former commercial actress who one day got the crazy idea of doing a webseries about gamers in an online roleplaying game. The videos hit BIG. I remember fondly the days of binge-watching the Guild on not YouTube (YouTube was such a baby back then!).
I guess really one of the reasons Felicia Day's story resonates so well is how eerily it parallels mine. We were both homeschooled. We both were quiet and people-pleasers. We both prioritized college over the rest of the college exeperience. We both got way too involved in gamer culture, during a very low point in our life. And now we both realize the best way to go through life is embracing it whole heartedly.
We did have differences. Reading about her homeschool experience was very hard and somewhat traumatic because it reminded me of how mine was so much more repressive than hers was. (NOTE: And mine could have been worse; I've read the stories.) Music lessons? Too expensive - after being given some music books, I taught myself piano to a point then stopped. Going online and making friends? I had a MySpace for 3 days before my mom shamed me into pulling it down. ("They'll find out where we live and rape us!") MEETING UP with said friends? HELL TO THE NO (see previous question!). Going to museums and zoos and such during school? NOPE - only during summer or spring vacation. What about the unschooling that Felicia had? Absolutely not - 8:00am every morning, I sat at our desk (a square, shaky cardboard table used for putting puzzles together or playing games) and pounded away at math, language arts, "science" for the state-required 180 days a year.
But now this has turned into a review about me and my homeschooling experience and not Day's book.
Once I blew past the homeschooling stuff, I found her adult life as a commercial actress, WoW addict and Guild creator to be very interesting. I LOVED learning the behind the scenes details of the Guild! It really is incredible how the Guild appeared at the perfect time - the web series couldn't have existed earlier and if it were released now, it would get lost in all the other content flooding YouTube.
It's obvious in this book that Felicia Day is a pretty awesome person. She's startlingly frank about her own insecurities and foibles - something that would be easy for an author to skim over. She's frank about being insecure, second guessing herself, her addictive personality (how she kept a boyfriend during her WoW days, I will never know), her depression, her anxiety. All of it is there in pretty stark detail.
While I personally liked Day's memoir, I don't think it has much reach outside of a certain demographic - the ones who follow her on Geek and Sundry, who gobbled up the episodes of The Guild, the ones who follow her acting career in things like Supernatural and Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along. That said, it is refreshingly breezy and light-hearted, so maybe I'm wrong. It was a great soothing read after barreling through a horribly disappointing fictional trilogy for me.
sirrydactyl's review against another edition
5.0
Love Felicia Day and all her wonderful weirdness! I relate to her so much :).
sayrin426's review against another edition
5.0
She is so great, I'm so glad I finally got to read this!!!
melissa_bookworm's review against another edition
4.0
Felicia is my soul sister as a fellow geek and ginger.
I really enjoyed the book, story of a less than conventional upbringing but overall growing to be a huge success. Not without set backs obviously. Her honesty about her anxiety, depression, and fear of letting everyone down in a lot of situations made me just want to jump through the book and hug her. I understand and sympathise. More of a motivational read than I thought. Probably best for people who have seen at least a little bit of Felicia's work (personally only knew her from Twitter & Geek and Sundry before reading, currently watching the guild due to reading).
I really enjoyed the book, story of a less than conventional upbringing but overall growing to be a huge success. Not without set backs obviously. Her honesty about her anxiety, depression, and fear of letting everyone down in a lot of situations made me just want to jump through the book and hug her. I understand and sympathise. More of a motivational read than I thought. Probably best for people who have seen at least a little bit of Felicia's work (personally only knew her from Twitter & Geek and Sundry before reading, currently watching the guild due to reading).
aunt_hotdog's review against another edition
5.0
Quirky, funny, and real. Anxiety and hilarity in one book.