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ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: VOGUE • FORBES • BOOKPAGE • NEW YORK POST • WIRED
“I have not been as profoundly moved by a book in years.” —Jodi Picoult
Even after she left home for Hollywood, Emmy-nominated TV writer Bess Kalb saved every voicemail her grandmother Bobby Bell ever left her. Bobby was a force—irrepressible, glamorous, unapologetically opinionated. Bobby doted on Bess; Bess adored Bobby. Then, at ninety, Bobby died. But in this debut memoir, Bobby is speaking to Bess once more, in a voice as passionate as it ever was in life.
Recounting both family lore and family secrets, Bobby brings us four generations of indomitable women and the men who loved them. There’s Bobby’s mother, who traveled solo from Belarus to America in the 1880s to escape the pogroms, and Bess’s mother, a 1970s rebel who always fought against convention. But it was Bobby and Bess who always had the most powerful bond: Bobby her granddaughter’s fiercest supporter, giving Bess unequivocal love, even if sometimes of the toughest kind.
Nobody Will Tell You This But Me marks the creation of a totally new, virtuosic form of memoir: a reconstruction of a beloved grandmother’s words and wisdom to tell her family’s story with equal parts poignancy and hilarity.
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
March 17, 2020 -
Formats
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OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9780593169728
- File size: 125667 KB
- Duration: 04:21:48
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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Listeners will hear the admiration in television writer Bess Kalb's voice as she expresses the determined spirit of her beloved grandmother, Bobby Bell, with whom she shared a special bond. As Kalb recounts their many conversations, listeners will come to share in her pride in her grandmother's wise counsel. Kalb's narration flows from one anecdote to another, allowing listeners to piece together Bobby's history, and that of Bobby's mother, father, and other relatives, who emigrated to America from Russia. While Kalb does not attempt to imitate the voices of her relations, she creates vivid characterizations with slight shifts in intonation and pitch. Bobby's remembrances do not shy away from the enormous difficulties of those times, which will bring comfort to listeners facing today's struggles. M.J. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine -
December 16, 2019
Jimmy Kimmel Live! writer Kalb honors her late grandmother, Bobby Bell, in an amusing debut memoir written in the grandmother’s sassy voice. The book, framed as a love letter to Kalb and featuring excerpts from grandma’s funny voice mails and phone calls, contains intriguing family stories about Kalb’s great-grandmother, who, at 12, emigrated to New York from Belarus, alone, to escape Jewish persecution; about Bobby’s marriage to Kalb’s grandfather, a scrappy businessman who got rich building houses; and about Bobby’s contentious relationship with Kalb’s fiercely independent mother. Kalb does a great job of capturing the voice of an opinionated, chronically concerned grandmother who’s convinced that she knows best. Bobby shares her thoughts on everything from Kalb’s choice of pets (“we are not cat people”) to her decision to live in San Francisco (“San Francisco is for people who wear polar fleece to restaurants and try to convince each other to go camping”). The book spans Bobby’s life and beyond (there are cheeky sections written from beyond the grave) and offers both wisdom and unsolicited advice (“you’d be gorgeous if you went a little blonder”). This is a fun, touching tribute to family, and the perfect book for anyone who treasures their domineering, spirited grandmother.
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