Motherhood & Hollywood: How to Get a Job Like Mine

Too often, the words ”celebrity bio” are code for ”self-absorbed non-revelations ghostwritten for a star who has another project to push.” Fortunately, Patricia Heaton’s memoir, Motherhood & Hollywood: How to Get a Job Like Mine — much like her ”Everybody Loves Raymond” alter ego — has that glorious combination of down-to-earth frankness (on her postpartum tummy: ”It wasn’t even a stomach anymore…. It was more like a big old wrinkly suede bag”) and sly sense of humor (”You…think [celebrities’] s— doesn’t stink? It’s true. In fact, mine is peach ice cream”) that makes it a gas to read.

But it’s not all guffaws: Heaton candidly details her boozy collegiate days, cocaine hangovers as a struggling New York actress, and all-around religious confusion — elevating the celeb bio to something actually worth perusing.