Tag / Jennette McCurdy

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Book 16 (of 52) – Half His Age

Half His Age – Jennette McCurdy

Waldo, a 17-year-old high school senior, is drifting through life, living with an absentee mother, a dead-end job, and a boyfriend she doesn’t really care for.  Her new creative writing teacher, however, touches something deep inside of her, giving her feelings she’s never had before.  She goes after him, initially willing to put up with the limitations of their affair but eventually realizing that she wants, and ultimately deserves, more.  After graduation, and after he leaves his wife for her, Waldo reaches the end of her rope, finally realizing it is time to take control of her life.

Former teen actress Jennette McCurdy, who came to fame starring in children’s shows on Nickelodeon like iCarly and Sam & Cat before taking the literary world by storm with her memoir, I’m Glad My Mom Died, in 2022, returns with her first work of fiction.  Half His Age, I guess, is a tale of growth, as Waldo eventually learns that she can only blame her upbringing for so much and that, eventually, it is up to her to decide where she wants to go and to get herself there.  I assume these lessons were also ones that McCurdy herself had to learn as she dealt with her own mother issues.  This was an intriguing, if not great, book and I’m interested to see where she turns next.

 

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2022: The Year In Books

As we wrap up 2022, my second full year of remote working, I managed to surpass my previous records by completing a whopping 55 books, an increase of one book over last year and my second consecutive year completing the 52 books in 52 weeks challenge.  I surpassed last year’s total with a mere three days remaining in 2022.  I read (or listened) to 19,328 pages, by far my highest total of all time and only the third time I’ve passed 10,000.

Of those books, fifteen were non-fiction and, of the remaining 40 novels, only two were tied to a TV show, either as the source material or as a tie-in.  None of the books came out of my dwindling “to-read” drawer, with 44 e-books and three audiobooks.  I continued to take advantage of my library card, which helped me procure 37 of the books I consumed throughout the year.

A little more than half of the books I read this year were by authors I had read before. The 31 authors that I read for the first this year were:

Adam Nedeff Kelsey McKinney Simone St. James Laura Dave
Jeff Warren Carlye Adler Matt Paxton Jordan Michael Smith
Alyssa Milano Alex Finlay Taylor Jenkins Reid Emily Ratajkowski
Samantha Downing Dave Grohl Mary Lynn Rajskub Stephanie Perkins
Michael Schur Joseph Henrich V.E. Schwab Brianna Madia
Jimmy Piersall Richard Whittingham Richard Osman Colleen Hoover
Jenette McCurdy Sally Rooney Josh Malerman Alice Sebold
Katie Mack Penn Jillette Elin Hilderbrand Nita Prose

Alex Finlay, Simone St. James, Karin Slaughter, Megan Goldin, Jeffery Deaver, and Richard Osman were the only authors that I read multiple titles from during 2022.

16 of the books I read were released this year, while only two of them were released last century, with the oldest first published in 1953.

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Book 44 (of 52) – I’m Glad My Mom Died

I’m Glad My Mom Died – Jennette McCurdy

In I’m Glad My Mom Died, the new memoir from former teen actress Jennette McCurdy, she details the struggles she has been through and how, after coming to terms the abuse she suffered, she has come through the other side healthy and ready to move on.  An emotionally and physically abusive relationship with her mother, who pushed her into acting as a young child, taught her to become anorexic as a way to delay puberty, and showered her into her mid-teens, ended when her mother died of cancer. But the repercussions from those actions, which, at the time, McCurdy did not recognize as abuse, impacted the next decade of her life, leading to bulimia, alcoholism, and unhealthy relationships with men.

McCurdy, who came to fame starring in children’s shows on Nickelodeon like iCarly and Sam & Cat, pulls no punches in this memoir.  She had previously turned down hush money from Nickelodeon, so she was able to talk about the uncomfortable feelings she had when dealing with “the creator” aka Dan Schneider, who had seen his teen show kingdom shut down over accusations of inappropriate behavior.  She was oblivious to her mother’s abuse, yet was able to recount it in a way that made it obvious to outsiders.  That she was managed to survive it all and, hopefully, continue to thrive moving forward, is a bit of a miracle.