Also of interest...in celebrity memoirs

Stories I Only Tell My Friends by Rob Lowe; I’m Over All That by Shirley MacLaine; Does the Noise in My Head Bother You? by Steven Tyler; If You Ask Me (And of Course You Won’t) by Betty White

Stories I Only Tell My Friends

by Rob Lowe

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You might expect Rob Lowe’s memoir to be filled with “stories of sun, surf, and sex in Malibu,” said Gerald Bartell in The Washington Post. But don’t let the pretty face fool you. Lowe’s candid account of his life is “shot through with pain, anxiety, and unhappiness.” Though still bashful about the details of a 1988 sex scandal, he’s forthcoming about his wild days as a member of the early-’80s Brat Pack. “Looking back, he sounds wise, mature, and content.”

I’m Over All That

by Shirley MacLaine

(Atria, $22)

You don’t have to be crazy to understand Shirley MacLaine, “but it helps,” said John Harding in the London Daily Mail. The actress, 77, styles her new book as a list of things she’s “gotten over,” but more interesting are the things she hasn’t, including reincarnation and UFOs—she believes we’re all “descended from aliens from the planet Nibiru.” Yet for all her looniness, MacLaine comes across as “well meaning and likable,” and her book is “anything but a dull read.”

Does the Noise in My Head Bother You?

by Steven Tyler

(Ecco, $28)

“Certain conventions must be respected” when writing a rock memoir, said Andy Lewis in The Hollywood Reporter. “Band fights have to be detailed, partying catalogued, hookups listed.” Steven Tyler “delivers the goods” in this account of his four-decade run as lead singer of Aerosmith. For the $20 million Tyler says he spent on drugs, he managed to pick up a few good stories. Meanwhile, his “bromance” with Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry gives the book its “emotional core.”

If You Ask Me (And of Course You Won’t)

by Betty White

(Putnam, $26)

Betty White “should be sitting in a rocker sipping tea and making a quilt,” said Marco R. Della Cava in the Chicago Sun-Times. Instead, she’s busy “causing anyone under 90 to feel like a slacker.” When she’s not taking on endless new film and television roles, the 89-year-old White is writing it all down. Her sixth and latest book “isn’t so much a tell-all as a tell-anything,” and includes interesting ruminations on such celebrity friends as Elizabeth Taylor and Fred Astaire.

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