Nobody Will Tell You This But Me
OOh this one. Perfect for Mother’s Day Bess Kalb honors her grandma Bobby’s inimitable character in this endearing and fresh take on the family memoir (with photos just where your curiosity wants them). Bobby helped raise Kalb and their relationship was immensely close; to capture Bobby’s voice Kalb interviews her mother and grandfather, quotes beloved Bobby-voicemails, and sorts through nostalgic memorabilia to bring her to life. Bobby was at once brash and beloved and you will love every minute of her life-story; she was the child of a Russian immigrant escaping anti-Semitism and yet she rises from the tenements to a summer house on the Vineyard “My mother fled through Europe,” Bobby marvels, “and half a century later I danced through it, Kir Royale in hand. How do you like that?” You’ll delight in Bobby’s joy and shake your head when she says things like -- after Kalb gets a job writing for Jimmy Kimmel: “get a blowout for your hair. The rest you can handle.” One of a kind. - Sandy
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.