The New York Times bestselling collection of humorous autobiographical essays by the Academy Award–nominated actress and star of Up in the Air and Pitch Perfect. Even before she made a name for herself on the silver screen starring in films like Pitch Perfect, Up in the Air, Twilight, and Into the Woods, Anna Kendrick was unusually small, weird, and “10 percent defiant.” At the ripe age of … was unusually small, weird, and “10 percent defiant.”
At the ripe age of thirteen, she had already resolved to “keep the crazy inside my head where it belonged. Forever. But here’s the thing about crazy: It. Wants. Out.” In Scrappy Little Nobody, she invites readers inside her brain, sharing extraordinary and charmingly ordinary stories with candor and winningly wry observations.
With her razor-sharp wit, Anna recounts the absurdities she’s experienced on her way to and from the heart of pop culture as only she can–from her unusual path to the performing arts (Vanilla Ice and baggy neon pants may have played a role) to her double life as a middle-school student who also starred on Broadway to her initial “dating experiments” (including only liking boys who didn’t like her back) to reviewing a binder full of butt doubles to her struggle to live like an adult woman instead of a perpetual “man-child.”
Enter Anna’s world and follow her rise from “scrappy little nobody” to somebody who dazzles on the stage, the screen, and now the page–with an electric, singular voice, at once familiar and surprising, sharp and sweet, funny and serious (well, not that serious).more
I listened to the audiobook of Scrappy Little Nobody and would highly recommend to anyone who enjoy’s Kendrick’s particularly flavor of one-liners and possibly ill-advised oversharing. Like a lot of celebrity memoirs there are some filler essays (in one, she describes in detail the menu she’d serve at a various fictional dinner parties), but the short book is meatier and more honest than average.
The memoir unfolds in chronological order, for the most part, starting with Kendrick’s somewhat boring childhood in Maine and chronicling her journey through the present. I like Kendrick as an actress and follow her on Twitter, but would not consider myself a super-fan, so I was surprised by how little I knew about her early career as a child actor on Broadway. Overall, I found her anecdotes about her childhood and struggling actress days less interesting than her sometimes scathing insights into the ridiculousness of Hollywood and her ruminations on what it means to be a functioning adult (putting toilet paper on the roll vs. setting it on top is a good start).
I read this book in one two sittings, it’s a little read. Anna Kendrick, offers a little inside into her life as a ‘Scrappy Little Nobody’ she considers herself. Anna Kendrick is wildly charismatic and true to herself. My favorite insight into her life would be from time filming Up in the Air into her Twilight years. Simple read for life’s little adventures.
More of a linear memoir than a series of essays, but still funny and has me more convinced than ever that Anna and I could be best friends!
I wanted to read at least 2 nonfiction books in 2020 and I decided to pick Scrappy Little Nobody because I thought it would be fun.
This book is hilarious, sassy, crazy and enjoyable. It felt honest and real, almost like reading a letter from a friend that was telling me about their life.
Pitch Perfect is only mentioned briefly unfortunately, but there are stories about Camp, Twilight, Into The Woods, Up in the Air that I really loved to read. I think my favorite part is when Anna talks about her performance at the Oscars with Neil Patrick Harris and Jack Black.
There was a chapter or two that in my opinion didn’t add much, like the fake parties chapter, but overall it was super funny and charming.
Anna Kendrick is insecure, awkward, stubborn, hilarious, sarcastic and surprisingly relatable. I was surprised by how much she shared about her insecurities and her romantic life, it was very refreshing.
Scrappy Little Nobody is a funny, charming, witty, entertaining book.
I love musical theater more than most things, and when I saw Anna Kendrick – who portrayed both Cinderella in Into the Woods and Cathy in The Last Five Years (two of my favorite musicals), not to mention Becca in the wonder that is Pitch Perfect, I had to listen to it during my long commute (Anna reads the audiobook version, which adds a lot of depth to the reading experience). I expected to laugh a lot and hear many stories of making musical-inspired films, and while there were some funny moments alongside some surprisingly poignant moments, I actually did not enjoy most of the book. Anna tries to come off as this scrappy, weird everyday girl who has normal teenage rebellions and feels like an outsider and doesn’t buy into the whole Hollywood image. Unfortunately, while listening to her read, she often came off as pretentious and deeply unrelatable, isolating herself as being above most of the “crazy” theater & film communities and often making it hard for the reader (or listener in this case) to find common ground – and these are just the stories from before her fame. There were very few stories in the book from her working life, and those that were were not about the work itself. The writing is very wry and self-deprecating and I can see how it would connect with a different audience. Unfortunately, it just wasn’t what I was looking for!
Very funny, endearing book. I loved the stories that she had to tell. There were many times in which I laughed out loud reading this book. It was funny and a realistic portrayal of her life. I think she is a great actress and her humor and personality translate perfectly in the book.
This book is wonderful in audio! I’m fascinated by the path creative people take, and Anna Kendrick is intensely warm, witty, and wise in the telling of her story. Also, it brings the gift of the phrase, “You think you’re better than me!?!” which is awfully fun to shout.
An excellent insight into Anna Kendrick’s life and style of humor.
It’s funny, witty, and full of self deprecating stories that give you an inside look at how Miss Kendrick got her start and made her way in the world of acting.
I’d give it 3.5 stars. Interesting to learn more about Anna, and definitely some entertaining anecdotes.
I love Anna Kendrick so it’s no surprise I loved her book. I listened to the audiobook which I highly recommend because you get Anna reading it herself. I loved the insight into her world and her life, from her childhood all the way through her latest adventures in Hollywood and the funny tales of others in the business she discusses (the part about Zac Efron made me love him even more too). I recommend this book to everyone who enjoys a good celebrity memoir style book.
I love Anna so much! I cast her as my protagonist in the first novel I wrote.
I love her sense of humor, I love her sense of self. I loved that even by opening up, she still managed to keep a boundary between us and her personal life.
The art of self deprecation is occasionally a wonderful thing to enjoy. Anna Kendrick has only left the filters on to keep stories that could get her blacklisted or into a feud, though beyond that, any amount of oversharing of embarrassing moments is embraced with candor, authenticity, and a hefty heaping scoop of IDGAF.
It is a nice candid look into what the life of an actor can be like, warts, tape on bras, paparazzi, and anything else you can imagine. It also offers a very unique perspective of someone who is famous, but not ridiculously so. Someone who was in a hit franchise but on the fringes looking in. The story of someone who has anxiety and is on an indefinite 3-month plan to get her stuff together.
Language, situations, content, and honesty are all adult level, though a very fun read. It is super casual and relaxed and feels like she’s writing you a 270 page email to try and help you understand where she’s coming from. If things are a bit heavy, it’s definitely something I’d recommend you to read and this is coming from a 40-year-old dude, who loves fantasy, middle-grade, poetry, and non-fiction, meaning, I like variety and randomness, and this book even includes a pirate story…of a sorts.
Here’s to 3-month plans, selectively growing up, and real moments that keep us grounded.
Anna Kendrick has written a decent little autobiography (it IS little; she’s quite young still) that more or less follows her rise from a very dedicated hard-working stage kid to a very dedicated, surprisingly hard-working film actress. It’s not a life-changer for most of us by any stretch, but if you are an Anna Kendrick fan, or just like learning a little bit about the weird world of casting and film shoots and the experience of Hollywood acting from the bottom to top, it’s an interesting perspective.
Kendrick’s book sets out to be radically honest, and mostly succeeds: you’re left with a not-overly-flattering portrait of the author, which might add to or detract from the book’s charm depending on how you feel about it. It does contain some empowering advice for women and offers a reassuring image of the personal insecurities and impostor syndrome that can hound any artist in any field.
Overall I wasn’t quite as enthralled in Kendrick’s personal anecdotes as others might be. Kendrick tries to trade on her weird-quirky-neurotic-geek branding here, but while her “outsider” self-perception may be genuine, you never really forget that she’s an attractive mainstream actress without the kind of stigma she imagines for herself. The book has a lot in common genre-wise with Felicia Day’s “You’re Never Weird On The Internet”: as far as those two titles go I prefer Day’s autobiography, which should surprise no one since writing is actually a cornerstone of her career in entertainment. But it’s not really fair to say one is “better” than the other: you can only write the life you’ve lived, after all, and both women do an important service when they put their own stories of struggle and success out there.
Would I recommend it? Maybe. If you’re a giant Anna Kendrick fan, of course. If you’re interested in researching or learning about what it’s really life living as a moderately-successful film actress, it’s probably worth the read. For most people, I’d say it’s worth picking up a copy from the library sometime: this is doubly true if you get the audiobook. As you’d expect from an Oscar nominee, Kendric is a much better dramatic reader than many writers are, and narrates her own book better than most readers. The audiobook, on the strength of her delivery, probably merits an extra star. It’s not, however, a book I’d feel compelled to own and revisit.
It was the laugh I needed!
I relate to this book sooooo much. I love Anna way more now than I ever have. Also, Anna is hilarious so listen to Anna read the audiobook with the physical book in front of you so you can see the pictures she refers to. Read. This. Book.
I clearly have a thing for audiobooks of celebrity memoirs/essays read by the celebrity author, and I’m pretty sure this is the one that started it all. Hilarious, self-deprecating, and great company in the car. And I’ll always be glad I listened to it because it helped me find Kendrick’s utterly hilarious performance of Sondheim’s “Ladies Who Lunch” in the movie Camp. Not to be missed.