Actress of a Certain Age: My Twenty-Year Trail to Overnight Success

The celebrity memoir genre is crowded; as his hit HBO television series suggests, you must be Somebody Somewhere to even dream of landing a book deal. Hiller knows the genre well, having read (and loved) hundreds of celebrity bios, and he has written a hilarious sendup that details the challenges of growing up gay in Texas, coming out, and ultimately finding success as an improv comedian and actor. The title of each chapter references another (albeit more famous) actor’s memoir, and Hiller includes a fact about how old each star was when they first became famous. It’s a gimmick that’s as clever as it is funny. He describes his book as “a collection of essays that sort of add up to a memoir,” but that’s just his hard-won self-deprecating humor talking. Hiller’s writing is equal parts hysterical and heartwarming, whether he’s describing his early days as a queer actor working in non-inclusive environments or dishing about his roles on numerous sitcoms over the years. This mixture of funny memoir and Chicken Soup for the Soul is a real showstopper.