Talking As Fast As I Can by Lauren Graham

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In this collection of personal essays, the beloved star of Gilmore Girls and Parenthood reveals stories about life, love, and working as a woman in Hollywood—along with behind-the-scenes dispatches from the set of the new Gilmore Girls, where she plays the fast-talking Lorelai Gilmore once again.

In Talking as Fast as I Can, Lauren Graham hits pause for a moment and looks back on her life, sharing laugh-out-loud stories about growing up, starting out as an actress, and, years later, sitting in her trailer on the Parenthood set and asking herself, “Did you, um, make it?” She opens up about the challenges of being single in Hollywood (“Strangers were worried about me; that’s how long I was single!”), the time she was asked to audition her butt for a role, and her experience being a judge on Project Runway (“It’s like I had a fashion-induced blackout”).

In “What It Was Like, Part One,” Graham sits down for an epic Gilmore Girls marathon and reflects on being cast as the fast-talking Lorelai Gilmore. The essay “What It Was Like, Part Two” reveals how it felt to pick up the role again nine years later, and what doing so has meant to her.

Some more things you will learn about Lauren: She once tried to go vegan just to bond with Ellen DeGeneres, she’s aware that meeting guys at awards shows has its pitfalls (“If you’re meeting someone for the first time after three hours of hair, makeup, and styling, you’ve already set the bar too high”), and she’s a card-carrying REI shopper (“My bungee cords now earn points!”).

Including photos and excerpts from the diary Graham kept during the filming of the recent Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life, this book is like a cozy night in, catching up with your best friend, laughing and swapping stories, and—of course—talking as fast as you can. 



Graham writes like she talks which makes reading the book fast and engaging. She talks about everything from her childhood to college days and the early years of struggling to find good acting parts before landing her iconic role as Lorelai Gilmore. She fills the pages with funny stories, embarrassing moments and also those teaching moments that stayed with her. Through it all, I got the sense that she maintained her upbeat attitude and was thankful for any opportunity that presented itself.

Most readers will eat up the part of the book where she binges on the entire Gilmore Girls series and reminisces on each season. She jokingly remarks upon the changes in technology, comparisons in wardrobes, hairstyles, storylines. Since my eldest had just recently finished bingeing on the show as well, some of the details Graham recalls were fresh in my mind. She ends the book by sharing excerpts from her diary she kept while filming the revival. I found that to be especially interesting as she writes about their out of sequence filming schedule and how certain aspects of the storyline kind of stumped her. But best of all is the impression that returning to the Gilmore Girls family was essentially returning home after a very long vacation.

I wasn't looking for any sort of lightening-strike-oh-wow moment - I just wanted to read a book by someone I adore. But then she went and offered up this piece of wisdom, really more of a reminder about life in general when faced with disappointment. It's so simple yet powerful and it's my favourite passage from the entire book:

"I still find that, in general, having a plan is, well, a good plan. But when my carefully laid plan laughed at me, rather than clutch at it too tightly I just made a new one, even if it was one that didn't immediately make sense. In blindly trying a different path, I accidentally found one that worked better." 

I'm a Gilmore Girls fan and lately I've gotten into memoirs, so combine these two things and I'm a happy camper. Through her humour and personable charm, Graham shows us just how resilient she has been and how enormously appreciative she is of her experiences. She's someone whom we would love to join us on Bibliojunkies BFF Island. I can only begin to imagine the stories she has tucked away. I'm so glad I picked this up. Talking As Fast As I Can -- all Gilmore Girls/Parenthood fans will find pure enjoyment in this!

~ Bel