Talking as Fast as I Can by Lauren Graham

Talking as Fast as I Can

by Lauren Graham

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • 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.

Reviewed by Quirky Cat on

4 of 5 stars

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I have a confession to make: I don’t normally read biographies. Oh sure, I have a list of biographies and autobiographies that I’ve been adding to my mental TBR list, but I rarely even actually get around to reading them. On the rare occasion I do pick one up, I usually find myself immediately sucked into the story, and more often than not end up loving the whole thing. So I don’t really know why I don’t read more of them. Go figure.
I’ve been meaning to read Talking as Fast as I Can ever since it was announced (alongside the announcement of the Gilmore Girls reboot), but somehow I didn’t get around to it until now. Which is a shame; I love Lauren Graham and have always wanted to know a bit more about her and her career. But it actually worked out for me – the version I picked up (thanks to my local library) has a bonus chapter in it that I don’t think was included in the original run of the book.
Also, apparently the audiobook version of this is actually narrated by Lauren Graham (not all that surprising, when you stop to think about it). I really wish I had known that beforehand – it sounds like it would have been hilarious to listen to her ramble on in the way she does. Thankfully her rambling translates really well to paper, so hopefully I didn’t miss out on all that much.



If you’re a fan of Lauren Graham or any of the shows she’s been in, this will likely be a fun read for you. It’s light and playfully written; which doesn’t surprise me given Graham’s personality. Through her storytelling of her life we learn a lot about her career, personal opinions, little anecdotes about her life, and loads more. The whole time I was reading this I swear I was hearing her chipper voice in my head.
Graham’s novel is pretty neatly laid out, with most of the chapter titles being self-explanatory and well defined. She covers many different times in her life; from her early career all the way up to the reboot of Gilmore Girls, and everything in between. Obviously being a huge fan of Gilmore Girls I was particularly happy to read those parts (good news: there’s two whole chapters dedicated to the show! One for the original and the other for the reboot). I did enjoy reading about other parts of her career, while I’ve known for a while how awesome she is, but I had no idea that she was so accomplished! It was really great to hear, to be honest.
Graham also covers a little bit of her personal life as well; she tells some stories from when she was a kid, and then there’s the chapter on her love life (or lack thereof – the title of the chapter is ‘Before My REI Card: Some Thoughts on Being Single’ which while verbose does give us a pretty good idea of what she wants to say), and a chapter about Old Lady Jackson (this will make so much more sense when you read the book, I promise).
On the whole this was a really fun read, and I learned so much more about an actress I deeply respect. It’s wonderful to hear about what she’s been doing since Gilmore Girls ended (I’ll confess I haven’t seen any of Parenthood), and after I finish this review I fully intend to look up her other novels (I sincerely had no idea she had been published before this book – my bad). I loved Graham’s writing style and I really do hope she continues to write.


For more reviews, check out Quirky Cat's Fat Stacks

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 22 March, 2018: Finished reading
  • 22 March, 2018: Reviewed