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My pick for July 2017 is “The Longest Way Home” by Andrew McCarthy (yes, THAT Andrew McCarthy!!)
Andrew did a signing here a few months back. My friend and I were desperately trying to go, so that we could meet one of our childhood crushes. I pretty much wanted to marry Blane after I saw Pretty in Pink, haha! We were unable to get to his signing & I was sad. I will be on the lookout for him in the future. But, I’ve been wanting to read his New York Times Bestseller “The Longest Way Home.” So, here goes! Continuing with my trend of picking celebrity/movie star books, this book is a little different. Apparently, Andrew became a travel writer. Who knew? I’ve never read an actual “travel book” genre book before, so I’m looking forward to trying this out. Hope you can pick this one up for the summer!
From Amazon:
WITH ABSORBING HONESTY AND AN IRREPRESSIBLE TASTE for adventure, award-winning travel writer and actor Andrew McCarthy takes us on a deeply personal journey played out amid some of the world’s most evocative locales. Unable to commit to his fiancée of nearly four years—and with no clear understanding of what’s holding him back— McCarthy finds himself at a crossroads, plagued by doubts that have clung to him for a lifetime. Though he ventures from the treacherous slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro to an Amazonian riverboat and the dense Costa Rican rain forests, McCarthy’s real journey is one of the spirit. Disarmingly likable, McCarthy isn’t afraid to bare his soul on the page, and what emerges is an intimate memoir of self-discovery and an unforgettable love song to the woman who would be his wife.I wanted to meet him soooo bad! He just released another book, so that’s why he was touring. Such a crush on him back in the day. My faves are Pretty in Pink and St. Elmo’s Fire. I watch them over and over anytime!
Done! I read this book super-quick and I loved it! The combination of feeling like I know Andrew as an actor, with his travel episodes, was a hit for me. I enjoyed his sense of vulnerability and honesty throughout the book, as he struggles toward his second marriage to his love, D. There are discussion questions at the end of the book! I don’t really have time for them, so these are just my overall impressions.
I did enjoy how he included a little bit of his celebrity life, to ground me in the familiarity with him, with a lot of his travels. I appreciated reading a book by a celebrity, not about their own celebrity! A nice change. He seems pretty blase about it, definitely not mired in it or defined by it. But, I also enjoyed the times in the book when he talks about how his acting informs his travels and vice versa. They are really kind of 2 sides of the same coin when you think about it. I enjoyed reading about all the places Andrew visited for the book. My fave being Baltimore, reading about many places and feelings I’m familiar with there. I can’t say I want to visit all of the places he goes to, some of them are truly wild. Definitely would love to visit Vienna and Ireland. Patagonia sounds super interesting, but man, it seems super rough there. No thanks to the jungles of Costa Rica and the Amazon. I can’t even walk to my mailbox without being covered in mosquitoes! I have a bff here that works as an epidemiologist for the CDC and travels the world, mostly to Africa. I love her stories, but they do not make me want to go to all those places. I really liked how Andrew’s travels serve as his therapy. He never really talks much directly about that (a little when he visits Freud’s office in Vienna), but I really do see his travel experiences as a type of therapy for him. A lot of overlap. Very fascinating to me. I really appreciated how he discusses his background/childhood, and how that’s all related to his current psyche. Our baggage on the baggage train is strong, and we don’t come from a vacuum. Many biography-type stories leave me bereft when the background is not analyzed in relation to the future person. To me, they’re inseparable.
I look forward to reading his current book. I’d love to dig and find some of his travel articles he wrote for magazines. And now I want to go watch his movies LOL. Pretty in Pink and St. Elmo’s Fire being my two faves. Less Than Zero, good but tragic as hell. Mulholland Falls I liked. But, I even love Class and freaking Weekend at Bernie’s and Mannequin! Haha! I’ve been kind of out of the pop culture loop since Rhett was born in 2010, but it would also be fun to check out any of the acting/directing work Andrew has done more recently. Looks like he’s done quite a bit of TV, which of course usually passes right over my head.
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