Love, Ellen by Betty deGeneres
Book 1 - Autumn 2015 TBR list
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| Ellen and Betty |
I really enjoyed Betty's style of writing, you can imagine yourself just sitting in a room chatting with her and listening to her stories. She has a warm, grandma quality about her writing which makes you want to pick the book up. I enjoyed her interspersing of facts with tales from her own life, it was a good way to tell her story and to get her points across. However, at times (particularly when she talked about the work she does in promoting and campaigning for gay rights globally) it felt like an endless stream of names she was throwing out of people she had met.
Betty schooled me proper in what things were like for gay people in the US in the 70s, 80s and 90s. It was interesting as a reader in 2015 reading a book published in the late 90s, and it was considered very progressive. And of course, at the time of writing, it was as current and progressive as it could be. She mentions in the book, that as she writes "only ten states have anti-discrimination laws based on sexual orientation". This means in only ten states when this book was written were workers free to come out and be themselves, without fear of losing their jobs. Here, she's not claiming this is as progressive as it could be and goes on to say it should be 50 states, but the thought now of only 20% of American people being free to be themselves in their workplace was staggering. I was 14 when this book was written, so it ain't ancient history. Another interesting theme Betty touched on in the book was religion, its place in her life and the world. It's commonly expected that religious beliefs and acceptance and tolerance of homosexuality are mutually exclusive. Yet she talks about examples explaining why this doesn't need to be the case, and the two can co-exist in harmony. She says, quite profoundly, "Religion should never be an excuse not to love".
I read this on holiday recently, and it was a great read by the pool, on the plane, and in fact, I had my nose buried in this book at the luggage carousel when we landed in Belfast. It was a pleasant easy read, and gave some context to a much-loved TV personality.
Overall score - 3.5/5
