Book Club November 2024- The Third Gilmore Girl
By: Kelly Bishop
Published Year: 2024
Publisher: Gallery Books
Pages: 256
Summary (Provided by Goodreads): Kelly Bishop’s long, storied career has been defined by landmark achievements, from winning a Tony Award for her turn in the original Broadway cast of A Chorus Line to her memorable performance as Jennifer Grey’s mother in Dirty Dancing. But it is probably her iconic role as matriarch Emily in the modern classic Gilmore Girls that cemented her legacy.
Now, Bishop reflects on her remarkable life and looks towards the future with The Third Gilmore Girl. She shares some of her greatest stories and the life lessons she’s learned on her journey. From her early transition from dance to drama, to marrying young to a compulsive gambler, to the losses and achievements she experienced—among them marching for women’s rights and losing her second husband to cancer—Bishop offers a rich, genuine celebration of her life.
Full of witty insights, The Third Gilmore Girl is a warm, unapologetic, and spirited memoir from a woman who has left indelible impressions on her audiences for decades and has no plans on slowing down.
This book was my pick this month. My friends and I are all big Gilmore Girls fans as well as big Broadway/musical fans so this was a very easy choice.
This memoir was fabulous. Bishop started her career as a ballerina, moved to Broadway, and finally to television. I knew that she originated a role in A Chorus Line before she came into our hearts as Emily Gilmore, but didn’t know much else about her life.
As much as I loved reading about her experience on Gilmore Girls, I think I might’ve enjoyed reading about her childhood and her life as a dancer even more. It was so interesting and unbelievable in the way that Old Hollywood is.
I don’t really have much to say because I don’t want to give away all of her secrets. This book is short and sweet and well written. If you are a Kelly Bishop fan, you won’t be disappointed. I think she has the perfect balance of dirt and insight with nostalgia. It was a fun and quick read and I can’t wait to listen to it on audiobook one day!
What Book Club Thought
We actually had a lot of good discussion about this book! I was a little worried that since it was a memoir, and a short one at that, that we wouldn’t have much to talk about. However, we ended up having a fun discussion about the title of he book and whether that would’ve been what we chose as well as different parts of her life we would’ve like to have heard more about. We also talked a lot about things that surprised us in her life and career. If your book club is a fan of Gilmore Girls, I would highly recommend picking this one.