READ THIS: Diary of a Stage Mother's Daughter by Melissa Francis Our Coverage Sponsored by Cosmopolitan Dental, Official Dentist of Whom You Know
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The brilliant Melissa Francis has a new book out- but it's not this one. We wanted to start at the beginning, and we hadn't read this and we believe this is her first book. Though our READ THIS column numbers into the 700s now, the fact that we publish far fewer book reviews than we once did is that there are only 24 hours in a day and we quite honestly cannot find as many great new books. One of our favorites is Quiet Hero which you all should read to celebrate the upcoming Independence Day if you have not yet. Peachy is reading all of Mark Twain that was first owned by her great-grandfather so she is reading-she hasn't stopped. Avid readers know that another Francis (named after his ancestor, Francis Scott Key whom you know if you sing the American National Anthem because he wrote it) just came back from the dead to appear in this column, but you might only know him by the F. initial.
Diary of a Stage Mother's Daughter is incredibly well-written, and startlingly rawly honest. You will find parts shocking; it is not a story for children of course; we wish a lot of it didn't happen but Melissa is highly inspirational to have gotten over such difficulty. We are taking Melissa at her word-we have never met and do not know Melissa. (We often do know and have met authors that appear here. We try to know many that we write about. Sometimes they even put us in their next book...)
This book is such a page-turner, we read it in fewer than 24 hours: it is gripping, interesting, and you're going to wonder what's going to happen next with such an explosive personality (not Melissa). We imagine it is far better to read than live in these parts. It's not a light read by any means; it is heavy and intriguing. Melissa comes off relatively cool as a cucumber in the turmoil which is exactly the kind of vision you want in this current Manhattan heat wave.
Diary of a Stage Mother's Daughter is testament to the fact that you do not know what other people's lives are like if you are not living them. This is California Dreaming, but not quite. Melissa evidences both her emotional and intellectual intelligence in every page, and it seems innate. As a child actress, Melissa matured early. She appeared on Little House on the Prairie with Jason Bateman as her brother.
We will warn you, parts of this book you should find unnerving as it becomes crystal clear which people she can and cannot count on, and these moments are sad particularly when you consider her age at the time, however, it's part of her life story that looks like it turned out mostly happy as you see her on television. Melissa's ability to overcome adversity will make you a Melissa cheerleader. She did go to Harvard, after all and she made sure she did.
We love the stories with her Dad and some with her sister. We are incredibly envious that she was in the Barbie commercial (we do cover Barbie...) and all signs from the outside point to one charmed life. But was it really? Does it make sense and is it even possible to be a family politician promoting harmony? Read the top of page 149 for more on this. We really liked the pictures in the middle of the book.
"The more I thought about it, the more I realized that I needed to make all of my own decisions from then on, and not let the potential backlash at home dictate my path. I was eighteen, and the rest of my life was up to me." (p. 188)
Diary of a Stage Mother's Daughter is Highly Recommended by Whom You Know.
We're also going to read her new book, so stay tuned. Maybe Melissa should write a book on her dad...
The Glass Castle meets The Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother in this dazzlingly honest and provocative family memoir by former child actress and current Fox Business Network anchor Melissa Francis.
When Melissa Francis was eight years old, she won the role of lifetime: playing Cassandra Cooper Ingalls, the little girl who was adopted with her brother (played by young Jason Bateman) by the Ingalls family on the world's most famous primetime soap opera, Little House on the Prairie. Despite her age, she was already a veteran actress, living a charmed life, moving from one Hollywood set to the next. But behind the scenes, her success was fueled by the pride, pressure, and sometimes grinding cruelty of her stage mother, as fame and a mother's ambition pushed her older sister deeper into the shadows.
Diary of a Stage Mother's Daughter is a fascinating account of life as a child star in the 1980's, and also a startling tale of a family under the care of a highly neurotic, dangerously competitive "tiger mother." But perhaps most importantly, now that Melissa has two sons of her own, it's a meditation on motherhood, and the value of pushing your children: how hard should you push a child to succeed, and at what point does your help turn into harm?
