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    Melissa Explains It All: Tales from My Abnormally Normal Life
    Melissa Explains It All: Tales from My Abnormally Normal Life
    Melissa Explains It All: Tales from My Abnormally Normal Life
    Audiobook7 hours

    Melissa Explains It All: Tales from My Abnormally Normal Life

    Written by Melissa Joan Hart

    Narrated by Melissa Joan Hart

    3.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    Melissa Joan Hart explained it all—from dating to bullies—in her groundbreaking role as Clarissa Darling on Clarissa Explains It All. She cast a spell on millions more television viewers as Sabrina, the Teenage Witch. Now, in Melissa Explains It All, Melissa tells the frank and funny behind-the-scenes stories from her extraordinary past and her refreshingly normal present.

    Melissa has been entertaining audiences most of her life; when there were no girls named Melissa on her favorite show, the forceful four year old decided she'd get on TV her way. From that moment on, Melissa has shown a singular determination and focus—whether it's for booking three national commercials so her dad would build her a tree house or for nailing the audition for Clarissa.

    From her first commercial to her current starring role in ABC Family's hit Melissa and Joey, Hart never let fame go to her head. She always had one foot in Hollywood and one foot in reality—and still does. Melissa makes us laugh along with her as she talks about:

    --guest appearances in shows like Saturday Night Live and The Equalizer
    --auditioning for Punky Brewster and Clarissa
    --her early Broadway days
    --wacky parties she's thrown and attended
    -- the actors who influenced her and whom she befriended, worked with and competed against
    --her experiences both on and off-set—with Sabrina's Salem the Cat and Elvis the Alligator on Clarissa
    --how she met the love of her life at the Kentucky Derby

    Melissa Joan Hart explains all that she's learned along the way—what's kept her grounded, normal and working when others have not been so fortunate—and that she's the approachable, hilarious girl-next-door her fans have always thought she'd be.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Audio
    Release dateOct 29, 2013
    ISBN9781427233004
    Author

    Melissa Joan Hart

    MELISSA JOAN HART is an actor/producer/director who made her first national commercial at age four. Melissa currently co-stars in the ABC Family comedy series Melissa & Joey. She made her first big splash in the title role of Nickelodeon’s Clarissa Explains It All. . Both in the United States and abroad, Melissa is perhaps best known for her starring role in the Showtime movie-turned-network series, Sabrina, the Teenage Witch.  Melissa has appeared on Dancing with the Stars, That 70’s Show, and Law and Order: SVU, among others. Her production company, Hartbreak Films, has produced projects including Sabrina, Melissa & Joey, and a number of television movies and feature films.

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      My year off was also interesting, in that I didn’t feel any less loved, or cherished, or wanted. Why? Because my life is already rich with soulmates, and I got the chance to behold that. You don’t have to shag someone for them to be a soulmate. We do

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    Reviews for Melissa Explains It All

    3.5/5

    46 ratings5 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Great book :) felt as Melissa was a friend telling me storys
    • 5/5
      Amei!!
    • 3/5
      Wow, just wow! I am not one to follow celebrities in gossip magazines, so I know very little of their lives until, one day, I see a memoir and think "okay, I'll take a glimpse..." I had no idea that MJH was such a party animal!

      For the first little bit of the book, I wasn't surprised that MJH was precocious. I understood it, having it to a lesser degree as I spent years hanging out at my single mother's workplace (with adults) than with kids my own age, something MJH had working with adults. However, she quickly gets to her partying twenties and I almost went into shock. It is like she regressed and had to have that "wild child" phase she missed - even if she was slightly more responsible than others, in calling it early on work nights. I was just astounded.

      I was especially astounded by a story involving a racy photograph, but I won't spoil it.

      Just a warning: there's not a lot on Clarissa and Sabrina. I didn't expect there to be - not only was it years ago (memory fades) but to most actors it is just a job, where the weeks fade into each other and people, for the most part, are there to work. It is between the lines that, after describing what her week was like on the show, everything was relatively the same on set. Unless it is contentious, a lot of actors don't have a lot of stories to tell. Yeah, boring for us, but better for them (the sets with a story of the week just sound like hell to be on).

      To be honest, since the book jumps from her twenties (and there is even some craziness the weekend she meets her husband) to her doing a 180 when she meets her husband, because that's suppose to be who she really is, I actually had a hard time making the leap. It felt like she was one-day a party animal and the next a good girl wife and mother. Actually, given the stories of that weekend, it was the next day!

      After reading the book, I came to enter my review and saw others. I actually think they were too critical and it sounds like people skimmed, so they missed context of a lot of events and name dropping. First, MJH says specifically that she is going to name-drop, because that's what everybody asks and her people usually want from celebrity memoirs; so it was no surprise and expected. Second, as I said, I think they were skimming and missed the context that made the name-drop significant. For example, if you ask Ryan Reynolds, she admits he just says he made out with her once, but to her, she cheated on a boyfriend and felt horrible - so of course she remembers it was him vividly! James Van der Beek was a tale of him not living down to her expectations but voicing something she felt - that's not actually an insult! There is a lot to insult her on (and I had no idea how much) but that criticism is undeserved.

      Overall, it was an interesting read. She's not some particularly good writer, but she's okay. It's a silly little book that will break your expectations of MJH. However, I must admit that by the end, I was looking forward to the end. I was done with the ups-and-downs and the minutia. Get it cheap, like I did.
    • 2/5
      I am a huge fan of most 90s shows including Clarissa Explains It All and Sabrina the Teenage Witch. I thought this would a fun read. There were parts I enjoyed and others I found boring. I liked hearing about her career and hearing stories that included several other 90 stars you most likely are familiar with. But, there was also things that were just plan boring and I was ready for it to be over.
    • 1/5
      I was surprised on how disappointed with Hart's biography. She has achieved a lot, and I will give credit when it's due, but she was very self-congratulatory. It became tiresome very fast. Also, her name dropping got very annoying. Some people she named that she didn't really know. Hart named them because of the caché of their name.

      I've read many memoirs but this one made me cringed. She does or did drink a lot and experiment with different drugs. How professional is it to be high on a photoshoot? That was ridiculous and it could have cost her so much if she had gotten caught. It wasn't because she was clever but because Hart's trangressions bappened just so that they were missed. They were like ticks between a clock.

      Also, for a book that generally follows sequential order, it felt very disjointed. I always have liked Melissa Joan Hart but when I saw her during a signing at a bookstore, I found her unlikable. This was how her memoir was: unlikable and insincere. That was a letdown.