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What Did You Think of Handbook for an Unpredictable Life: How I Survived Sister Renata and My Crazy Mother, and Still Came Out Smiling (with Great Hair) by Rosie Pérez?

Today we are going to talk about March’s book of the month, Handbook for an Unpredictable Life: How I Survived Sister Renata and My Crazy Mother, and Still Came Out Smiling (with Great Hair) by Rosie Pérez. But first, let’s check out this book and see what it is all about.

SYNOPSIS

Rosie Perez first caught our attention with her fierce dance in the title sequence of Do the Right Thing and has since defined herself as a funny and talented actress who broke boundaries for Latinas in the film industry. What most people would be surprised to learn is that the woman with the big, effervescent personality has a secret straight out of a Dickens novel. At the age of three, Rosie’s life was turned upside down when her mentally ill mother tore her away from the only family she knew and placed her in a Catholic children’s home in New York’s Westchester County. Thus began her crazily discombobulated childhood of being shuttled between “the Home,” where she and other kids suffered all manners of cruelty from nuns, and various relatives’ apartments in Brooklyn.
 
Many in her circumstances would have been defined by these harrowing experiences, but with the intense determination that became her trademark, Rosie overcame the odds and made an incredible life for herself. She brings her journey vividly to life on each page of this memoir—from the vibrant streets of Brooklyn to her turbulent years in the Catholic home, and finally to film and TV sets and the LA and New York City hip-hop scenes of the 1980s and ‘90s. 
 
More than a page-turning read, Handbook for an Unpredictable Life is a story of survival. By turns heartbreaking and funny, it is ultimately the inspirational story of a woman who has found a hard-won place of strength and peace. 

QUESTIONS TO THINK ABOUT AND/OR ANSWER:

  1. What is Rosie doing to draw you in and keep you engaged with her life story?
  2. Were there any parts of the book where you would have liked more information?
  3. Would you recommend this book and if so to what sort of reader?
  4. What new things did you learn after reading Rosie’s story?

(Questions from Mocha Girl Classy on our FB Group page)

PRESS REVIEWS

“With refreshing candor and sass, Perez transforms the painful details of her life into an inspiring reminder that even the most unforgiving of personal circumstances can be overcome.  A spunky and heartfelt memoir.” —Kirkus

“I read Rosie Perez’s magnificent, very real, and heart wrenching book with equal parts joy and horror–horror that the world can and routinely does inflict its terrors on its children, and joy that Rosie made it out to become not only the superior, iconographic artist she is, but the magnificent woman this book reveals her to be. Her voice is the captivating instrument here: forthright, funny, and utterly her own.”—Hilton Als, staff writer, The New Yorker 

MOCHA GIRLS READ AND REVIEW

Let us know below in the comment section what your thoughts on this book were. We love hearing from you.

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Mocha Girl Alysia

Founder / President at Mocha Girls Read
Founder of Mocha Girls Read book club. But basically, just another girl who loves to read and then read some more and wants to meet others like me. If you add a cup of green tea with lemon and honey I will be overjoyed.
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