My Mother Was Nuts: A Memoir

I'd listen to it over and over. Penny Marshall gives a terrific performance with nuances for off-hand comments like "Huh?" or "You know."
You feel like she's talking just with you, not reading a book.
But the part that touched me so greatly was when she talked about the end of her mother's life. You could hear the pain in her voice. So sweet. So real.

It's an autobiography like most others. Starts when she's young and moves on from there. But with her reading it, it soars to be much more.

Never heard any of her other performances, but I'll definitely look them up to get them.

I listen to the book on my iPhone using the Audible application. I set it for 3X speed because I don't like to wade through books so slowly.
But for this book I lowered the speed. It's a book I wish wouldn't end.

Wow - what an amazing lady and an amazing life! Penny Marshall broke boundaries and found success without really knowing what she was doing - her incredible talent and intelligence drove her through it all. She is honest, humble, and above all, hilarious - plus her narration skills are superb (she has the vocabulary of a trucker - not offensive to me at all but you probably don't want your 6 year old to listen with you unless you want them to learn the proper usage of the f-word in all of its glory). I really enjoyed hearing about her antics with her Hollywood pals and the inside info on how movies and television shows are made. I wish all memoirs were like this - Penny should teach a class.

Penny marshals candid way of telling her story of her mark on the world. This is a great "look whack you can do with a life when your are given a ball and run with it" type story. I have always been a fan of Penny's work yet never knew why I was drawn to her, now I know why.... My mother is crazy too and I'm thankful for all I learned through her crazy.

When Penny was recounting John Balushi's death. I remember how the news hit me when I saw it on the evening news, yet I never knew him personally. I can only imagine the loss Penny and all his friends felt with his tragic passing. A brilliant comedic life lost in its prime.

EVERYTHING

I laughed, cried, contemplated my own life and choices I have made through the years only to come to the end of the book and have the same conclusion Penny did. I love my life so why change it.

This book is not only worth the credit but it is even worth paying for if you are out of credits.

I listened to Garry Marshall's book recently- that made this book even better because I already knew her mother was nuts. Her narration was great....casual and full of idiosyncrasies.

I loved listening to Penny Marshall for over 8 hours - I wish it could have been longer!

Too many to remember, it is such a great memoir.

Her own. She does a good impression of herself!

I laughed more with this book than any other I've listened to. Without a doubt.

This is not a book to be read - it MUST be listened to. Penny's voice makes her own life story so much more real & visual.

Listening to the author read in her own voice was great, but she isn't young Laverne anymore. It took a bit of time to get used to her 'mature' sound. I felt that at moments she was going through the motions of reading the words, but for the most part she delivered her part in an honest, matter of fact way. She never apologizes for the choices she made. She was living her life as we all do...one day at a time.

The opening is pretty funny-getting robbed by ninjas. There are moments that the emotion gets the better of her. It made her very likeable!

Herself

I reached a point that I didn't want to 'put it down' (stop listening).

I felt that she did what her mother taught her to do, 'entertain people'.

After listening to motivational and business books, I needed something light. Unfortunately, I found myself driving around a lot more just so I could listen to this book...instead of working! It was just fun to hear from Penny after all these years. A fun listen because it was her telling us about her life. It sound just like Penny, but older. Some may say it was a book about all the names she dropped...well...that was her life and it was fun to hear!

I liked how she came from meager roots, didn't have much direction really, and just fell into her life. She never seemed to go after anything, it just came to her. If it worked, great. If not, well...on to the next. Kind of like me...no idea what I want to be when I grow up, I just move from one day to the next and take care of whatever comes along.

I loved that she still sounds just like Laverne. Which she said she played just like herself.

Yes, there are moments when you cry and moments when you laugh. Plenty of moments I didn't even know happened (why would I??). It was fun to have an insider view of Hollywood.

If you love New Yorkers, loved Laverne, like hearing backstage Hollywood stuff that is not on a tabloid, want to be entertained, laugh some, cry some, buy the book. You will enjoy.

Yes, it's overall charm comes from being well written and inexpertly narrated. The choice of Penny Marshall to read her own story was a stroke of brilliance. It comes across as (someone we like to think of as) an old friend revealing stories about themselves we've never heard before. It's very obviously a reading of a book, though somehow transcending into more of a long letter from a favorite friend. It's stiffness is forgotten in the fun of hearing the story.

The most memorable moments are the relationship connections between Penny Marshall and well, . . . everyone. She makes LA, Hollywood and New York sound like one small town filled with interesting people. Interesting not because of what they've starred in but because of who they really are, what they shared with her and what she learned from them.

Narration wise, when Penny Marshall reads about her mother's passing. Her voice cracks and you feel her emotion.

Yes.

While the story was interesting I found it difficult to listen to the narration after a while.

I enjoyed hearing Penny herself tell the story.

yes, she claims not to be a good impersonator but I thought she did a good job.

The beginning was kind of sad and I needed a little break but by a few hours into it; I wanted more.

Would recommend this book.