Growing Up Fisher

Musings, Memories, and Misadventures

By: Joely Fisher

Narrated by: Joely Fisher

Length: 9 hrs and 56 mins

Publisher's summary

Actress, director, entertainer Joely Fisher invites listeners backstage into the intimate world of her career and family with this hilarious, irreverent, down-to-earth memoir filled with incredible, candid stories about her life, her famous parents, and how the loss of her unlikely hero, sister Carrie Fisher, ignited the writer in her.

Growing up in an iconic Hollywood Dynasty, Joely Fisher knew a show business career was her destiny. The product of world-famous crooner Eddie Fisher and '60s sex kitten Connie Stevens, she struggled with her own identity and place in the world on the way to a decades-long career as an acclaimed actress, singer, and director.

Now, Joely shares her unconventional coming of age and stories of the family members and costars dearest to her heart while stripping bare her own misadventures. In Growing Up Fisher, she recalls the beautifully bizarre twist of fate by which she spent a good part of her childhood next door to Debbie Reynolds. She speaks frankly about the realities of Hollywood - the fame and fortune, the constant scrutiny. Throughout, she celebrates the anomaly of a two-decade marriage in the entertainment industry and the joys and challenges of parenting five children, while dishing on what it takes to survive and thrive in the unrelenting glow of celebrity. She speaks frankly about how the loss of her sister, Carrie Fisher, became a source of artistic inspiration.

Fisher's memoir will both break and warm your heart.

©2017 TrueMoonSkye Productions (P)2017 HarperCollins Publishers

Mostly entertaining

She had me until she started bashing the President, otherwise the story interesting. At that point I quit listening, she ruined the whole book.

Another side of the coin

Having listened to all of Debbie Reynold's audio books and then Carrie Fishers and Eddie Fishers, it was fun to get a completely different point of view on much of what had been written by others. Joely does a great job of telling her story and also letting the reader know what became of her own mother, Connie Fisher (heartbreaking to learn she'd also had a stroke around the same time as Debbie Reynolds). This is a story of a famous, but very flawed family, that allows the reader to know it isn't always greener on the other side and that celebrities are just like the rest of us - damaged, loved, forgiven their flaws.

Very Enjoyable

I was only aware of Joely as Carrie Fishers half sister. Her story is a good one, lots of high and lots of lows. She is very honest about her life which make the book even more enjoyable. Her description and struggle with her aging mother touched me deeply. I can relate on all levels, gives you comfort to no you are not alone.

Worth your time, Joely is fantastic!

So very sorry Connie~ This breaks my heart!

Of course there is an interest as to what went on within this family, but I really struggled with the disrepect shown toward her mom (most often just referred to as Connie). She is a legend~ being a single parent to 2 daughters while maintaining a career in such a difficult industry deserves a better tribute. No one is ever prepared to be the caretaker of their parent, but you step up & do it with unconditional love & absolute respect.

Amazing stories ! So well written.

Joely is an incredible storyteller with so much life experience and wisdom. I recommend this book to all !!

A thoughtful, insightful telling of her truth.

I had never heard of Joelly Fisher before listening to this audiobook. I was pleasantly surprised by her candor, self-reflection, and discussion of both historical details and her own feelings. Her humor does remind me of her late sister’s sardonic take on life. I came away from listening to find that I like this person. I appreciate her honesty about feeling not good enough, not pretty enough, or not fill-in-the-blank enough because of her illustrious family and the nature of show biz. I do take issue with previous reviews finding that they didn’t like the book anymore when the author discusses her feelings about the former (let’s hope permanently former) President. I value her judgment in this area and commend her for her stand on numerous social and political issues. Highly recommend.

Not what I thought it would be but I loved it.

Call me shallow but I thought this would be more about Carrie and their relationship as half sisters but it really is, and rightfully so, about Joely and her mom Connie Stevens. She does talk about Carrie and it is clear she loved her sister very much. Any disappointment I may have thought I would feel when I realized I had been wrong about what the book would be was quickly erased as I really loved learning about Joely and Connie, her Mom, and her other sister and the whole family. I grew up a fan of Connie and it was really nice to learn so much about her. It was also amazing to see the same kind of problems that Debbie and Carrie had going on in their life were also going on with Connie and her girls. The wrong guy for a husband more than once and bad financial decision.

What this book is about is love, the love you have for your family and the love they have for you. That is if you are lucky to find that love with your family. I must admit I was jealous of the bond these people all seem to have in both the Fisher house but also in the Reynolds house also.

This book will make you laugh, cry and learn about life and how no one's grass is really greener, everyone has their demons and cross to bear. If you are a fan of Connie, Joely or Carrie I think you will love this book as much as I did. If you are a fan of Carrie's book you will like this one as I feel Joely and Carrie have a very similar style or at least one that compliments one and others style.

In short, I know too late, It's just a really good book and Joely reads it to you like she is sitting down over coffee with you telling you about her like, and what a life. What a book and WOW what a great family the whole bunch of them were and are.

HAUNTINGLY BEAUTIFUL NARRATION

i’ll read anything she writes OR narrates. please narrate many more books please write many more books. thank you for opening the door of your life and touching my heart

Another Fab Fisher Author

I loved reading this book by Joely. She is open and honest about growing up famous, being the sister to the other famous Fisher daughter...and even included some fun stuff about Mama Deb. What I enjoyed particularly was Joely's discussion about her relationship with her equally famous mother, Connie Stevens. If you enjoyed Todd Fisher's book, My Girls...you will also enjoy this read.

Not worth the $11 bucks I paid

Glad I didn’t pay full price. The title of the book should be “D List: My half sister Carrie Died My mom is Connie Stevens”. I bought the audiobook assuming she would share her life growing up with her successful Mother Connie Stevens. There were a lot of stories but no mention of her drug sex escapades or abortions! This was a Niche book to her fans but I first said Joely who?. She also is a perfect example of living in the Hollywood bubble of though. She yelled Trump with anger sounding unhinged for a moment showing her loon political views something about women have power blah blah blah....I’m not a author but she included a quick news story that was current for a moment when she was writing this book that ended up being fake news.(The Trump Russian hooker story).