Life Will Be the Death of Me

By: Chelsea Handler

Narrated by: Chelsea Handler

Length: 5 hrs and 25 mins

Publisher's Summary

NUMBER ONE NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER •

The funny, sad, super-honest, all-true story of Chelsea Handler’s year of self-discovery - featuring a nerdily brilliant psychiatrist, a shaman, four Chow Chows, some well-placed security cameras, various family members (living and departed), friends, assistants, and a lot of edibles

A SKIMM READS PICK • 

“This will be one of your favorite books of all time.” (Amy Schumer)

In a haze of vape smoke on a rare windy night in LA in the fall of 2016, Chelsea Handler daydreams about what life will be like with a woman in the White House. And then Donald Trump happens. In a torpor of despair, she decides that she’s had enough of the privileged bubble she’s lived in - a bubble within a bubble - and that it’s time to make some changes, both in her personal life and in the world at large.

At home, she embarks on a year of self-sufficiency - learning how to work the remote, how to pick up dog shit, where to find the toaster. She meets her match in an earnest, brainy psychiatrist and enters into therapy, prepared to do the heavy lifting required to look within and make sense of a childhood marked by love and loss and to figure out why people are afraid of her. She becomes politically active - finding her voice as an advocate for change, having difficult conversations, and energizing her base. In the process, she develops a healthy fixation on Special Counsel Robert Mueller, and through unflinching self-reflection and psychological excavation, unearths some glittering truths that light up the road ahead. Thrillingly honest, insightful, and deeply, darkly funny, Chelsea Handler’s memoir keeps listeners laughing, even as it inspires us to look within and ask ourselves what really matters in our own lives.

Praise for Life Will Be the Death of Me

“You thought you knew Chelsea Handler - and she thought she knew herself - but in her new book, she discovers that true progress lies in the direction we haven’t been.” (Gloria Steinem)

“I always wondered what it would be like to watch Chelsea Handler in session with her therapist. Now I know.” (Ellen DeGeneres) 

“I love this book not just because it made me laugh or because I learned that I feel the same way about certain people in politics as Chelsea does. I love this book because I feel like I finally really got to know Chelsea Handler after all these years. Thank you for sharing, Chelsea!” (Tiffany Haddish)

©2019 Chelsea Handler (P)2019 Random House Audio

Critic Reviews

“The Chelsea Handler I know is a take-no-prisoners activist for the causes she believes in. She brings the same fearlessness and commitment to telling her truth in this book. I’m hoping that one day, in exchange for this blurb, she will let me see the security camera footage of the dog fight in her bedroom.” (Trevor Noah)

Raw Chelsea Hander

I absolutely loved this book. Her honesty in previous books is what kept me going back to her writing time and time again. She’s got such a way with descriptions of her interactions as a child. As she said she’s been a 40 year old woman her whole life, and she doesn’t fail to prove it.

This book was different from the others, in that her emotional honesty was bled across the book like open wounds. It was so painfully honest it was hard to not get choked up listening to the tears in her voice as she explained her life and her realizations. At the beginning of the book I was like, “Great, she’s going to complain about DT the entire book.” But she found her way around it and it blossomed into an amazing, intricate albeit emotional grasp of her incredible life.

Thank you, Chelsea for writing a deeply intimidate book about yourself. You never had to, but knowing you a little better helps me know myself as well. If you’ve done this for me, I can fully appreciate you’ve done it for many others. My heart is full knowing your journey has come full circle for you and you have some piece in this crazy life.

27 people found this helpful

Just O.K.

Had Chelsea Handler not been famous and had she not written some very funny books in the past, this book might never have made it into print (or, in this case, onto a recording). Chelsea goes to therapy where we learn about her sad childhood, lousy father, etc. However, way too much of this book is focused on her dogs. I love my dog - don't we all? But, really, would you want to listen to me drone on about my dogs for an hour?

This woman took a 70 lb. dog on a plane (first class) to Europe. She didn't once mention the reactions of the other first class fliers who probably weren't amused. How funny is it, really, that she adopted the two chow mix dogs, presumably the ones on the cover of the book, and then sent them for at least 4 months of training after two days because she failed to find out anything about them before the adoption and, well, she could afford it.

She is free to search for life's deeper meaning because staff takes care of everything else to the point where she breezily tells her therapist how irritating it is that she can't figure out how to turn on her own music system nor find the toaster in her kitchen. I'm sure her house is very nice but it's probably not Mar-a-Lago and, if she can't find the toaster, it is no doubt because she hasn't looked for it. Obviously, I'm in the minority, but I thought this book was mostly self indulgence dressed up as gaining insight through therapy. She does hate Donald Trump, though. There is that. But, only marginally interesting and not very funny.

11 people found this helpful

Listened start to finish in one sitting.

I couldn’t bare to stop this fantastic book and listened to the whole thing in one sitting. As someone who is currently in therapy working through a lifetime of childhood trauma I respect the hell out of Chelsea, this book and her revelations. It is not easy to sit with the things you have been running from your whole life, look them in the eye and decide what to do with them. It is the hardest thing I have ever done but as Chelsea points out it is worth every painful, enlightening minute. At once charming, painful, and funny this book runs the spectrum of emotions that we’ve all experienced through our lives and in dealing with deaths. Hearing Chelsea read this in her own voice, every crack and tremble only drove home the transformation she experienced. Highly recommend.

25 people found this helpful

The story we all needed

A story I was not expecting. I laughed and I cried. But I got back up and kept going.

6 people found this helpful

Audible: Narration adds another layer to this

Throughout this book I listened, I laughed and then tears rolled down my face as she spoke of the death of her brother and Mother. I connected the most with her “awakening” after the election, dealing with loss/grief, and her enthusiasm for cannibis. <—And not in that order. Congratulations on doing the work to become a better human being. I bet I know what Dr. Dan is getting for Christmas!

19 people found this helpful

Chelsea Handler's Best Book

This is Chelsea's best book. It's Honest, Raw, Touching, Inspiring and Hilarious. You will cry with her, laugh with her and laugh through your tears. I highly recommend the audiobook cause she reads it and it's just so good.

18 people found this helpful

Powerful

A side of Chelsea we have not seen. I’m so impressed by her eloquence and honesty.
This book is a gift.

5 people found this helpful

Chelsea, you have done it again..

In hopes that someone over at Chelsea HQ reads this- I want to say that, over and over again, Chelsea Handler’s words have inspired, motivated, and brought actions/emotions out that make me want to do and be better; for myself and for others around me, near and far.

Chelsea,
Thank you for sharing another walk of your life. Keep living your life as you see fit and learn as much as possible everyday; inspired by you, I will continue to do the same.

Thanks

Best,
M.Green

5 people found this helpful

I couldn't stop listening!!

Finished it in one day. I had tears welling up in my eyes a few times! Such a deep, honest, and most importantly, admirable way of how Chelsea looked into herself and was able to share with the world her realizations. Very funny, and so relatable. Would recommend it to everyone! A must read!!

5 people found this helpful

Beautiful. Intimate. Open.

I wasn’t ready to let this end. Listened to it start to finish over two days. Beautifully written, intimate and open. It took such bravery for CH to come forward with such vulnerability. I stopped and cried listened while walking my dog, thinking about the baby I lost two years ago, how hard it is to sit with grief, how important. This is the big, adult, stuff. I’m happy for anyone who finds their way on to the right therapists couch to see themselves, know themselves and start the work to love and accept themselves.

7 people found this helpful

Her best book yet!

So interesting to hear her 'journey'. Think alot of people will relate to the story!

Incredibly Moving

Searing and heartfelt. I cried. I gained my own insights. I also felt jealous of her strength and family, ability to create genuine friendships. But there are lessons for us all. Darkly funny. Not what I expected from a ferocious, confident, over-achiever in her self-proclaimed Hollywood bubble of wealth and privilege.

it is rare, candid

The breath of fresh air that is Chelsea Handler returns with her latest installment of insights, opinions, humour and as ever blunt force trauma to the heart of me.
kudos.

A must

A fantastic barrel of laughs, politics, anger, love, self - deprecation and self - awareness.

Relatable

If you have a effed up family and you're a white woman (like I am) this book is highly recommended.
But she's just as funny as she usually is and does her funny bits with great self awareness.

The voice drove me nuts...

This was one of my first purchases and I didn't know how to test the voice first.

I can't really comment on the story coz I couldn't get past the first 2 chapters before giving up

Bloody fantastic

listening to Chelsea read it was for me even more emotive, you can hear the passion in her voice

Just so Good!

Chelsea, speaks beautiful and honestly about her life. Worth a listen, you’ll be better off for it.

Fantastic

Loved this book!!! It was fantastic, funny and personal was a great read! Definitely 5 stars

Honest, truthful, relatable and emotional.

An honest, heartbreaking at times, yet funny journey of finding yourself, accepting loss and growing. Loved it!