I got into The Gilmore Girls a little late, and only because my wife was a fan.  I see from imdb that the show ran from 2000 – 2007, and I met my wife in late 2003, so the most I could have seen is a little more than half of the show’s episodes (I never went back and watched the early years).  Since I haven’t even seen the whole run, I can’t claim to be an enormous fan of the show, but from the beginning of my viewing experience I was always an enormous fan of the woman I always saw as the star, Lauren Graham (Alexis Bledel is fine, but she’s no Lorelei).  So I was very excited when I saw that she was starring in a new series a couple years ago, and my wife and I have seen the entire run (so far) of Parenthood, on which Graham is excellent.

But despite my goodwill towards Graham, I have to admit I was a little dubious when I started hearing buzz about her debut novel, Someday, Someday Maybe.  There have been a few actors turned authors who have worked out, but it’s not a great track record.  And not only that, but an actor writing a book about . . . an actor?  Didn’t seem promising.  Still, it did get some great buzz, and its style is right up my wife’s alley, so when I got my review copy, I handed it to her and she couldn’t put it down, declaring it much better than several books from this blog by accomplished authors (who will remain nameless).  That was good enough for me, and I sent it off to a reviewer, who similarly loved it.

GRAHAM, Lauren. Someday, Someday, Maybe. 354p. Ballantine Books. May. 2013. Tr $26. ISBN 9780345532749; ebook ISBN 9780345532756.

Adult/High School-In her debut novel, Graham, best known from TV’s The Gilmore Girls and Parenthood, covers territory she knows well-a young woman trying to become an actress. Franny Banks has been trying to make a go of acting in New York for almost three years, and her self-imposed deadline for making it in the business is looming. She studies with a prestigious acting class but is grasping at auditions for commercials and desperate for an agent. Her  decidedly unglamorous life is mostly filled with hopes being built up and then dashed again and again-both in career and romance. Handwritten pages from her Filofax fill in details of the story, including weeks when she has no auditions or calls. She is thrilled when one of her successful fellow students (who seems modeled on James Franco) turns his attention to her, but even that is a less-than-desirable relationship. As an actress, Franny is known for being funny and there are many slapstick moments in the story. Yet, she is not a bumbler with unrealistic hopes. Readers believe that she is sincerely talented with a passion for acting, even if it doesn’t seem likely that she’ll ever become an A-lister. Though Franny is three years out of college, her inner monologue and anxieties (friendship, family, career, romance) are completely relatable to teens. Recommend this book to Meg Cabot fans who like funny women and light romance, and to all the teens in school plays. A recent deal to produce a small-screen adaptation of this may create even more teen interest.-Sarah Debraski, formerly of Somerset County Library System, NJ