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Finding It: And Satisfying My Hunger For Life Without Opening The Fridge (2009)

by Valerie Bertinelli(Favorite Author)

3.37 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

1439141630 (ISBN13: 9781439141632)

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

Free Press

review 1: Can a TV and movie personality married to a rock star and living in Beverly Hills lead a wholesome life?Well, yes. At least in Valerie Bertinelli's case.Her second and logically titled auto-biographical book, Finding It, follows an inspirational and successful first book, Losing It. Both books tell of her Jenny Craig affiliation. In Losing It she sheds 40 pounds; In Finding It she fights the demons who threaten to thwart her efforts at maintaining her hard-won weight loss.I bought Finding It assuming it would be full of trite but juicy, tabloid style anecdotes usually found in celebrity memoir. I also thought it would be fun to catch up on Bertinelli's life since One Day at a Time.I was very much surprised and delighted to find, as I got into the book, it was all about hea... morelthy living and family. Bertinelli gives readers a ringside seat as she diets and exercises her way from 172 pounds to 122 pounds so she can fulfill a deal to pose in a bikini for the cover of People Magazine.Readers will feel every drop of sweat on her treadmill and every disappointing rejection of delicious food as she determinedly fights her way to 132 pounds. Then you'll huff and puff along with Bertinelli and her trainer Christopher as they work their way from runs of a few hundred yards to a 5K in order to lose the last ten pounds.You have to feel good about someone who, at age 49, can lose 50 pounds and look great in a bikini on the cover of a national magazine.A year after Finding It was published Bertinelli finished the Boston Marathon, a 26 mile, 385 yard feat. That same year she started a new TV series Hot in Cleveland. The year after that she threw out the opening day first pitch for the Cleveland Indians.With a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, a house in Malibu and a net worth of $20 million you might think Bertinelli would be a conceited gas bag. She's not. Bertinelli generously shares the Finding It spotlight with rock band super star and ex-husband Ed Van Halen, their 18 year-old son Wolfgang (Wolfie), her soon-to-be husband Tom and her mom and dad.One drawback: Bertinelli depends a little too much on narrative for my taste. I think dialogue is a lot more fun to read. But her prose is straightforward and lively.
review 2: Valerie is quite normal for a celebrity and in this book she shows just how normal she is by exposing her insecurities, her temper when she gets upset or frustrated, her disbelief in “how lucky” she has been with her career, and her struggle to keep weight off and in good shape, despite her past struggles to use food to comfort her when she was upset. As a Jenny Craig spokeswoman, she was asked to model in a bikini and Valerie writes about her exercise training and dieting to meet this goal.Probably the oddest thing Valerie did in her entire life was marrying rock star Eddie Van Halen. Her relationship with Eddie Van Halen is discussed in further detail in her first book, "Losing It." In this present book she sounds even more at peace with her divorce and she writes about her present relationship with live-in boyfriend Tom. She also writes about her son Wolfgang who travels on the road playing music with his dad. She writes about her son’s first serious relationship and how it makes her feel to watch her son grow up. Valerie is very much into family and she writes about her relationship with her mother and at one point her mother was very ill and Valerie thought she might lose her.Other than having more money in the bank than most of us, and being able to go backstage at Eddie Van Halen concerts whenever she wants to see her son, and having less lack of privacy, Valerie seems like an average Joe. Maybe even more than average. She seems like she has a good heart and could be the type of girlfriend one could hang out with any Saturday night to shoot the breeze and who knows, maybe even play a game of Scrabble. less

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