All The Lives I Want is a refreshing collection of pop culture criticism that is in turns both heartbreaking and hilarious. While most critics attempt to distance themselves from their own personal connection to the famous subjects at hand, Massey recognizes not just the futility in creating that kind of separation but also the strength of stating her own stake in these celebrity stories which are still, at their core, about human beings who have been wronged or misrepresented as ordinary people have as well. The standout essays are about Sylvia Plath, Lil Kim, and Britney Spears, though all of them stand on their own merits and fans of the women covered will likely be pleased with Massey's careful, compassionate conclusions.

In this collection of essays, Alana Massey tackles contemporary musical icons (Britney, Nicki, Courtney), female writers (Sylvia Plath and Joan Didion), and other celebrity, larger than life figures such as Anna Nicole Smith and Amber Rose. With a mix of wry humor, anecdotal research, and her own personal experiences, the writer attempts to analyze these women and shed new light on them. While I enjoyed some of the essays, i.e, the Gwyneth versus Winona, Amber Rose, and the Olsen twins, I skimmed some of the others, i.e, Scarlett Johanssen, which didn't grab me at all. While it was a good collection of essays, it didn't keep my attention throughout and I would have liked to see more punch to these essays.

A marvel of a debut from an incredible essayist. These stories are steeped in critical, emotional, literary, and cultural insight the likes of which I haven't quite encountered before. I'm reminded of the best and worst parts of myself, equally comforted and challenged, and filled with the deepest desire to see the bitter truth and astonishing beauty of humanity in the faces of everyone I encounter - on the screen and in the everyday.

This is an amazing book that I will read again (which I rarely do with anything), and I will be first in line with Massey's next book is published. Hers is a voice not to be missed.

I liked the concept for the book. While I am not big on pop culture it was great getting some history and tidbits about certain celebrities eg. The Olsten twins were selected for their roles because they didn't cry during auditions.... Crazy right...

So yes, I liked the concept explored I just felt Massey had really great notes that needed to be developed further. It's like being given a really great trailer to a movie that didn't deliver. Overall an ok read that maybe would have benefited from more depth.

There are tens of thousands of essays on women and celebrity in the world, and yet Alana Massey manages to cut a path perpendicular to this well worn road. Bypassing the traditional sociological analysis of the influence these women and girls have on our culture, Massey examines how our culture influences them. In “There Can Only Be One,” she litigates the media-created feud between Nicki Minaj and Lil’ Kim as the product of cultural misogynoir that will only “allow” one tough and sexy Black woman to rule hip hop at a time. Essays on Anna Nicole Smith and the “crazy ex-girlfriend” label applied to women as seemingly dissimilar as Lisa “Left-Eye” Lopes and Princess Di critique our treatment of women who break the traditional boundaries of class and gender rules, often to be met with derision even when they suffer tragedy.

But All the Lives I Want is not simply cultural criticism; Massey digs several miles below the surface, past intellect and emotion into the spiritual meaning of our one-sided relationships with these famous figures. Her essays don't attempt to humanize these women (though that does happen as a byproduct of her singular empathy) but rather to make a compelling case that each of them fulfills the timeless necessity as the individual incarnations of the many faces of femininity. My favorite, “The Queen of Hearts: An Alternative Account of the Life and Crimes of Courtney Love”, presents the rocker and actor (more famous for being a widow than an artist in her own right) not as a parasitic nagging wife (and accused murderer by her husband’s fans), but as an aspirational icon of chthonic power, a destroyer figure, and necessary model of “female brutality.” Her elevation of the Lisbon sisters in The Virgin Suicides alongside the many clusters of sisters scattered across Greek mythology, interwoven with the genuinely mystical love she shares with her own sister (born on the same day under the sign of Gemini), is almost unbearably beautiful. The essay is not just a coruscating love song to sisterhood, but punctuated throughout with a needle sharp critique of the failure of imagination of the male gaze that fetishizes and sexualizes sisterly love while missing the deep spirituality of the connection.

Massey’s time at Yale Divinity School may seem incongruous with writing about something so “trivial” as celebrity, but she effortlessly clarifies the metaphysical quality of feminine fame; by comparison, all others writing on the topic see only as if through a glass, darkly.

This book is explained as a group of stories about famous celebrities from first hand experience. This is not what it is. It is essays written by fans based on their own opinions that; while nicely written, do not divulge anything real or true into the lives of these people

Reading and understanding of a tome, especially autobiography, memoir, biting and bravely true and personal musings like this is by definition thrilling and meaningful and good regardless of what I thought or felt about them. I truly enjoyed delving into the achingly intelligent and incisive thoughts and experiences, ideas and theories of Alana Massey. It was revealing and cutting and funny and sad and, ultimately, uplifting. It will be on my mind for some time and there are ideas that will linger with me from here on. This book is appreciated and I'm thankful I found it and read it.

All the Lives I Want is a collection of essays covering women celebrities, the public perception of them and a lens into how that public perception is skewed due to their gender. Something that I found very refreshing is the diversity of the women chosen for the essays, Winona Ryder, Lil Kim, Courtney Love, Sylvia Plath among many others. Despite their very different backgrounds and times in which they were famous the author is able to show parallels in how the public was conditioned to see them. And despite their roles as celebrities, the author also shows similarities that everyday women can relate to in how they are expected to behave. It is an intelligent book, while still being an easy read and I think a very good book for women of all ages to read, as well as anyone else interested in the different expectations on women's behavior and the consequences society places on them when they do not meet those expectations.

I was deeply saddened to see a review on here that describes this as a book for 'gender extremists'. On the contrary, I found this to be a very thoughtful and necessary exploration of the intersection between pop culture and femininity.

In this collection of essays Massey examines a range of female celebrities, stars, writers and fictional characters, from Britney Spears to Sylvia Plath to Scarlett Johansson in 'Lost in Translation', in order to reveal society's understandable but often dangerous and unhealthy preoccupation with famous women and their bodies. As she does so, she reveals nuggets of information and anecdotes about her own life and about how her own consumption of these women has influenced her choices and decisions - something that I think most readers, and especially female readers, will be able to identify with and see mirrored back at them.

This is also a very fun read - especially for anyone interested in celebrity culture and/ or who has grown up alongside these women and is of the 90s/ millenial generation (the essays open with a light-hearted question that soon becomes serious in its implications of how we define womanhood: are you a Winona or a Gwyneth?). My favourite chapter was the final one, 'On Joan Didion and Personal Mythology as Survival', which makes essential feminist reading. I've already bought this twice for friends and will definitely revisit it in the future.

All the Lives I Want is a collection of essays that celebrates women. It holds a mirror up to society and shows how women are not so subtly pitted against one another or how they are sexualised or how they are forced into submissive roles. It truly is a book to put fire in your belly.

Part memoir/part journalism, Massey’s penned thoughts percolate in the brain giving you food for thought long after you have finished reading.

All the Lives I Want – Essays About My Best Friends Who Happen to be Famous Strangers by Alana Massey is available now.

A collection of feminist essays that's really enjoyable to read and filled with the insight, nuance and empathy that regular readers of Alana's work know so well. It's an expertly-crafted debut featuring a wide spectrum of emotions and styles which complement each other. It's a book you gladly invite into your heart.

Item arrived not damaged.

I'm not sure why I read this at all. I'm not into the deep secret lives of celebrities, especially to dissect and make mostly negative and sad.