[.uk] How To Lose Your Ass and Regain Your Life: Reluctant ... (ISBN 159486232X)

Amazon.com Review:
The increasing girth of Kirstie Alley's rear end has figured prominently (pun intended) on many a tabloid cover in recent years. At the peak of her career ("Cheers"), of course, her butt was indeed at its smallest. It's no surprise that she therefore sums up her life philosophy this way: one's level of happiness tends to be inversely proportional to the size of one's posterior. With extremely salty language on par with what you might hear in a 50 Cent song, Alley has penned a self-deprecating Hollywood tell-all in the disguise of "note-to-self"-style diary entries. With many apologies to Bridget Jones, we learn that Alley is a former cocaine addict who once participated in the snorting of a six-foot-long trail of powder at a party. (She's says she's currently a Scientologist and credits L. Ron Hubbard with curing her of her narcotic addiction, as well as her issues with food.) We also learn--for better or worse--that she has the hots for John Travolta, Kid Rock, and Ben Affleck, and that she blames her weight gain for a super-extended period of unplanned celibacy. As crass as she is (she kisses and tells, even including the sordid details of her losing her virginity in the front seat of a Chevy Impala), it's hard not to feel sympathetic for Alley. She admits that following a miscarriage in her third month of pregnancy and subsequent diagnosis of infertility—which were also broadcast in the tabloids--her weight started ballooning. And as much as she dishes about Hollywood actors such as Tim Matheson (of Animal House fame), she has the decency to leave Parker Stevenson, her ex-husband and father of their two adopted children, out of the gossiping. Even so, overall, this feels like a strangely extended endorsement of Dianetics. --Erica Jorgensen

A funny little book with a misleading title:
Kirstie Alley's How to Lose Your Butt and Regain Your Life is in no way shape or form a diet book. It's not really a story about how Kirstie regained her life, unless you count her thinly-veiled stories of how Scientology changed her life as inspirational. No, it's more a joke book, a humorous piece of nonfiction, a collection of stories from her past complete with photographs. And it's funny. Hilarious, occasionally, and her self-deprecating humor and ability to acknowledge her fall from grace is interesting to read. Written in the form of a diary followed by a story from the past, Kirstie tells her readers about everything from her numerous failed diet attempts (the Master Cleanse, the grapefruit and boiled egg diet, strange herbal laxatives that once made her poop her pants), the boys who taunted her during her childhood and her hopes that they eventually got what they deserved, and how her children kept her grounded even as she read about her escalating weight in the tabloids. Her story is every woman's story who has ever struggled with her weight, because for the most part she makes no reference to her years as a famous actress. We hear about her going to auditions and the fact that she might be on set during a particular entry, but as a whole it's more about her life, her feelings, and her struggles. The fact that she can laugh at herself and be so down-to-earth is one of the best parts of this story. So despite the misnomer that is the title, HTLYARYL is a funny little book that will make you feel a little bit better when your favorite jeans get too tight. After all, at least no one's printing a picture of you in the tabloids claiming you weigh 300 pounds.

good reading if you like Kirstie:
Cute, just as Kirstie. There is no diet information in this book. Just Kirstie accepting her size. It was good and I enjoyed it. I think acceptance is what this book is about.

The real Kirstie:
"What you see is what you get" with Kirstie Alley! This quick-read will make you laugh and realize that, celebrity or not, we all face the same dilemmas. I very much appreciated Kirstie's candor - she is real, down-to-earth gal!

I expected SO much more:
I have always loved and admired Kirstie in everything I have ever seen her in. I expected a thoroughly honest and entertaining book and feel like I got neither. The diary entries that start the chapters are mildly amusing, and generally have zero to do with what the chapters are about. The references to Scientology are really quite annoying and frequent and seeing how 4 years after she has written the book and nothing has changed for her; makes it also quite laughable. I honestly wish I never would have bought and read this as I doubt I will ever find her as witty as the characters she had portrayed.

Funny but too short:
Kirstie gives up snippets from her life that are totally funny. However she skips a lot. Was she ever married, why did they divorce? Is her son really named True or is that a nickname? You can't give us all these intimidate details about your sex life and popping in your car then leave out important events in your life. She doesn't tell the story in chronological order so it wasn't even clear she had kids until the very end of the book. While I enjoyed the book and thought Kirstie to be someone fun to hang out with, I lost respect for her when she talked about Scientology. I felt like her little mentions of this Scientology event she went to or that was like advertising. Why do we need to know you had an awakening at one unless it's subtle advertising? I guess that's why she's such close friends with John Travolta. Still I thought her smarter than that to join a cult.