Mean Baby: A Memoir of Growing Up
(Adobe EPUB eBook, Kindle Book, OverDrive Read)
"Blair is a rebel, an artist, and it turns out: a writer." —Glennon Doyle, Author of the #1 New York Times Bestseller Untamed and Founder of Together Rising
The first story Selma Blair Beitner ever heard about herself is that she was a mean, mean baby. With her mouth pulled in a perpetual snarl and a head so furry it had to be rubbed to make way for her forehead, Selma spent years living up to her terrible reputation: biting her sisters, lying spontaneously, getting drunk from Passover wine at the age of seven, and behaving dramatically so that she would be the center of attention.
Although Selma went on to become a celebrated Hollywood actress and model, she could never quite shake the periods of darkness that overtook her, the certainty that there was a great mystery at the heart of her life. She often felt like her arms might be on fire, a sensation not unlike electric shocks, and she secretly drank to escape.
Over the course of this beautiful and, at times, devasting memoir, Selma lays bare her addiction to alcohol, her devotion to her brilliant and complicated mother, and the moments she flirted with death. There is brutal violence, passionate love, true friendship, the gift of motherhood, and, finally, the surprising salvation of a multiple sclerosis diagnosis.
In a voice that is powerfully original, fiercely intelligent, and full of hard-won wisdom, Selma Blair’s Mean Baby is a deeply human memoir and a true literary achievement.
If you are having problem transferring a title to your device, please fill out this support form or visit the library so we can help you to use our eBooks and eAudio Books.
Selma Blair. (2022). Mean Baby: A Memoir of Growing Up. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.
Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation (style guide)Selma Blair. 2022. Mean Baby: A Memoir of Growing Up. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.
Chicago / Turabian - Humanities Citation (style guide)Selma Blair, Mean Baby: A Memoir of Growing Up. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2022.
MLA Citation (style guide)Selma Blair. Mean Baby: A Memoir of Growing Up. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2022.
| Library | Owned | Available |
|---|---|---|
| Shared Digital Collection | 3 | 2 |
OverDrive Product Record
- images
- cover:
- href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-100/0111-1/{87EEC80D-8179-4CA6-93E3-6FF30A8A2C7A}IMG100.JPG
- type: image/jpeg
- thumbnail:
- href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-200/0111-1/{87EEC80D-8179-4CA6-93E3-6FF30A8A2C7A}IMG200.JPG
- type: image/jpeg
- cover150Wide:
- href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-150/0111-1/{87EEC80D-8179-4CA6-93E3-6FF30A8A2C7A}IMG150.JPG
- type: image/jpeg
- cover300Wide:
- href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-400/0111-1/{87EEC80D-8179-4CA6-93E3-6FF30A8A2C7A}IMG400.JPG
- type: image/jpeg
- cover:
- formats
- identifiers:
- type: ISBN
- value: 9780525659501
- name: Adobe EPUB eBook
- id: ebook-epub-adobe
- identifiers:
- identifiers:
- type: ASIN
- value: B09JRSVSVV
- name: Kindle Book
- id: ebook-kindle
- identifiers:
- identifiers:
- type: ISBN
- value: 9780525659501
- name: OverDrive Read
- id: ebook-overdrive
- identifiers:
- otherFormatIdentifiers
- type: ISBN
- value: 9780525659495
- mediaType
- eBook
- primaryCreator
- role: Author
- name: Selma Blair
- isOwnedByCollections
- True
- title
- Mean Baby
- dateAdded
- 2022-06-27T19:36:00Z
- contentDetails
- href: https://link.overdrive.com/?websiteID=569&titleID=7456116
- type: text/html
- account:
- name: NorthNet Library System (CA)
- id: 2323
- sortTitle
- Mean Baby A Memoir of Growing Up
- crossRefId
- 7456116
- subtitle
- A Memoir of Growing Up
- id
- 87EEC80D-8179-4CA6-93E3-6FF30A8A2C7A
- starRating
- 3.7
OverDrive MetaData
- isPublicDomain
- False
- formats
- fileName: MeanBaby_9780525659501_7456116
- partCount: 0
- fileSize: 42590655
- identifiers:
- type: ISBN
- value: 9780525659501
- rights:
- type: Copying
- value: 0
- type: Printing
- value: 0
- type: Lending
- value: 0
- type: ReadAloud
- value: 0
- type: ExpirationRights
- value: 0
- name: Adobe EPUB eBook
- isReadAlong: False
- id: ebook-epub-adobe
- onSaleDate: 5/17/2022
- samples:
- source: From the book
- formatType: ebook-overdrive
- url: https://samples.overdrive.com/?crid=87eec80d-8179-4ca6-93e3-6ff30a8a2c7a&.epub-sample.overdrive.com
- fileName: MeanBaby_7456116
- partCount: 0
- fileSize: 0
- identifiers:
- type: ASIN
- value: B09JRSVSVV
- name: Kindle Book
- isReadAlong: False
- id: ebook-kindle
- onSaleDate: 5/17/2022
- samples:
- source: From the book
- formatType: ebook-overdrive
- url: https://samples.overdrive.com/?crid=87eec80d-8179-4ca6-93e3-6ff30a8a2c7a&.epub-sample.overdrive.com
- fileName: MeanBaby_9780525659501_7456116
- partCount: 0
- fileSize: 0
- identifiers:
- type: ISBN
- value: 9780525659501
- name: OverDrive Read
- isReadAlong: False
- id: ebook-overdrive
- onSaleDate: 5/17/2022
- samples:
- source: From the book
- formatType: ebook-overdrive
- url: https://samples.overdrive.com/?crid=87eec80d-8179-4ca6-93e3-6ff30a8a2c7a&.epub-sample.overdrive.com
- keywords
- value: Biography
- value: health
- value: fashion
- value: Film
- value: multiple sclerosis
- value: Memoirs
- value: self help
- value: ms
- value: dancing with the stars
- value: History
- value: memoir
- value: motivation
- value: summer
- value: best sellers
- value: funny books
- value: Chanel
- value: mothers day
- value: mothers day gifts
- value: stocking stuffers
- value: best selling books
- value: biographies and autobiographies
- value: self improvement books
- value: best friend gifts
- value: autobiography books
- value: motivational gifts
- value: hardcover books
- value: best books 2022
- value: selma blair
- value: new releases books 2022
- value: mean baby selma blair
- value: selma blair book
- value: mean baby
- value: selma blair book mean baby
- value: book mean baby
- creators
- role: Author
- fileAs: Blair, Selma
- bioText: SELMA BLAIR is an actress best known for her roles in Legally Blonde, Cruel Intentions, The Sweetest Thing, and Hellboy. Blair was named a Time Person of the Year in 2017 as one of their Silence Breakers, and she was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for her narration of Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl. She is the subject of the documentary Introducing, Selma Blair, which reveals Blair’s intimate and raw journey with multiple sclerosis. Blair lives with her son in Los Angeles.
- name: Selma Blair
- imprint
- Vintage
- publishDate
- 2022-05-17T00:00:00-04:00
- isOwnedByCollections
- True
- title
- Mean Baby
- fullDescription
- NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • Selma Blair has played many roles: Ingenue in Cruel Intentions. Preppy ice queen in Legally Blonde. Muse to Karl Lagerfeld. Advocate for the multiple sclerosis community. But before all of that, Selma was known best as … a mean baby. In a memoir that is as wildly funny as it is emotionally shattering, Blair tells the captivating story of growing up and finding her truth.
"Blair is a rebel, an artist, and it turns out: a writer." —Glennon Doyle, Author of the #1 New York Times Bestseller Untamed and Founder of Together Rising
The first story Selma Blair Beitner ever heard about herself is that she was a mean, mean baby. With her mouth pulled in a perpetual snarl and a head so furry it had to be rubbed to make way for her forehead, Selma spent years living up to her terrible reputation: biting her sisters, lying spontaneously, getting drunk from Passover wine at the age of seven, and behaving dramatically so that she would be the center of attention.
Although Selma went on to become a celebrated Hollywood actress and model, she could never quite shake the periods of darkness that overtook her, the certainty that there was a great mystery at the heart of her life. She often felt like her arms might be on fire, a sensation not unlike electric shocks, and she secretly drank to escape.
Over the course of this beautiful and, at times, devasting memoir, Selma lays bare her addiction to alcohol, her devotion to her brilliant and complicated mother, and the moments she flirted with death. There is brutal violence, passionate love, true friendship, the gift of motherhood, and, finally, the surprising salvation of a multiple sclerosis diagnosis.
In a voice that is powerfully original, fiercely intelligent, and full of hard-won wisdom, Selma Blair’s Mean Baby is a deeply human memoir and a true literary achievement. - reviews
- premium: True
- source:
- content:
Starred review from June 6, 2022
Actor Blair revisits in this bold and candid debut her odyssey through addiction, trauma, and illness. Born in 1972 in Detroit, Blair was labeled as a “mean baby” for the “judgemental, scrutinizing” look she perpetually wore. As she reveals, this pained expression would seemingly foretell the fraught childhood and adolescence to come—from binge drinking throughout her youth to escape hurtful put-downs from her mother (“How can you be so beautiful from one angle and so ugly full face?”) to suffering depressive episodes after being sexually assaulted in ninth grade by her school’s dean. Later, after a suicide attempt in college, she was raped during a spring break weekend. Blair’s recollections are harrowing, but they affectingly set the stage for a story of triumphing over one’s afflictions as she chronicles her path to becoming an actor. After months of struggle in her early 20s, Blair landed an agent and went on to star in Cruel Intentions (1999) and Legally Blonde (2001) before having her first child and, years later, receiving a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis in 2018. Nevertheless, Blair, in her typical fashion, finds a way to transform her burden into an opportunity, sharing her experience of living with MS with astounding candor and grace. This compassionate and intelligent work will leave fans floored.
- premium: True
- source:
- content:
June 15, 2022
An acclaimed actor reflects on her life, film career, and diagnosis of multiple sclerosis in 2018. Born outside of Detroit in 1972, Blair earned the nickname "mean baby" for the "judgmental, scrutinizing" expression she wore on her face from the day she was born. In fact, she was a "sensitive soul" who felt judged by others--in particular, her demanding, sometimes-cruel mother. At 7, Blair developed a taste for alcohol at a family Passover celebration and drank in secret after that, reveling in the feeling of "safety" alcohol gave her. She also suffered awful abuse. "I have been raped, multiple times," she writes, "because I was too drunk to say the words 'Please. Stop.' " A troubled teen, she continued to take refuge in drinking but also discovered a passion for literature and drama. After a suicide attempt in college, Blair found her footing in acting. She moved to New York City, where, after a year of struggle, she found an agent and landed her first movie role. Drinking and toxic relationships took their tolls, and she entered rehab in Michigan before moving to Los Angeles. An unexpected invitation to play a role in the 1999 film Cruel Intentions brought her fame. However, the binge-drinking continued, as did a series of unhealthy relationships (one of which turned into a short-lived marriage) and mysterious pains that racked her body. "I could feel it growing and spreading," she writes, "but I had no idea what it was." Single motherhood helped her curb drinking, but her fatigue and neuralgia intensified. A lifelong spiritual seeker who sought out psychics to help her make sense of her life, Blair finally received an answer to explain the physical roots of her pain: multiple sclerosis. Though the narrative occasionally meanders, the author offers a sharp, memorable account of her roles as celebrity and MS advocate that will have wide appeal to both fans and general readers alike. A moving and eloquent memoir.COPYRIGHT(2022) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
- premium: True
- source:
- content:
Starred review from May 15, 2022
Actress Selma Blair always thought of herself as a sidekick or character actress, never a leading lady, but in this illuminating and authentic memoir, she takes center stage as the teller of her own story--something rarely afforded to a child relegated to, and decidedly living up to, the role of ""Mean Baby."" Young Selma wants nothing more than her mother's approval, but she resorts to bad behavior after instead receiving her mother's taunting--laughing at Selma's fright from watching a scary movie, or calling her award-winning poem drivel. Alcohol becomes a coping mechanism starting at a young age, and something Blair will continue to struggle with for years. What she doesn't realize for decades is that she likely used it to cover up issues relating to MS, a diagnosis she receives in her forties, when she also learns that doctors believe she may have been battling the disease for twenty years. The book's first and third parts, covering her childhood and her MS diagnosis (along with the birth of her son), respectively, are spellbinding. While the middle section that follows her career lags at times, it does little to take away from Blair's compelling story and remarkably good writing.COPYRIGHT(2022) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
- popularity
- 1757
- links
- self:
- href: https://api.overdrive.com/v1/collections/v1L1BWwAAAA2I/products/87eec80d-8179-4ca6-93e3-6ff30a8a2c7a/metadata
- type: application/vnd.overdrive.api+json
- self:
- id
- 87eec80d-8179-4ca6-93e3-6ff30a8a2c7a
- starRating
- 3.8
- images
- cover:
- href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-100/0111-1/{87EEC80D-8179-4CA6-93E3-6FF30A8A2C7A}IMG100.JPG
- type: image/jpeg
- thumbnail:
- href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-200/0111-1/{87EEC80D-8179-4CA6-93E3-6FF30A8A2C7A}IMG200.JPG
- type: image/jpeg
- cover150Wide:
- href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-150/0111-1/{87EEC80D-8179-4CA6-93E3-6FF30A8A2C7A}IMG150.JPG
- type: image/jpeg
- cover300Wide:
- href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-400/0111-1/{87EEC80D-8179-4CA6-93E3-6FF30A8A2C7A}IMG400.JPG
- type: image/jpeg
- cover:
- isPublicPerformanceAllowed
- False
- languages
- code: en
- name: English
- subjects
- value: Biography & Autobiography
- value: Performing Arts
- value: Self-Improvement
- value: Nonfiction
- publishDateText
- 05/17/2022
- otherFormatIdentifiers
- type: ISBN
- value: 9780525659495
- mediaType
- eBook
- shortDescription
- NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • Selma Blair has played many roles: Ingenue in Cruel Intentions. Preppy ice queen in Legally Blonde. Muse to Karl Lagerfeld. Advocate for the multiple sclerosis community. But before all of that, Selma was known best as … a mean baby. In a memoir that is as wildly funny as it is emotionally shattering, Blair tells the captivating story of growing up and finding her truth.
"Blair is a rebel, an artist, and it turns out: a writer." —Glennon Doyle, Author of the #1 New York Times Bestseller Untamed and Founder of Together Rising
The first story Selma Blair Beitner ever heard about herself is that she was a mean, mean baby. With her mouth pulled in a perpetual snarl and a head so furry it had to be rubbed to make way for her forehead, Selma spent years living up to her terrible reputation:... - sortTitle
- Mean Baby A Memoir of Growing Up
- crossRefId
- 7456116
- subtitle
- A Memoir of Growing Up
- publisher
- Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
- bisacCodes
- code: BIO005000
- description: Biography & Autobiography / Entertainment & Performing Arts
- code: BIO033000
- description: Biography & Autobiography / People with Disabilities
- code: SEL021000
- description: Self-Help / Motivational & Inspirational
