Too Little Too Fast: Books I Read in 2025, Vol. V

 

NUMBER ONE IS WALKING: My Life in the Movies and Other Diversions
Steve Martin with drawings by Harry Bliss

[This book] is Steve Martin’s cinematic legacy  —  an illustrated memoir of his legendary acting career, with stories from his most popular films and artwork by New Yorker cartoonist Harry Bliss. Martin shares anecdotes from the sets of his beloved films  —  Father of the Bride, Roxanne, The Jerk, Three Amigos, and many more  —  bringing readers directly into his world. He shares charming tales of antics, moments of inspiration, and exploits with the likes of Paul McCartney, Diane Keaton, Robin Williams, and Chevy Chase. Martin details his forty years in the movie biz, as well as his stand-up comedy, banjo playing, writing, and cartooning, all with his unparalleled wit. With gorgeously illustrated cartoons and single-panel “diversions” in Steve and Harry’s signature style, Number One Is Walking is full of the everyday moments that make up a movie star’s life, capturing Steve Martin’s singular humor and acclaimed career in film.

This has been on my to-be-read list at the library for a year or two. When I was close to being done with Gay Girl, Good God, I had the library put Number One... on hold for me so I could pick it up when I returned the other. I took it off the reservation shelf, started leafing through it, and saw that there were plenty of drawings and not so much writing, so I immediately went to the biography section of the library and found what will be my next read (stay tuned). Good thing, too, because I finished THIS book in a little more than an hour. I certainly enjoyed it, but Martin needs to write a whole lot more about a whole lot more memories of his movie career.

First Line: By 1980, I viewed my stand-up comedy act  -  which I had been doing for about seventeen years  -  as a ballerina might view her evening's performance: "I know the steps; they're the same every night."

Page 56 / Line 5: Wow!

A Good Line from Somewhere in the Middle: 

Last Line: Me three!

An Amazing Change Amazingly Described: Books I Read in 2025, Vol. IV

 

GAY GIRL, GOOD GOD: The Story of Who I Was and Who God Has Always Been
Jackie Hill Perry

Jackie grew up fatherless and experienced gender confusion. She embraced masculinity and homosexuality with every fiber of her being. She knew that Christians had a lot to say about all of the above. But was she supposed to change herself? How was she supposed to stop loving women, when homosexuality felt more natural to her than heterosexuality ever could? At age nineteen, Jackie came face-to-face with what it meant to be made new. And not in a church, or through contact with Christians. God broke in and turned her heart toward Him right in her own bedroom in light of His gospel. In this book, Jackie Hill Perry shares her own story, offering practical tools that helped her in the process of finding wholeness. 

First off, let's get one thing clear: I LOVE the way this girl writes! Even though it's a work of prose, it feels poetic. Her descriptions of Bible stories and personal events are both rich with imagery and metaphor. Most of the book is biographical: the story of Jackie's upbringing and eventual transformation. But then she includes three chapters at the end as a kind of appendix: a resource to help us all frame our thoughts about sexuality, identity, and the gospel. Two Thumbs Up! 4 Stars!

First Line: I wrote this book out of love  -  a common word used so out of context on most days.

Page 56 / Line 5: She'd been speaking for what might've been a minute, about what?

A Good Line from Somewhere in the Middle: Quieted and listening, my mind held in it this sentence: "Jackie, you have to believe My Word is true, even if it contradicts how you feel."

Last Line: So because He is the same God that did something wonderful to the soul of the psalmist, and the same God that did an equally beautiful thing to my own, He is, even now, more than able to do the same for every soul alive.