Review of THE STORIES WE TELL
The new memoir from Joanna Gaines
Like many, I came to know of the Gaines’ during their rise to fame from their hit HGTV show, Fixer Upper. Their infectious positivity and dramatic home transformations made me a huge fan. After ending their hit show, they went on to build a whole series of companies – an entire TV network, multiple home furnishing lines, and brick and mortar businesses in Texas.
Big celebrity memoirs aren’t my go-to type of memoir (I prefer reading about scientists) but some I’m curious about, and they tend to be a fun listen. So I decided to download Joanna Gaines’ newest book, The Stories We Tell: Every Piece of Your Story Matters.
Gaines’ book is a memoir of her growing up, primarily throughout her adulthood, as her life took on new seasons: marriage, motherhood, and career. Each chapter draws on a key story from her life and the lessons that she learned as she grew and matured across her life.
But rather than being what I would consider a true memoir, I would say that this book is about eighty-percent a self-help book with a bit of memoir to give it some context. I say this because each chapter is really focused on the lessons that she learned, which are applicable to her target audience of millennial women, and because she explicitly asks readers to “think about a time when” or “how you felt during” throughout each chapter. She even explicitly hopes this book will inspire you to reflect on your stories, read the book slow, and take notes.
The book was an enjoyable listen, primarily because I already like Joanna, and it was a short listen – just five hours. Overall though this wasn’t my cup of tea in terms of memoir. I didn’t learn much about her life aside from the standard details – where she grew up, some high-level details about her family, the struggles she had growing up Korean in Kansas. But much of her stories were used as launching points for applicable lessons rather than being the substance themselves.
This is a good quick listen for those who already like Joanna, or for those who do like the self-help genre. But if you’re looking for a more substantive memoir, this isn’t quite that book.
Published: November 2022
Publisher: Magnolia Publications and Harper Select
Format: Audio
If you think this sounds interesting, bookmark these other great reads:
Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey (2022) | Read my review
Love, Loss, and What We Ate: A Memoir by Padma Lakshmi (2016) | Read my review
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