My mom got me this for Christmas and I found it a quick and enjoyable read. I note that this probably isn't the sort of book you expect from a Jeopardy champion, as it's more of a quick piecemeal-y autobiography and Jeopardy only comes up here and there, mostly at the end and with chapters here and there about enjoying acquiring information. Mostly it's about how Amy grew up Catholic in Ohio, was not enjoying being a boy publicly (what, you mean anyone actually enjoys playing boy roles?!), was a nerd at dating, got married, moved to California and took up polyamory, which ended in the annoyingly stereotypical way some poly relationships end. Best sentence in this book: "Not that everything about my wife's sexual relationship with a mysterious homeless felon that she met at a comedy open mic was perfect." I DIED, y'all. After that Amy came out to herself as a trans woman, discovered latent bisexuality, and got a new girlfriend/future wife, then eventually got up the nerve to audition for Jeopardy.
I note there's a lot of sex and drugs in this (but not rock n' roll), so that's a thing to keep in mind if that's a thing that you're not into. Amy is unapologetic about whatever drugs she's tried here and there, and that she's into polyamory. (That said, man, did I ever feel uncomfortable reading the losing-my-virginity chapter.) This is interspersed with more innocuous random topics like favorite teachers, a very weird anti-drug special on television, and how awesome Daria is. I especially enjoyed the "what's it like to be famous" chapter--pretty great, actually--and in a sense, the best chapter was the "what's it like having ADD" chapter because she actually writes it like someone with ADD would be thinking in the moment. I read this to my relatives so they got what I was talking about.
Amy seems like someone I'd hang out with: into theater and tarot and Daria, has ADD (she dislikes the "H" being thrown in there), flexible takes on things. There are footnotes on virtually every page, which I totally get as an ADD sort myself. I personally love all the footnotes and random asides and sometimes long takes to tell different stories and the like, but I would say that this is probably a book you want to get a paper copy of instead of e-book because e-books are a pain in the patoot for footnotes.
This is an excellent interview that covers topics in the book.
Four stars. Fun read.
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