Review of You Never Know

Welcome to Nonfiction November at Words by Webb. I wrote more about this eye-opening month on WOW-Women on Writing. Check it out HERE.

Although I'll be featuring some fiction, most of this month I'll be sticking to nonfiction. You can read whatever you like but if you need inspiration, this year's theme is Past Puzzles and Timeless Treasures. Hmmm...not sure what that includes but I do love history so that might fit into Past Puzzles. Oddly, I'm starting out with a type of nonfiction I rarely read - memoir. Celebrity memoir! Don't know why I picked up this book, except that it was next to Mark Twain in the new section of our library and Mark Twain was 900+ pages. Tom's 339 pages seemed much more manageable and well, he looks so darn happy on the cover. And I'm officially declaring that Tom Selleck is a Timeless Treasure.

More About You Never Know

There are many miles from the business school and basketball court at the University of Southern California to 50 million viewers for the final episode of a TV show called Magnum P.I. Tom Selleck has lived every one of those miles in his own iconoclastic and joyful way.

Frank, funny and open-hearted, You Never Know is an intimate memoir from one of the most beloved actors of our time, the highly personal story of a remarkable life and thoroughly accidental career. In his own voice and uniquely unpretentious style, the famed actor brings readers on his uncharted but serendipitous journey to the top in Hollywood, his temptations and distractions, his misfires and mistakes and, over time, his well-earned success. Along the way, he clears up an armload of misconceptions and shares dozens of never-told stories from all corners of his personal and professional life. His rambunctious California childhood. His clueless arrival as a good-looking college jock in Hollywood (from the Dating Game to the Fox New Talent Program to co-starring with Mae West and escorting her to black-tie social functions). What it was like to emerge as a mega-star in his mid-thirties and remain so for decades to come, an actor whose authenticity and ease in front of the camera connected with audiences worldwide while embodying and also redefining the clichés of onscreen manhood.

In You Never Know, Selleck recounts his personal friendships with a vivid army of A-listers, everyone from Frank Sinatra to Carol Burnett to Sam Elliott, paying special tribute to his mentor James Garner of The Rockford Files, who believed, like Selleck, that TV protagonists are far more interesting when they have rough edges.He also more than tips his hat to the American western and the scruffy band of actors, directors and other ruffians who helped define that classic genre, where Selleck has repeatedly found a happy home. Magnum fans will be fascinated to learn how Selleck put his career on the line to make Thomas Magnum a more imperfect hero and explains why he walked away from a show that could easily have gone on for years longer.

Hollywood is never easy, even for stars who make it look that way. In You Never Know, Selleck explains how he’s struggled to balance his personal and professional lives, frequently adjusting his career to protect his family’s privacy and normalcy. His journey offers a truly fresh perspective on a changing industry and a changing world. Beneath all the charm and talent and self-deprecating humor, Selleck’s memoir reveals an American icon who has reached remarkable heights by always insisting on being himself.

More About Tom Selleck

Tom Selleck was born in Detroit in 1945 while his father was working in the U.S. Army as a mechanic on B-29 bombers. Selleck, his older brother, and his mother lived with his grandparents until his father returned two years later. A carpenter by trade, Selleck's father dreamed of starting a new life in California. In 1949, the dream became a reality when the Sellecks moved with nothing more than what they could fit into the family car. With the help of the GI bill, they made a down payment on a small house in Sherman Oaks, near Los Angeles.

During his last semester at USC, Selleck's fraternity brothers talked him into appearing on a popular television show, The Dating Game. That led to commercials, failed pilots, B-movies he is happy everyone has forgotten and then...Magnum P.I. Selleck bookended his acting career with another tremendously popular TV series Blue Bloods. In between he appeared in many successful movies and TV series from Three Men and a Baby to Friends.

More About Ellis Henican

Ellis Henican is a multi-New York Times bestselling author, a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and a popular television-news commentator. A natural storyteller known for his warmth, humor and accessible touch, Ellis has entertained and informed audiences on a wide variety of print and digital platforms. A born-and-bred Southerner working in the media capital of New York, he knows how to make readers care.

Ellis’s specialty is teaming up with people of extraordinary achievement (like Tom Selleck!) and helping them come alive on the page. Over the past fifteen years, he has co-authored nearly two dozen bestselling books for major national and international publishers, helping some of the world’s most fascinating people deliver their messages everywhere. His co-authors are highly recognizable figures from the worlds of politics, entertainment, sports and other fields of human endeavor.

For more than two decades, Ellis wrote a three-day-a-week column in New York’s Newsday, sharing his unique take on the news and leading the paper to a Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the Union Square train wreck. He hosted a daily, afternoon-drive radio show on WOR/710 in New York and a weekend show for Bloomberg Radio. He spent 13 years as a contributor to the Fox News Channel and now appears frequently on CNN and other networks, where he is known for his lively analysis of politics and pop culture.

Ellis comes from a colorful New Orleans family of trial lawyers, politicians and late-night raconteurs. He is a graduate of Jesuit High School, Hampshire College and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, where he won the top student prize, the Pulitzer Traveling Fellowship. He lives in a converted butter-and-egg loft in Manhattan’s Tribeca neighborhood with his wife, attorney Stephanie Carvlin.

Thoughts About You Never Know

Although You Never Know was written with the help of accomplished writer Ellis Henican (see above), it doesn't have a polished, ghostwritten feel. Instead it feels like you're sitting around the firepit with Tom Selleck and he's saying, "Hey, let me tell you a few stories..." The book meanders through his career, giving us a few life lessons, a few celebrity stories and a lot of laughs and surprises. A few times I felt as if I had read a story or a section of it in another chapter but it added to the charm of an experienced actor weaving his tales. You can also feel Selleck's enthusiasm, as in portions he prefaces stories with sweet excitement like "I just have to tell you..." or other indicators of how important an event was to him.

If you're hoping for scandals or shocking reveals, you won't find them here. Selleck focuses almost exclusively on his work life, mainly his pre-Magnum and Magnum days. There are just minor mentions of his family and romantic life, citing the privacy of those involved. Very gentlemanly (even though a part of me would have liked a few juicy tidbits).

This book paints Selleck in the absolute best light, which makes me wonder if he truly is such a nice guy or did he just leave out anything that may have tarnished his reputation. Despite that, it is a good read that shows us a peek at the waning days of the Hollywood studio system and the confusing road to becoming a successful actor.