Cons: Not really a tell-all about Teri Hatcher's life.
The Bottom Line: Teri Hatcher's Burnt Toast: And Other Philosophies of Life reminds us to slow our pace and focus on ourselves, at least once in a while.
Staceys1's Full Review: Teri Hatcher and Hilary Liftin - Burnt Toast: And ...
I have never been a particularly big fan of Teri Hatcher. Yes, Sidra was a memorable character on the Seinfeld sitcom, but I never watched Lois & Clark, and although I am a fan of Desperate Housewives, her Susan Mayer character irritates me time and time again. Nonetheless, once again I was gifted with a book that I would never have chosen for myself and ended up with my own copy of Hatcher's book entitled Burnt Toast: And Other Philosophies of Life.
At just over 200 pages and thirteen chapters, this book is a fairly quick read...if you have any interest at all in reading about Teri Hatcher. Her Desperate Housewives character comes across to me as a whiny, needy, insecure person and that is exactly how the author came across to me in this book.
The "burnt toast" phrase in the title is referenced throughout and it is explained in the very first chapter of the book. Making toast is one of the simplest things to cook, but many times, we mess up the recipe and end up with a burned piece of bread. Now, some people (me included) prefer to eat their toast very dark brown and crunchy, but what about when it is black beyond recognition? Do you still eat it? If so, do you eat it as is, or try to scrape off the really bad parts so that you can salvage a portion of it? Maybe you throw it away and start over, but then do you feel guilty about wasting food? Hatcher's argument is that if you do any of these things, you are devaluing yourself and proclaiming to the world that "the piece of bread is worth more than your satisfaction". Burnt Toast is not a chronological memoir of Hatcher's life, though she does tell us about some personal experiences. For example, early on we read about her experiences with her daughter on a whale-watching trip, but it is not until much later in the book that she discusses her pregnancy and her cross-country road trip with an infant in the car.
We learn that although Hatcher was a stellar student, her father left her doubting herself since nothing ever seemed to be good enough for him. She is still very insecure about many things and while I can understand that your childhood experiences mold you and can affect you for your entire life, I cannot get past the idea that fame and fortune might be able to ease those feelings, at least a little bit.
Teri Hatcher wants us to accept her as a "regular person". Yes, she is a single working mother, and she chooses to take on the additional job of being her own publicist, but really, does she expect the reader to believe that she has it just as hard as the rest of America? She proudly writes that she uses coupons to save money, but while so many do that out of pure necessity, she never really gets to the bottom of why she (who is most likely a millionaire) uses coupons at the grocery store. While she does not discuss her childhood in depth, her mother was a computer programmer and her father, a nuclear physicist, so one would be led to believe that she at least had a middle-class upbringing where lack of money was not an issue.
A feeling of insecurity with regard to work is definitely something that many people can relate to, but while many plod along hoping that their job is stable, they are barely covering their monthly bills, or possibly able to save a little each month. Hatcher explains that her big jobs have been few and far between, since she got her big break as a dancer on The Love Boat, then moving on to Lois and Clark and now appearing on Desperate Housewives. However, I would venture to guess that she has gotten paid fairly well for each of those jobs and even her smaller guest star roles between those have garnered her more than enough money to live on.
I definitely got the feeling that Hatcher wants to be thought of as one of the "regular people", even though she knows she is no longer living as most American's do. We cannot always take a day off, afford to order take out instead of cooking, or have a spur of the moment weekend getaway. I am not sure that I believe that she is so stressed over her daughter's well being, her job security and life in general, that she actually would forget about a party at Wolfgang Pucks' Hollywood Spago restaurant to honor the Emmy nominees, herself included, during the first season of Desperate Housewives.
As I was reading this book, I was unsure if I was actually getting anything out of it, but then, three-quarters of the way through, one section got my attention. She asks if you ever had some unexpected free time and did not know what to do with it? While it does not happen often, once in a while this happens to me, and I approach it in much the same way Hatcher did. While her daughter was at school, her filming schedule was moved to a later time, so she found herself with an entire hour that had to be filled. Should she exercise or relax in a bubble bath? Either one would be good for her, but she cannot decide so she putters around her house doing odds and ends, which just cuts into her free time. She decides on a bath, but since she will just be lying there, she might as well catch up on reading some unopened mail, because it would be a waste of time not to be doing something productive, right? I can fully appreciate that sentiment because I am guilty of multi-tasking from the minute I get out of bed in the morning.
Sometimes we need to focus on one thing at a time, and recently when I actually did burn some toast to a crisp, I realized that had I not been focused on emptying the dishwasher, trying to watch the news on television and probably two or three other things, it would not have happened. Somehow, I never seem to burn the toast when I am making it for my children, since I am focused on them, but when it is my breakfast, it takes a back burner. As the author writes, Since when is it wasteful to take care of yourself? If we do not take care of ourselves, then we become run down, unhappy, and much like the burnt toast in the title - useless.
Throughout the book, Hatcher gives us some insight into her life with personal stories and experiences, and often reminds us not to settle for the burnt toast, as so many mothers, fathers and caregivers often do. In other words, make sure you take time out for yourself, because you are just as important as everyone else around you. Now, I just have to actually follow this advice once in a while. Burnt Toast: And Other Philosophies of Life was a mediocre book, but a quick read and does have some good points to it.
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