I was so excited when opening my tablet/ereader and seeing Brandi Glanville's book, Drinking and Tweeting was available for purchase. I like Brandi. I was over joyed to see her added to the cast of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. I find Brandi to be real, a breath of fresh air and absolutely beautiful to look at. Her quirky, self deprecating humor and low tolerance for bullshit make watching her on the show fun.
As I sat down to read Brandi's book one thing struck me right away. This is a woman who has been wronged but I was not hearing the all too familiar "oh please be nice to me, I am a victim." What I did hear was the pain of a woman who had a husband, Eddie Cibrian who is a serial cheater and an Archduke of Douche bags.
Its an easy read. Almost as if you are sitting down and sharing a glass of wine with Brandi and you are talking with her. I think her co-author really knew how to focus Brandi, keep the book moving along but kept to the spirit of Brandi. The fact she used hash tags throughout the book to punctuate a lesson she learned tickled me.
With that being said, I was a little disappointed by the book. It came across as one long press conference. It was about Eddie, Leann and all the trials and tribulations Brandi has had to endure. I understand it was her version of the ugly mess that Eddie and Leann put her through but I was hoping there would be some insight to who Brandi really was, as a person, as woman. This book did not tell me any of that. What this book did deliver was the break up of a very dysfunctional marriage and how she came through it. Almost every page slammed either Leann or Eddie. Okay I get it, this is Brandi's "E True Hollywood Story".
What I didn't get was anything new about Brandi. What are her hobbies? Where did she go to school? Some great memories about her modeling in Europe? What was her childhood like? The book was promoted as a tell all and in some ways it was salacious but really? Most of what was in the book was already fairly common knowledge.
I really wanted to get to know Brandi, sans the Eddie and Leann angles. I like Brandi because we can all relate to her. She makes a lot of the same mistakes, blunders and remarks we all have in similar situations. I wanted to get a glimpse into the core of who Brandi is. What her thoughts are or even some funny situations she might have had interacting with other celebs. Now that would have made some good reading.
I purchased the book for $9.99 through Amazon.com and have to say I don't think it was worth much more than that price. In the end, I found most of my thoughts and opinions on Brandi were confirmed. This is a beautiful, smart, endearing, brutally honest woman who embraces her mistakes, enjoys life and has been through a lot. I was glad to see her surviving and thriving rather than portraying herself as yet another victim of a man. Her views on what went wrong in her marriage and how she could have handled things differently show me she has chosen to concentrate on herself rather than wage a war on her ex. I find her devotion and honesty with her children to be inspiring and leaves me with hope.
In the end I find this book to be Brandi closing the door once and for all, on the whole Eddie and Leann saga and opening another door for herself. I think Eddie and Leann come from a place of guilt and are hell bent on justifying what they did to Brandi, and her sons. I have to giggle because Eddie and Leann are somehow, to me, acting out in real life some sort of twisted country song that we most likely will see Leann sing as some point.
I don't ever see the three of them interacting in a healthy way. Eddie doesn't seem to be the type of person who is able to admit he was wrong, apologize and behave like an adult. Eddie is a B-List actor who is very pretty, has questionable acting skills and an over-inflated sense of his own worth. Leann is a child star who has been raised in, as Brandi said, "a yes environment" where anything and everything she does or say is okay because she is surrounded by people whose paychecks depend on pleasing her. Not pretty.
What I have found and have blogged about previously is how Eddie has never really been confronted by the public for his behaviors. People really seem to concentrate on Leann as the home wrecker, which is true, but she couldn't have wrecked a home if Eddie had his pecker in pants where it should have been. I guess its just another fine example how even woman are misogynists. Women get very angry at Leann but somehow Eddie seems to skate through this whole mess without every getting some of the backlash that Leann has had to deal with.
My hope is that we will see Brandi keep growing and evolving into the lovely woman I believe she is. For me she is a flower who is budding and getting ready to open up and show us the magnificence of all that she is. Would I recommend for people to buy this book? Probably. Its a light read and as for any literary value, there is none. From a strictly entertaining, pop culture perspective its fine. Hopefully Brandi can now move on and close this chapter in her life and be done with the whole ugly mess.
By the way, I wrote this blog entirely sober, so I think Brandi would be proud of me. Smooches Brandi and see you on the show.....oxo your devoted fan Lucien.
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