{"product_id":"mean-baby-isbn-9780593082775","title":"Mean Baby","description":"\u003cb\u003eSelma Blair has played many roles: Ingenue in \u003ci\u003eCruel Intentions\u003c\/i\u003e. Preppy ice queen in \u003ci\u003eLegally Blonde\u003c\/i\u003e. Muse to Karl Lagerfeld. Advocate for the multiple sclerosis community. But before all of that, Selma was known best as … a mean baby. In a memoir that is as wildly funny as it is emotionally shattering, Blair tells the captivating story of growing up and finding her truth.            \u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e\"Blair is a rebel, an artist, and it turns out: a writer.\"—Glennon Doyle, Author of the #1 \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e Bestseller \u003ci\u003eUntamed\u003c\/i\u003e and Founder of Together Rising\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe first story Selma Blair Beitner ever heard about herself is that she was a mean, mean baby. With her mouth pulled in a perpetual snarl and a head so furry it had to be rubbed to make way for her forehead, Selma spent years living up to her terrible reputation: biting her sisters, lying spontaneously, getting drunk from Passover wine at the age of seven, and behaving dramatically so that she would be the center of attention.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Although Selma went on to become a celebrated Hollywood actress and model, she could never quite shake the periods of darkness that overtook her, the certainty that there was a great mystery at the heart of her life. She often felt like her arms might be on fire, a sensation not unlike electric shocks, and she secretly drank to escape.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Over the course of this beautiful and, at times, devasting memoir, Selma lays bare her addiction to alcohol, her devotion to her brilliant and complicated mother, and the moments she flirted with death. There is brutal violence, passionate love, true friendship, the gift of motherhood, and, finally, the surprising salvation of a multiple sclerosis diagnosis.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e In a voice that is powerfully original, fiercely intelligent, and full of hard-won wisdom, Selma Blair’s \u003ci\u003eMean Baby\u003c\/i\u003e is a deeply human memoir and a true literary achievement. \u003cb\u003eA GOODREADS BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Elegantly expressed… Evocative… This generous, moving book… roams intuitively, assuredly, between past and present… For years Blair looked to astrologers, mediums, and healers to tell her story… She herself is the right person.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e —Susan Burton, \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \"Blair engages with her MS starkly and movingly...[She] puts it all out there.\"\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e—\u003c\/i\u003eJoanne Kaufman, \u003ci\u003eThe Wall Street Journal\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e “Selma Blair is not afraid to go there when it comes to sharing the ups and downs of her personal life — particularly in the wake of her 2018 Multiple Sclerosis diagnosis — but never before has she shared such shocking details from her past.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e —Kara Warner, \u003ci\u003ePeople Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e “In \u003ci\u003eMean Baby\u003c\/i\u003e, an intensely self-aware and cheerfully self-revealing Blair explores the abundant darkness arising from her fraught relationships with her mother, men, alcohol and, ultimately, multiple sclerosis. In different hands, this might make for a more painful read. But throughout her breezy narrative, Blair’s wry humor and her chatty, confiding tone make you feel that you’re spending 300 pages with a smart and, yes, slightly bratty new friend… Blair’s memoir…is funny and frank, a chance to spend time with a brave and big-hearted woman who’s grown up to be not so mean, after all.”\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e—\u003c\/i\u003eJennifer LaRue, \u003ci\u003eThe Washington Post\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"A beautiful tale about how this person learned to love a new version of herself.\" \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e —Rachel Martin, \u003ci\u003eNPR's Morning Edition\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Selma Blair has written a book on survival. \u003ci\u003eMean Baby\u003c\/i\u003e, the first book released by the actor, examines the often darker moments of her life. From being violated by an educator during her childhood to seeking refuge in the bottom of alcohol bottles by age 7 and experiencing physical pain that she now believes could have been early signs of MS, she reflects back on it all.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e —Alex Portée, \u003ci\u003eThe TODAY Show\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Unlike many celebrity memoirs, which can read as vanity projects, \u003ci\u003eMean Baby\u003c\/i\u003e is unflinching: Blair confronts her history of sexual assault, divorce, loneliness, and violence. She strove for honesty, for total transparency…Readers of \u003ci\u003eMean Baby\u003c\/i\u003e will also be grateful for Blair’s generosity.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e—\u003c\/i\u003eSamantha Leach, \u003ci\u003eBustle\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"If you thought you knew Selma Blair, think again.” \u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Marie Claire\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Riveting...As a child, actor Selma Blair was known as a troublemaker, a reputation she carried into adulthood. In \u003ci\u003eMean Baby\u003c\/i\u003e, her raw, beautifully written autobiography, Blair recounts her difficult road—involving an addiction to alcohol and a complicated relationship with her mother—and shares how her multiple sclerosis diagnosis four years ago was, in many ways, what ultimately saved her.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e—\u003c\/i\u003eKristyn Kusek Lewis, \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eReal Simple \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Captivating and unflinching… Raw and real, \u003ci\u003eMean Baby \u003c\/i\u003eis Blair's life in words — warts and all. And well worth the time because…it's also funny…uplifting…. After a half-century of searching, [Blair] appears to have found her truth... A dazzling and intense memoir.”\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e—\u003c\/i\u003eMike Householder, \u003ci\u003eAssociated Press\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"Selma Blair is one mean baby and one mean writer! Blair honestly writes about the uncertainty, messiness, joy, and weirdness of living in a ‘broken’ body. Disability is not always constant or known and \u003ci\u003eMean Baby\u003c\/i\u003e depicts this reality with compassion and grace.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e —Alice Wong, editor of \u003ci\u003eDisability Visibility\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “\u003ci\u003eMean Baby,\u003c\/i\u003e Selma Blair’s brilliant book, demands attention. It grabs you by the collar and says \u003ci\u003elisten to all that I have to say: about love, pain, motherhood, illness, celebrity, and the tidal ferocity that pours through all our lives.\u003c\/i\u003e Read it and be caught in the voice of one of our luminous stars.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e —Esmé Weijun Wang, best-selling author of \u003ci\u003eThe Collected Schizophrenias\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “Selma Blair will take every expectation you have and shatter it with this beautiful book. It’s less about illness than it is an effluence of hope, just when you can’t imagine anyone having the spirit to summon it. If you’ve ever felt broken or lost, you’ll find yourself on the pages of this book and maybe see a way to the high road when the author writes, \u003ci\u003eTo have been so lucky.\u003c\/i\u003e The rejects and outsiders have spoken, Selma, and we’ve elected you Queen.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e —Mary-Louise Parker, best-selling author of \u003ci\u003eDear Mr. You\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e“Mean Baby\u003c\/i\u003e is straight-up terrific — bold, intimate, sassy, profound — and a vital reminder that the hectic glitter of the exterior rarely reflects the hard-earned wonder of the interior. So, while you might reach for \u003ci\u003eMean Baby\u003c\/i\u003e because of the author’s celebrity, you’ll read into the night for her candor, eye for detail, and stunning prose. In an embarrassment of riches, Selma Blair is as talented a writer as she is an actress.”\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e—Adrienne Brodeur, best-selling author of \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eWild Game\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"Mean Baby\u003c\/i\u003e is a fascinating exploration about the power of prophecy, of labels, and of one woman's determination to defy them all. Blair is a rebel, an artist, and it turns out: a writer.\"\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e —\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003eGlennon Doyle, author of the #1 \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e best-seller \u003ci\u003eUntamed\u003c\/i\u003e and Founder of Together Rising\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Throughout \u003ci\u003eMean Baby\u003c\/i\u003e, Blair demonstrates a rare level of self-awareness for someone who’s been encased in the celebrity industrial complex for most of her adult life...Blair writes with unflinching, unapologetic honesty about her trauma....[\u003ci\u003eMean Baby\u003c\/i\u003e] fills in the gaps we didn’t even know were missing.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e—\u003c\/i\u003eAdam White, \u003ci\u003eThe Independent\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"Blair revisits in this bold and candid debut her odyssey through addiction, trauma, and illness...Blair, in her typical fashion, finds a way to transform her burden into an opportunity, sharing her experience of living with MS with astounding candor and grace. This compassionate and intelligent work will leave fans floored.\"\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e—Publisher's Weekly,\u003c\/i\u003e starred\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e “Actress Selma Blair always thought of herself as a sidekick or character actress, never a leading lady, but in this illuminating and authentic memoir, she takes center stage as the teller of her own story... The book's first and third parts, covering her childhood and her MS diagnosis (along with the birth of her son), respectively, are spellbinding… A compelling story… remarkably good writing.” \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e—Booklist,\u003c\/i\u003e starred\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBlair… candidly recounts the events of her life with refreshing honesty…Hilarious and heart-wrenching in equal measure…. In one moment, she discusses biting Seth MacFarlane on the hand, and in the next, she brings readers to tears while talking about her experiences with grief. Blair writes in blunt, witty prose, making this book hard to put down…Witty, funny, heartbreaking, and beautifully written. This book will be loved by fans of Blair’s work and of her MS advocacy.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e —\u003ci\u003eLibrary Journal, \u003c\/i\u003estarred\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Painfully lovely...[An] elegiac contemplation of [Blair’s] life through the lens of a chronic illness that only recently made her past clear. For those seeking a similar sense of enlightenment, reading \u003ci\u003eMean Baby\u003c\/i\u003e is a worthy and affecting undertaking.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e —Linda M. Castellitto, \u003ci\u003eBookPage\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e 9780525659495SELMA BLAIR is an actress best known for her roles in \u003ci\u003eLegally Blonde, Cruel Intentions, The Sweetest Thing,\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eHellboy.\u003c\/i\u003e Blair was named a \u003ci\u003eTime \u003c\/i\u003ePerson of the Year in 2017 as one of their Silence Breakers, and she was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for her narration of \u003ci\u003eAnne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl.\u003c\/i\u003e She is the subject of the documentary \u003ci\u003eIntroducing, Selma Blair,\u003c\/i\u003e which reveals Blair’s intimate and raw journey with multiple sclerosis. Blair lives with her son in Los Angeles.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eMean Baby\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI’m not sure  how to harness my meandering thoughts into words  and  sentences  that  make  sense.  So  I’ll  start  with  what  I know.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWe are all in search of a story that explains who we are.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs  Joan  Didion  wrote,  “We  tell  ourselves  stories  in  order  to live.” We are made not only by the stories we tell ourselves but by the tales of others—the stories they tell us, and the stories they tell about us.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe  first  story  I  was  told  about  myself—other  than  the  one about how my mother watched as the doctor pulled me out from her insides—is that I was a mean, mean baby.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI came into this world with my mouth pulled into a perpetual snarl. I was born with a glower, my face defined by a heavy brow that  adults  coveted.  But  on  a  child—an  infant,  no  less—my  face looked judgmental, scrutinizing. No one knew quite what to make of it.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhen I arrived home from the hospital, only one of my three sisters,  Katie,  who  was  five,  was  waiting  in  our  driveway.  Mimi, aged twelve, and Lizzie, almost two, were elsewhere. Katie rushed out to meet me, my mother holding me on her lap. Katie asked if I was a baby doll for her. No, I wasn’t, my expression said. A few days later, some of the neighborhood kids came over to meet the new Beitner child. Within minutes, they left screaming, warning any-one  who  would  listen,  “Do not go  over  there.  The  Beitners  have a  mean  baby.”  Can  you  imagine!  Have  you  ever  heard  an  infant described  in  this  way?  What  could  I  have  done?  I  was  just  days old! An infant with a snarl. I only wanted someone to pick me up, I think. Or put me down! But instead they all went and gossiped. From the very beginning, I was misunderstood.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNevertheless,  the  label  stuck,  as  labels  are  wont  to  do.  What people call you does matter. The words we use hold weight. We say this sometimes, as lip service, but it’s true. It’s like having a sticker affixed  to  your  back  that  the  rest  of  the  world  can  read  but  you can’t. Before I could even speak, I was told who and what I was. I was mean.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn  my  defense,  I  did  not  have  a  proper  name  for  the  first  few years of my life. My birth certificate reads, simply, “Baby Girl Beit-ner.” In babyhood, I was given the nickname Baby Bear. My mom said they called me Bear because I had such a furry head that they would have to rub it to make way for my forehead. (I used to feel bad about this bit of my history, until I read that Rene Russo was born with the same affliction.)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEventually,  my  family  started  calling  me  Blair—after  Blair Moody, my mother told me. A U.S. senator and circuit court judge from Michigan whom she admired. This was funny, because I was so  moody.  (To  this  I  say:  Be  careful  what  you  name  your  kid!)  I remember being a Blair, because they would all spell it out when-ever they talked about me, as though I wouldn’t piece it together. “B- L- A- I-   R  was  mean,”  or  “B- L- A- I-   R  wants  to  come.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis continued until I was three, when I went to preschool and needed a legal name. My mother decided to name me Selma, after her much-adored friend who died around the time I was born. In the Jewish tradition, babies are never named after a living person, and this seemed like a fitting tribute. The other names in conten-tion were Ethel, Gretel—which I would have liked—Marta, Mar-tha,  and  Gwyneth.  (Gwyneth!  To  think,  I  could  have  been  one, too!) There came a point where I loudly proclaimed, “When am I  going  to  get  one  of  those  names?”  referring  to  my  sisters’  nick-names of Ducky, Precious, and Princess. I wanted a pretty name. But it was not to be. From this point forward, I was Selma Blaire Bear  Beitner,  though  my  mother  eventually  removed  the e from “Blaire,” because she said it was “too pretentious.” And there you have it.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFor  my  entire  life,  I  have  been  both.  Selma  and  Blair.  My  two names  would  come  to  define  me,  as  much  as  the  stories  around them.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs  a  child,  I  never  took  to  the  name  Selma.  It  seemed  to  me  an old  lady’s  name,  not  a  name  befitting  a  little  girl.  When  given  a choice, I always asked to be called Blair, but I got a real boatload of “Selma” in elementary school. Whenever the teacher did roll call, I was too shy to ask, “Can you call me Blair?” So all day long I was Selma, or Bat Sheva, the Hebrew name used by the teachers at my Jewish day school, and at home I was Blair. Mom was always sorry I didn’t like Selma. A feminine of Saint Anselm, the Benedictine monk. Or a reference to Selma, Alabama. It was a good name, she often reminded me.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhen I was five years old, Mom, Dad, and I went on a weekend trip  where  I  struck  up  a  friendship  with  a  family  with  a  baby.  As we  lounged  poolside,  the  mother  asked  my  name,  and  I  casually replied  that  it  was  Lisa—a  nice,  normal  name.  As  Lisa,  I  played with that baby for three hours, helping her navigate the hotel pool in  her  floaties.  When  the  afternoon  sun  sank  low  in  the  sky,  the woman  approached  my  mother  and  told  her  that  her  daughter Lisa had been so helpful.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Lisa!” My mother let out a wail. “Her name’s not Lisa! What a crock! What a liar!”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe woman looked at me as though she were seeing me for the first  time.  My  lovely  afternoon  had  been  erased.  I  was  no  longer Lisa, and now I was a liar as well.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMy  mother  nicknamed  me  Saintly,  but  it  was  tongue  in  cheek.  I was  no  saint.  I  could  sometimes  be  saintly  to  my  mother,  but  to everyone else I was a mean baby.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGrowing up, I shared a bedroom with my sister Lizzie, since we were  closest  in  age.  Our  parents  let  us  choose  the  wallpaper,  and since Lizzie didn’t care, I picked a pattern with little pink and blue flowers floating against white. I chose it because it looked similar to what Jessica Lange describes as her childhood wallpaper in the movie Tootsie. Movies,  even  then,  were  what  gave  me  ideas  and hope.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOur room had two twin beds and those vinyl shades you needed to tug in order to pull them up or down. Every morning, I got out of bed very, very quickly. I had never been one to linger. (Can you believe  it?)  I  rushed  to  pull  the  shade  down,  so  it  would  snap  to attention and rip-roll up loudly, sending the diffused morning sun straight into Lizzie’s eyes.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Yehi or!” I’d yell at the top of my lungs, quoting from the first lines of Genesis, the Hebrew words for “Let there be light!”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Blair!”  she  would  croak,  rubbing  her  eyes.  “Why  do  you  do this?”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNext I made my way around the room, throwing open the door, turning on the television atop Mom’s childhood maple dresser, her mother’s before her, and flicking on the lights. I needed life, imme-diately. I needed every bit of everything, every bit of help, anything I could reach in order to cheerlead myself into embracing my day. Even then, I did this.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis was how our days began. I made Lizzie crazy. But she put up with me. Every night, we said good night back and forth until one of us fell asleep. She was always there with me.","brand":"Vintage","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46303400132837,"sku":"NP9780593082775","price":17.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780593082775.jpg?v=1767732476","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/mean-baby-isbn-9780593082775","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}