Crushmore
Essays on Love, Loss, and Coming-of-Age
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4.0 • 2 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
NATIONAL BESTSELLER
In the debut essay collection from the hosts of the hit podcast Podcrushed, Penn Badgley, Sophie Ansari, and Nava Kavelin explore what it means to come of age at every stage of our lives.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
These deeply personal essays about youthful awkwardness and uncertainty are a beautiful reminder that the experiences we find the most isolating are often nearly universal. Penn Badgley, Sophie Ansari, and Nava Kavelin regularly dig into just these sorts of stories with guests like Conan O’Brien and Ariana Grande on their podcast Podcrushed. Here, the three of them candidly explore their own unique but relatable teen memories, inviting us into the big and small moments that have stuck with them the most. Sophie Ansari broke our hearts reliving the party she attended at age 11 where the texture of her curly hair made her feel like the ultimate outsider. Badgley opens up about the jarring transition from being a homeschooled introvert to a professional actor at age 12. Kavelin reveals how, even in adulthood, her mother’s death felt like the final chapter in her own coming of age. Reflective and insightful, Crushmore will leave you with greater empathy for anyone who’s gone through the harrowing ordeal of adolescence—including yourself.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Podcrushed cohosts Badgley, Ansari, and Kavelin debut with an joint memoir-in-essays that successfully turns the interview format of their celebrity-focused podcast on themselves. In short, punchy essays—each written by one of the authors—they discuss the major anxieties, image crises, and high points of their early lives, employing the same humor and openheartedness that listeners of the podcast have come to expect. Gossip Girl star Badgley recalls the brain-scrambling experience of auditioning in Los Angeles as a 12-year-old budding actor, while Ansari unpacks the disorientation of jetting around the world for her parents' jobs at UNICEF and frequently introducing herself to brand-new social circles. Kavelin, meanwhile, offers a tender account of her fraught relationship with her late mother, whose buoyant enthusiasm by turns encouraged and mortified a young Kavelin. Along the way, each author digs deep into their teenage insecurities, reflecting on the ways they have (or haven't) followed them into adulthood; Badgley, for instance, still feels undereducated after leaving school as a teenager to focus on acting. Revealing, entertaining, and surprisingly cohesive, this will appeal even to readers who have never pressed play on an episode of Podcrushed. Agents: Alex Rice and Emily Westcott, CAA.