Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey has a lot of great wisdom and experience. Though this book is titled Greenlights, you can read with yellow light and proceed cautiously. You will love his perspective on life and the whole green light philosophy.
The main thing of this book is not to overthink life so much. Just take steps forward and see that as different seasons. It’s not their overall big picture, his perspective of how he sees himself and others. It’s rooted in a lot of humility. If you want to read books like Greenlights, keep reading.
10 Books Like Greenlights (Celebrity’s Memoir)
Greenlights is about a pilgrimage into manhood and Matthew’s own experience. With that, there are a lot of small stories and big stories that lead to different levels in becoming a man coming into adulthood in various aspects of life.
I’m a big fan of autobiographies and memoirs because it’s so much fun to learn about the lives of people we find interesting. I am going to talk about ten biographical books similar to Greenlights. Let’s go!
1. A Very Punchable Face
Like Matthew in Greenlights, Colin Jost had to go through a lot to become the person he is today. While he attended Harvard, he shared a great story about writing for the Harvard Lampoon, a humor magazine. He went to Harvard and was there simultaneously as Mark Zuckerberg. During his freshman year, all got rejected. Then, the next semester, he wrote 50 pieces. They all got rejected. Finally, on the third time he applied, he made it not to work hard.
Once he started writing for the Lampoon, he realized that was the beginning and would need to prove himself. So, he worked harder than anyone else. He says he spent about 80 hours a week at the lampoon and wrote more than anyone else. It is because he wanted to improve as fast as he could. His motto was to keep improving. He didn’t care about the pieces that got rejected.
It’s fun hearing about some of his friends at SNL (Saturday Night Live) and how they helped him become who he is today. The same goes for Amy Poehler, although it’s stressful and competitive. SNL seems like a place where you can grow as a writer and performer. Plus, you meet others as dedicated as you are to perfect their craft. It’s a great reminder that we need to surround ourselves with people who challenge us, push us, and want to work as hard as we do to continue to improve.
Author: Colin Jost
Average Rating: 4.7/5
Category: Celebrity & Popular Culture Humor, Rich & Famous Biographies
Available: Audiobook | Paperback | Hardcover | Kindle
2. Inside Out
Demi Moore was born on November 11, 1962. She’s been married three times, and she has three daughters. In 1985, she got to star in two of the biggest movies of that time, St. Elmo’s Fire, where she was jewels. Then, about last night, where she was Debbie. Then, she married Bruce Willis. So her story looks like it’s so romantic. But there is so much more to her story.
At last, American actress Demi Moore tells her story in a surprisingly intimate and emotionally charged memoir. She has a history of abuse. Her book is broken into three segments: Survival, Success, and Surrender.
In her Surrender part, she says, What if everything didn’t happen to me, but for me, and I love that. She says so many great things at the end that you realize she has come through it. She went through over three years that her daughters weren’t speaking to her. You get to see many characters’ similarities and struggling themes similar to Greenlights.
Author: Demi Moore
Average Rating: 4.5/5
Category: Biographies of Celebrities & Entertainment Professionals
Available: Audiobook | Paperback | Hardcover | Kindle | Audio CD
3. The Last Black Unicorn
On December 5th, 2017, Tiffany Haddish released her memoir, The Last Black Unicorn. She was in the movie Keanu and has been on Def Comedy Jam. She is a comedian. So Tiffany wasn’t necessarily through her comedy, but through an interview on The Breakfast Club, she was promoting the Girls Trip movie. She talked about all of the hardships that she went through in her life with her family and ex-husband. It almost seemed like how could someone so young have gone through so much?
The book is 278 pages. It is not organized in chronological order. The book’s structure mimics her comedy style, so it’s a topic and then a story and another topic. She did have a co-writer for this book, but it’s very much so in Tiffany’s voice. The writing reads a lot like a speech pattern, almost as if she sat down with a voice recorder and someone transcribed everything she said, which is how this book was read.
Like Greenlights, Tiffany said the story of a conversation is written like a script. It was structured in a way that was easy to follow the flow of conversation. You don’t have extra words to explain settings or dialogue. This book breaks down all of Tiffany’s hardships from her childhood and managing her relationship with her mom, who was in an accident and unfortunately suffered. She suffered significant wounds from the car accident but was diagnosed with schizophrenia. So her life started when she was very young.
The story progresses to high school, where she ends up in foster care. Tiffany tried to explain how she used comedy to escape dangerous situations. The book repeatedly screams how Tiffany is looking for someone to love her. All these people she has tried to earn love from couldn’t give her the love she wanted.
Author: Tiffany Haddish
Average Rating: 4.7/5
Category: Celebrity & Popular Culture Humor
Available: Audiobook | Paperback | Hardcover | Kindle | Audio CD
4. Stories I Only Tell My Friends
Rob Lowe started his career as a young guy in Ohio. When he moved to Los Angeles with his family, his career started to blow up. But he also had all of these insane chance encounters with the most amazing people in show business. He writes a lot about those stories because he only tells his friends when Rob Lowe mentions any of these stories. He has about meeting all these famous people at the beginning of his career.
All these stories aren’t based on him purposefully going out to meet these people. It was all about chance encounters of him being in the right place at the right time. When he talks about meeting Liza Minnelli on Page Twenty seven, it happens to be that she was performing in Dayton, Ohio. He saw her tour manager in the lobby of the same hotel that she was in. Liza Minnelli met her when she was there with another guy in her hotel room and talked with her about show business, and it all worked well for him.
Also, as a kid, Rob Lowe was friends with Charlie Sheen, Emilio Estevez, and Sean Penn. They hung out and made movies together on eight-millimeter cameras. That’s the crazy thing about repeatedly screaming Malibu in the seventies. It is what he’s talking a lot about in his story from his childhood.
Rob Lowe had a challenging childhood being of a family of divorce. It was fascinating to read about how his mother and father were different, their separation, and why they fell apart. Then what happened when his parents remarried? Many different things happened in that period, especially for Rob Lowe, where he lived. Many of the stories that Rob Lowe talks about in this book seem to revolve around the idea of fate.
The way that Rob Lowe writes, it feels like he is a character in a story, and it doesn’t feel like he’s talking about his own experiences. But he’s writing from his perspective. Many of the things he’s talking about are very layered and have a lot of meaning behind them and many different perspectives you can take from them. That makes it seem like it’s a novel more than an autobiography as Greenlights.
Author: Rob Lowe
Average Rating: 4.6/5
Category: Movie History & Criticism, Rich & Famous Biographies
Available: Audiobook | Paperback | Hardcover | Kindle | Audio CD
5. Open Book
The book starts with Jessica Simpson hitting rock bottom, deciding not to drink, and then goes through her life until a couple of months ago. It hits on her childhood and pivotal events that she shares, opening up about that. It was hard to do and brave of her to talk about her cousin passing away and how much of an impact that had on her.
Jessica Simpson talks about the Mickey Mouse Club auditions, moving around a lot, and then trying to get into the music industry and feeling like she wanted to or that God is calling her to use her voice to connect with people. Throughout the book, she references her faith, which is awesome. She talks about how, from an early age, because she was making Christian music and singing at Christian events, she had to hide her body a lot not to look sexual.
Jessica goes into a meeting, and her marriage with Nick Laschet is super interesting. She references the people she dated after her marriage. Like Greenlight’s Matthew, this is her real-life story, and she gets emotional.
Author: Jessica Simpson
Average Rating: 4.7/5
Category: Biographies of Celebrities & Entertainment Professionals
Available: Audiobook | Paperback | Hardcover | Kindle | Audio CD
6. The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls
This memoir offers a raw look at Walls’ troubled upbringing and how she overcame poverty and familial dysfunction to find her path. While “Greenlights” embraces a philosophy of life’s challenges as “green lights,” “The Glass Castle” demonstrates resilience and survival in the face of life’s “red lights.” It is compelling and heart-wrenching but uplifting, similar to McConaughey’s journey from humble beginnings to stardom.
7. Educated by Tara Westover
Similar to “Greenlights,” “Educated” is a memoir about personal growth and overcoming adversity. Westover was raised in a strict and abusive household in rural Idaho but eventually escapes to learn about the wider world through education. Her journey is one of self-discovery, like McConaughey’s, but focuses more on intellectual and emotional awakening.
8. Born a Crime by Trevor Noah
This memoir by comedian Trevor Noah chronicles his childhood in apartheid South Africa. While “Greenlights” is rooted in American culture and values, “Born a Crime” offers an international perspective on hardship, race, and identity. Both books are filled with humor and poignant observations about life’s complexities.
9. Shoe Dog by Phil Knight
Phil Knight, the founder of Nike, tells his story of transforming a small shoe company into an international brand. While McConaughey gives life advice through the lens of an acting career, Knight does it through the lens of business. Both memoirs provide unique insights into the American dream, ambition, and the sacrifices necessary for success.
10. Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert
This book is about harnessing creativity and passion, much like McConaughey discusses finding and embracing one’s path in “Greenlights.” Gilbert uses anecdotes and personal experiences to guide the reader in embracing their creative nature, making it a great read for anyone looking for inspiration to live a life less ordinary.
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