As a reader who usually tends to listen to fiction, I never have high hopes for non- fiction reads. They have to grip me from the beginning or I will DNF them quickly. Amy Schneider's In the Form of a Question sucked me in immediately and had me finishing the entire book in one sitting.

Open and honest through the good and bad of her life, Schneider takes you through her childhood, her transition, her time on jeopardy, and a glimpse into her current life. She has lived such a full life with both a mix of wild and relatable stories, making me laugh out loud as well as tear up.

I'd love to hear even more from her, and hope for more books in her future. Amy Schneider should be added to more people's lists of who they'd invite to their dinner party if they could invite anyone!

Startlingly frank and very compelling — in my subsequent interview with her for the Seattle Times, Schneider emphasized that she didn't want to write a sanitized book, nor one just about Jeopardy!, but one that showed the breadth of her trans experience.

Very interesting writing style that made this an easy read except for the excessive footnotes, most could have been incorporated. Not a lot on what occurs on Jeopardy or how she prepared as a contestant but what was covered was very interesting. You’ll definitely get a sense of who she is and her life. 3.5 stars

I loved watching Amy Schneider on Jeopardy! and so I was eager to learn more about her. I love the way that this books is set up-literally in the form of questions that people have asked her. She is stunningly frank and honest about her life. This book is one that will help many people struggling with their trans identity. I love how accessible this book is and how easy it is to dig into. I loved the chapter on what ADD is like, because it is exactly how I would describe it I will definitely be recommending this book.

A few days after this published, I had the pleasure of meeting the author after hearing her speak, hosted by Harvard Bookstore - to say I was excited would be a huge understatement.
Growing up the daughter of two educators, I watched Jeopardy with my parents nightly. Trivia and random knowledge have always been interesting to me, and I have continued to watch the show for many many years, and playing bar trivia with my friends has been one of the few reasons I would miss a new episode. I loved watching Amy’s run on the show, and I loved reading more beyond the life-changing experience she had on Jeopardy.
As a fellow elder millennial (not the horrific g-word one, ever), I found many commonalities with Amy, including our shared love of Molly McIntyre and Daria, as well as the excitement of intellectual curiosity and learning new things for no reason other than the joy of learning.
Amy describes her slow process of coming to terms with her trans identity in her 30s, as she points out many times when it may have been obvious but she fought against her own preconceptions of what trans looked like. From acknowledging and owning her dead name to portraying her previous marriage and polyamory, Amy gives herself more dimension beyond the nice, smart trans woman on TV. I loved hearing from Amy herself, in person, about some of the conscious decisions she made in writing the book as well as while preparing for her time on the show.
Thanks to Avid Reader Press for an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion - and to Harvard Bookstore for the engaging author event. The book exceeded my expectations from the superchamp. It’s an engaging memoir (each chapter answers a question Amy is often asked or wanted to be - or was reverse-engineered to fit a chapter she wrote!) covering a range of topics beyond her life as a trans woman.
As a high school math teacher, I will continue to strive to have a “sincere, contagious interest” in what I’m teaching as Amy suggests is true of all great teachers. Thanks for the reminder, Amy!
One small note - there are a lot of footnotes in this book which are rather annoying to read in ebook form. I highly recommend a physical copy to make it easier to transition back and forth between footnotes and the content they are referencing.

I really enjoyed the format of Amy's memoir. I do wish there had been more focus on her time on Jeopardy since I think that's what many will pick up her book looking for. But I did love getting all the insight into her live thus far.

In the Form of a Question: The Joys and Rewards of a Curious Life by Amy Schneider is a humorous queer memoir. I listened to the audiobook, which is narrated by the author.

The most successful woman ever to compete on Jeopardy explores what it means to ask questions of the world and of yourself. After a forty-game winning streak she walked away with $1.3 million, all while being fully herself on national television: openly queer and transgender.

As a fellow queer and neurodiverse elder millennial, I identify with Amy in a lot of ways, so I feel like I'm a bullseye for the target audience of this memoir. I've always been someone who asks "why" a lot. I have been ever since I was young, when I'd read the encyclopedia if I got bored. Heck, she's even into tarot and astrology for the same reasons I am and thinks Daria is one of the best cartoons ever created.

Amy is VERY funny, or at least she and I share the same kind of humor. I laughed out loud many times while listening to the audiobook (which I was glad to see she narrates!) that I spooked my kittens from their naps.

I absolutely adored this refreshing and honest autobiography by Amy Schneider. From the very beginning I was captivated by her story about "being smart" in a world where that can be bother revered and isolating, truly a gift and a curse. Throughout the book Amy brought her own perspective about life and her struggles with the world, culminating in her experience on Jeopardy. As a fellow trans person, it was healing to see her share her voice. I highly recommend this book if anyone else feels connected to Amy like I did.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an electronic advanced reader's copy in exchange for my honest review.

raise your hand if you watched amy’s iconic run on jeopardy 🙋‍♀️

i don’t watch jeopardy like that, it’s something my dad and i will put on kind of in the background and randomly answer questions as the show is on for half an hour during dinner. but i remember amy’s run so vividly and it was truly incredible.

not gonna lie, i was expecting more of a memoir and less of a collection of essays. or rather, the traditional memoir format over a collection of essays. but i think the way amy decided to format the book made a lot more sense after reading her chapter on ADD/ADHD. this is the way her brain works. and that includes the footnotes. i skipped over a lot, if not, the majority of them because i find footnotes hard to follow and they kind of interrupt the flow of how i read so i can pretty much guarantee there is a lot of stuff that i missed that amy wanted the reader to know.

this book ISN’T about amy’s jeopardy run. i think a lot of people will go into the book thinking that. yes, she touches on jeopardy and her 41 game run, but there is so much more to amy outside of the 40 game champion title. she talks about being trans, tarot and astrology (my favorite chapter), her constant want to know more, and so much more.

Thank you to Net Galley for an ecopy of “ In the Form of a Question” by Amy Schneider in exchange for a honest review.As a loyal Jeopardy fan,I followed Amy’s 40 show Jeopardy run ,where she won $1.3 million dollars, intently.She was a breath of fresh air on the show and I loved watching her come alive This book was very insightful and described Amy’ at times painful struggle to become the person she was meant to be. She had lots of antidotes that went into shaping her current self .The only downside of this book was the sex and drug use descriptions but I am old school.Overall, a very descriptive and enjoyable read.

Everything you want in a memoir - brutal honesty, sex, and drugs!

I am a big Jeopardy fan which is why this book interested me, so if you like the show and rooted for Amy, I think you will enjoy the book! She has lots of great stories and the ending was beautiful. I'm glad her run on Jeopardy was so successful and that the majority of America had no problem cheering on a trans woman from their living rooms.

The insane amount of footnotes was annoying, and the vast majority were unnecessary. Would have been better with just a few that really added something to the stories.

I was excited to read this having watched her Jeopardy
Performances. She is an in treating woman with interesting thoughts on many topics some I found I wanted to know about and some I didn’t. I expected a little more insight to her lifestyle and found it overall well written but somewhat boring.

Anyone who is a fan of Jeopardy most likely knows who Amy Schneider is. She shared aspects of her personal life over the course of her many (and profitable) wins on the show. Those who would like to know Amy better can spend time with her in this book.

The chapters are titled in true Jeopardy style. A few of these are How Did You Get So Smart? When Did You Know You Were Trans? What’s it Like Having ADD? How did You and Genevieve Meet? and many more.

Those who want to know primarily about Jeopardy may not be fully satisfied with this title. Readers need to know going in that that this book is about Amy’s life and that Jeopardy was just one part of it.

This title will, I think, be welcomed by those who have faced some/any of the same life experiences that Amy has. She seems candid about everything and may well leave some of her readers feeling less alone.

This is a book for adults as Amy points out in the introduction. She notes that many kids may have watched her on Jeopardy but that they are not her audience. She gives hope that she will perhaps one day write a book for them.

So, if you are curious about this Jeopardy phenom, give this one a look.Many thanks to NetGalley and Avid Reader Press for this title. All opinions are my own.

Advanced Book Review! Thank you @netgalley and @avidreaderpress for sending me this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.
“An inspirational and bold memoir from the most successful woman ever to compete on Jeopardy! – and an exploration of what it means to ask questions of the world and of yourself.”
I feel kind of funny rating this memoir 2.5 stars because a memoir is someone’s lived experience and how they choose to share it with the world. But I was unfortunately disappointed with this one.
To start, I didn’t like the writing style. I found it unnecessarily descriptive and crude but beyond that, there were so many footnotes that were actually more like commentary on the actual text. They mostly seemed unnecessary or like they could have just been included in the actual text.
This book was more like a series of essays, with each chapter on a specific topic. Some parts were interesting but the chapters seemed to be all over the place with no specific order. I also thought some of the chapters were unnecessary and I skimmed a lot.
Ultimately, I thought this book would be a lot more about Jeopardy than it actually was. Amy writes about the fame she experienced after winning on Jeopardy, her love of learning, and the responsibilities of being trans in public. It’s clear that her time on Jeopardy had a profound impact on her life, as she writes “until I appeared on television, I did not believe that I could ever be accepted for who I was.” However, she doesn’t really write about the jeopardy experience itself, and, to me, that was disappointing.