Kelly Bishop’s memoir was heartwarming, witty and entertaining. As a huge Gilmore Girls fan I was over the moon to receive an ARC of one of the most anticipated memoirs of the year. I was fascinated to learn about Bishops trials and tribulations of her early dancing career. This memoir mainly focuses on her career but briefly touches on different aspects of her personal life as well. Her humour and wit are scattered throughout the pages of this memoir which I found thoroughly entertaining. I was unaware of Bishops career leading up to her role as Emily Gilmore in Gilmore Girls. I enjoyed reading Bishop’s story immensely. Thank you NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for an advanced copy of this book.

The memoir of Kelly Bishop who plays Emily Gilmore in the Gilmore girls . This is more of a memoir of her career then her personal life — but when she does touch on aspect of her personal life she is very frank and candid about everything. She also has very good life advice that she has learned that she shares with her readers as well. Very interesting to see where and how she started to where she ended up as she enters her 80s .

Thanks to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster Canada | Gallery Books for this ARC. This is my honest review.

I was so excited and honoured to have my ARC request accepted for Kelly Bishop’s memoir, The Third Gilmore Girl. I dove right in, eager to learn more about the incredible actress that brought the complex character Emily Gilmore to life.

That being said, I find memoirs very hard to rate. I’m a big believer that celebrities don’t owe us anything besides what they are willing to give. In this age of social media, where every little action is posted and analyzed by thousands (or millions) of people, celebrities can be picked apart for the most minuscule reason, and sometimes I think we forget that they are humans with feelings that can be hurt and families that can be affected.

Kelly’s memoir walks the fine line between letting us into her life, and maintaining her privacy, and I think she pulls it off. While I’d say we learn much more about her career than we do her personal life, we are still left with a great overall picture of who Kelly is and what she values. This is an immensely readable book, that never once left me bored. Kelly’s long and varied career in show business was extremely interesting. The writing style came across almost like discussing memories with an old friend. Once published, I’ll be torn between purchasing the audiobook (assuming Kelly herself is narrator) or a print copy (I’m honestly hoping for lots of pictures of Kelly through the years).

At one point, Kelly mentions that she’s extremely proud of her career, in large part due to the fact that it was on her own terms, without comprising her dignity or privacy. I hope she feels the same way about this delightful memoir.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster Canada for providing the ARC of this book. This review is my honest and voluntary opinion.

Oh what a treat this memoir was!
Charming, loving and witty, Kelly Bishop is an absolute gem and I was so happy to learn more about her life and career.
As a long time Gilmore Girls fan I also loved this look behind the scenes from Kelly’s point of view.
A thoroughly enjoyable read.

Kelly Bishop is an inspiring, strong, dedicated, brilliant woman. I loved learning more about her and how passionate and admiring she is. I loved everything, whether the parts of her personal life but also professional.

Like many people, I think, I especially wanted to read this book for the Gilmore Girls part. And if you only want to read about Gilmore Girls, expect to wait until about 65% of the book, but don't let that intimidate you because the whole book is really good.

She went through so many difficult times in her life but always managed to get through it and I really liked that she wasn't afraid to speak up for herself.

✨ARC Review✨

I was so excited to get approved for this arc, as I'm a huge fan of Gilmore Girls and Emily Gilmore is a character I love to hate (don't come for me if you love her, she's triggering to me because of my birth giver issues).

Kelly Bishop has lead such an interesting life, and I learned so much about her with this book! I had no idea she'd started her career as a dancer before becoming an actress, and the first role I ever saw her in was as Baby's mother in Dirty Dancing. I love that movie with my entire heart, and it was great to read about her experience filming it.

What I enjoyed most were the chapters about Gilmore Girls, and I loved how honest she was about the show as a whole, and that dreadful seventh season (it sucks, let's be honest). She talks about being Team Luke (which, hello, SAME!!) and losing Ed Herrman, and that part made me tear up.

I loved the glimpses into show business and her personal life, and how unapologetic she is about never wanting/having children, and the way she mentions going to therapy as casually as if she's mentioning going to the movies.

While Emily is a (mostly) unlikeable character for me, the woman behind the character is resilient, kind and amazing. If you're in any way a fan of Kelly Bishop or Gilmore Girls and enjoy memoirs, I'd give this one a read!

Thank you to Simon and Schuster Canada and Netgalley for a copy in exchange for a review. All opinions are my own.

As a huge Gilmore Girls fan, I was so excited to receive Kelly Bishop, THE Emily Gilmore’s, memoir as an ARC. Thank you so much to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the opportunity to read this memoir and leave a review. It’s easily 5 stars for me.

I did not even know Kelly Bishop’s name before this memoir but now I won’t forget it. What a humble, fun soul.

In her memoir, she recounts her career as a dancer, actor, and all of the roles and opportunities her talent brought her. I loved her outlook on her career, not wanting to be at the center of attention but rather finding a community of likeminded people, a second family. She shares details of her marriages and relationships and what she learned from each one. I truly appreciated her openness and honestly throughout her book. I feel like I was sitting in a room with her.

I couldn’t recommend this book more whether you are a Gilmore Girls fan or not, Kelly Bishops’ story is a must read.

Charming, entertaining memoir, with some heavy bits near the end. The stuff about Gilmore Girls was great! It could have been a lot longer.

Thank you to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster Canada for the digital galley in exchange for my honest review.

Kelly Bishop’s memoir touches on her early life, passion for animals, pro-choice activism, disappointing first husband, and affairs, but delves deep into her relationship with show business and the love of her life, Lee Leonard.

The tone is wistful, and offers wisdom about spirituality, work ethic, and believing in oneself.

I flew through it, reading the entire memoir in one day, and as a fan of Gilmore Girls, immediately seeking out Bunheads, The Marvelous Mrs Maisel, and The Watchful Eye for more of Bishop’s performances.

firstly I would like to thank NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Canada for this ARC in exchange for an honest review🫶🏻

I have always known Kelly Bishop as THE Emily Gilmore from the hit tv show “Gilmore Girls”.. but that’s all I’ve ever known her for.. she is MUCH more than that. She’s a broadway star, and an incredible actress who has done many MANY roles from big to small. She’s done and gone through so much in her life that I can’t even begin to imagine the pain she felt with all the loss she had to endure. But what I’ve learned from her is that she got back up every single time life through something at her. She was optimistic every single time. Auditions after auditions from when she was just a teenager up until today. I have never known her work before Gilmore Girls. She was just “Emily Gilmore” to me.. but she’s more than that like I said❤️ I admired this Memoir so much. It was truly heartbreaking at times, but it was also healing, and loving. I loved reading all about what Kelly has done from when she was a child up until today. Being surprised she had done all of that was the best part. I was shocked every time! But I’m so happy everything worked out for her and she found happiness with herself❤️ she will forever to me be “The Third Gilmore Girl” truly❤️

Cards on the table: I'm a huge Gilmore Girls and Amy Sherman-Palladino fan. I love Emily Gilmore. She is a firecracker character and I'll now watch anything Kelly Bishop is in. But other than knowing she is talented, prior to reading this book, Kelly was a mystery to me.

This was a one night read. It was fast-paced and fun. It blew my mind how much Kelly and the other dancers were part of the process of creating the Chorus Line. Listening to 'At the ballet...' hits differently now. Kelly's journey from ballet to broadway to Emily Gilmore fascinated me. If you've seen Bunheads, Kelly is very much more Fanny than Emily in real life: a badass broad. If you love Gilmore Girls, or want a great actor biography, I recommend this one.

Thank you, Simon & Schuster Canada, for this advanced reader's copy.

I devoured The Third Gilmore Girl. Bishop's determination, hardwork and dedication to her career was inspiring. Her descriptions of love, loss, friendships and struggle were palpable. I appreciate her vulnerability and honesty in discussing hard topics from addiction to abortion and her unwavering ability to be true to herself.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Gilmore Girls is my absolute favourite show in the entire world, and I feel absolutely honoured that I was selected for this ARC! I love Emily Gilmore (Kelly Bishop) so much and I am so excited to get to know more about her previous to her life on Gilmore Girls (and during of course 🤪) AND THE FOREWORD BY ASP 😍😍😍😍 My Gilmore loving heart is just so full right now!!
I actually only found out recently that Kelly (Carole 🤪) Bishop was like a mega-famous bad a** b before Gilmore Girls, and I am literally salivating to learn all about her life and career!
Everything about this book just made me love Kelly more. From the “preferring animals to people”, to wanting to be the best dancer&actress she could possibly be to “pay her mom back” for everything she had done for her, to just the whole tone/narration of the book; I read the whole thing in Kelly’s voice without even meaning to 🤪 It was just written so HER 💕
It was heart-breaking to read about how Kelly grew up and how hard she worked and how much her mother/other mentors did for her and then she wanted to be amazing to “pay them back” for everything they had done for her … just 😭😭😭😭 tears for real
I just loved this book so much! I will always give a 5 ⭐️ because I am not ever going to judge someone’s life story, but this one was like a 10 ⭐️ I just could not stop reading! I loved learning how my beloved character grew up and all the things she did to get her to being Emily Gilmore. I had no idea she was a dancer! like I’m so shocked and trying to picture Emily Gilmore being on Broadway 🤪 I also really enjoyed learning things about other people that I didn’t know (Morgan Freeman started as a dancer?? and Kelly danced with him?? AMAZING)
I absolutely LOVE the cover Kelly looks absolutely STUNNING at 80!!!! Like how is that woman 80?!?! 😍😍😍😍😍😍
I really appreciate how candid Kelly is in this book and letting us know all the gritty (JUICY 🤪) details on her personal life! That’s the real stuff we all want to know 🤪
I am so happy to have read this book because now I am seeing so many little details that were in Gilmore Girls that must have been put in there BECAUSE of Kelly’s life story… I am so excited to watch the series through again and be able to pick up on all these little “easter eggs” that Amy put in the show.
I literally can’t say enough good things about this book; it was a truly delightful read.

The Third Gilmore Girl by Kelly Bishop is an incredibly thoughtful and well-written memoir of a legend of stage and screen. Gilmore Girls is one of my favourite shows but I did not know very much about Kelly Bishop beyond her various roles in Amy Sherman-Palladino productions. I loved getting to learn about Kelly's career, from her time as a ballet dancer to Vegas showgirl to Tony award winner. Her writing is reflective and sharp, and I love hearing her thoughts about show business, Broadway, and the characters she has played. This memoir was the perfect mix of career and personal life, with thoughts on grief, illness, and aging as an actor. I am so incredibly happy that I was able to read this book and I look forward to seeing what Kelly does next!

Advanced Book Review! Thank you @simonschusterca and @netgalley and for sending me this book for review. Opinions are my own.
The Third Gilmore Girl by Kelly Bishop was my most anticipated memoir of the year. I am a massive Gilmore Girls fan, Dirty Dancing is one of my favourite movies, and I loved her character in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, so I was super excited to receive an advanced copy and I literally dropped everything else I was reading and devoured it in a couple days.
As I was reading, I could hear Kelly Bishop’s distinct voice in my head. I will probably want to listen to this when it’s out in audiobook format (assuming she narrates it).
I’ve read a little bit about the history of Broadway and the importance of A Chorus Line to revitalizing Broadway, and, by extension, New York City, in the 1970s. I’ve seen it performed once at a more amateur theatre and while it wasn’t my favourite show, I loved reading about how Kelly Bishop not only originated the role of Sheila on Broadway, but that the character was actually based on her life story. While I was reading I was googling videos of Kelly Bishop in A Chorus Line, her Tony acceptance speech and the tony performance. She looked, and sounded, exactly the same.
I loved learning more about Kelly Bishop’s life, her honesty about the challenges she faced and the amazing experiences she had, and highly recommend this memoir for any theatre or Gilmore Girls fan. At 80 years old, I look forward to seeing what she does next.