I could listen to Betty White’s voice for the rest of my life. So bright and pure, there’s a cadence one could describe as innocent. With a flow as familiar as it is comforting, White’s book will always be on my listening TBR. But none more than If You Ask Me, which offers a vulnerability unlike any of her previous works. While Here We Go Again is a brief summary of her life so far, If You Ask Me revisits certain time periods, people, and events that were too recent or too painful for the previous work.
Unlike her last memoir, there’s an air of wisdom to her words this time. A certainty that wasn’t there before, as though if these are her last words, the last things she gets to say to her audience, this is what she wants it to be. It was as wise as it was haunting, as beautiful as it was sorrowful. White takes us through the losses in her life and the surprises that helped heal them. From her mother to an old dog, from the end of a show, to the connection of a friend, it seemed as though Betty White’s life was proof of the old adage, “When a door closes, a window opens.” And she was simply always open to the jump.
I cannot personally say I have ever met Betty White. I think most of the world can probably claim the same, but the parasocial relationship of her comforting characters, her celebrity, her familiarity still tethers me to her. Even after she’s gone, hearing her voice in these new ways keeps her legacy alive. Keeps her alive in some way. For this reason, and many others, I cannot stop recommending these books.
Art in Your World 