Finding It

I’ll admit: I approached *Finding It* skeptical. Another actress writing about ‘finding herself’? But within 20 minutes, Valerie Bertinelli’s narration had me—her voice is like a favorite sweater, worn-in and comforting, but with enough frayed edges to keep things interesting. She reads with the rhythm of someone telling a story over wine, not performing for an audience. The real magic? Her ability to make the mundane hilarious. The chapter on her disastrous attempts at online dating had me snort-laughing in my car, while her description of her mother’s decline is so tender it hurts. That said, the audiobook isn’t perfect. Bertinelli’s spiritual musings (angels, signs from the universe) occasionally veer into *Eat, Pray, Love* territory, and the pacing drags slightly in the middle when she delves into her Food Network gig—interesting, but not as gripping as her personal life. What saves it is her refusal to play the victim or the hero. She owns her flaws—her impatience, her occasional pettiness—with a self-awareness that feels rare in memoirs. The production is minimalist (no sound effects, just her voice), which works because Bertinelli’s delivery is dynamic enough to carry it. My only real critique? At 6.5 hours, it’s a tad long for the material; a tighter edit could’ve amplified the emotional punches. Still, by the end, I felt like I’d just hung out with a friend who’d somehow made me laugh *and* cry about colonoscopies and grief in the same breath. If you love memoirs that feel like conversations—not lectures—this is your next listen.