Love, Ellen Review

I just finished Love, Ellen by Betty DeGeneres a few minutes ago and thought I would review it while it's still very fresh on the brain.

Betty is the mother of Ellen DeGeneres, comedic badass who also happens to be one of America's most iconic lesbians. Betty DeGeneres wrote Love, Ellen about Ellen coming out to her when she was twenty. She describes their journey together of acceptance and also gives a lot of backstory of Ellen's life. This was great for me to read because I am an enormous Ellen fan.

She also includes stories of her work as the spokesperson of the Human Rights Campaign's National Coming Out Project. Some of the stories give hope for the future of homosexuals of this country finding equality and acceptance in our society. Some of the stories break your heart. All are worthwhile.

However, along the way you get a lot of writing aimed toward family and friends having trouble accepting a gay loved one. There's also a lot of support for people struggling with their sexuality or coming out. As I am "hopelessly heterosexual" (as Betty puts it) and have been completely supportive of gay friends since before I could speak, I don't really fit in either of these categories. This book is clearly aimed toward a particular audience. At times, her writing can get a little preachy. In my case, she's preaching to the choir, so although it was a little more than she needed to convince me, I wonder if it would hurt her if someone more closed-minded than I were reading it. I worry that in the first chapter alone, a mom struggling with her son or daughter's coming out would set it down due to Betty's forwardness with her views.

Although I am not Betty's intended audience, I enjoyed the book overall. I probably would have been fine skipping the first and last chapters that were particularly aimed toward her percieved readers, but they were enlightening all the same.

Keep reading, friends!
Susie