Damn Glad to Meet You: My Seven Decades in the Hollywood Trenches by Tim Matheson, an actor whose work I've enjoyed over the years, is a fast, easy read, covering his time as a kid actor to the present. Probably best known for playing Otter in "Animal House," he takes the reader through the good and bad times a working actor/director faces. He writes a lot about needing to reinvent himself as he outgrows certain types of roles while wanting to improve his performances and break out of typecasting. Peppered through the book is acting advice, something not relevant for me but enjoyable none the less.
The Friday Afternoon Club: A Family Memoir by Griffin Dunne is a more serious book, though also very readable. I had a hard time putting it down. Dunne brings his well-known family to life, including his father, Hollywood producer and writer Dominick Dunne; his uncle, writer John Gregory Dunne; and aunt, author Joan Didion, as well as his indominable mother. There is no glossing over family dysfunction and addictions, but the murder of his sister, actress Dominique Dunne, by her former boyfriend hangs over the lives of Griffin and his family. The opening chapter covers Dunne's mother getting a visit late at night by a police officer there to give her the awful news; the last section deals with the aftermath, with the court case and the emotional toll on Griffin and his family, making this more than a typical actor's memoir
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