It’s Not Necessarily Not the Truth: Dreaming Bigger Than the Town You’re From... Life So Far

Pressly’s book was written to inform her unborn son “who I was before you, so you can appreciate the woman I’ve become because of you.” In folksy, clichéd writing (“sometimes you find that what looks to be a curse is actually a bona fide blessing”), Pressly shares anecdotes about her family and girlhood friends in her small North Carolina town. Once Pressly (who stars in the TV sitcom My Name Is Earl ) leaves for Southern California to pursue modeling, she also loses the narrative thread to the story that is perhaps the most interesting—that of her troubled relationship with her mother. Eventually, Pressly moves in with her best friend’s family and later begins a romance with a gang member. The details of her career as model and actress are devoid of any insights into those fields, and once she lands a manager, that part of her story grinds to a halt (there’s little about her TV role that earned her an Emmy). While her son, Dezi, will surely appreciate her book someday, others will find little of real substance. (Mar.)