The Third Gilmore Girl: A Memoir

As a Gilmore Girl lover whose favorite character was Emily Gilmore, this book was a non-negotiable read. Kelly personality is nothing like Emily Gilmore, yet the actress and this character can relate to some very vulnerable and personal details explained in the memoir. This was the type of fulfillment I was looking for as a Gilmore Girls fan. Now here comes the part where “I’m the jerk for giving a memoir a 4/10” (I mean someone is pouring out their life story for goodness sake.) Kelly’s resume is very impressive but I felt like I was reading just that, job after job after job rather than bts information. Throughout the whole book it felt like Kelly was withholding memories and experiences. This does line up with Kelly’s nature (she says she values her privacy multiple times) which I understand and can honor. I didn’t necessarily want this to be a “tell all”, mostly I just wanted to hear some life wisdom from an experienced 80 year old dancer/actress and I felt like I got the bare minimum.

As a person that hasn’t watched Gilmore Girls and picked up this book because she played Baby’s mom in Dirty Dancing, I loved this book. She’s had an amazing life and told the life events in such a captivating way.

The Third Gilmore Girl is for if you found yourself loving Emily Gilmore, admiring a woman who refuses to shrink with age, or wondering what it actually takes to survive a decades-long career in entertainment. I listened to the audiobook, narrated by Kelly Bishop herself, and truly, this is the way to experience it. Her voice is warm, wry, and deeply self-aware. It feels like sitting across from her over a glass of wine while she tells you the real stories, not the polished Hollywood ones. What surprised me most is how much of this memoir is about grit. Kelly’s early years as a dancer, aging out of New York’s stage scene, pivoting careers, surviving deeply flawed relationships, and choosing freedom over convention all unfold with honesty and accountability. She never plays the victim, but she never sugarcoats her story either. There is so much strength in how she reflects on love, loss, ambition, and grief. Especially, while recounting her husband Lee’s long battle with cancer. And yes, the Gilmore Girls stories are included in the memoir. She touched on her journey into becoming Emily Gilmore and her bonds with Amy Sherman-Palladino and Lauren Graham. Her reflections on Emily’s evolution in Gilmore Girls and A Year in the Life are thoughtful, funny, and deeply meaningful. You can tell how much that role mattered to her, not just professionally, but personally. This memoir is classy, candid, and feminist without being preachy. I also found Kelly’s prose incredibly motivating. Kelly Bishop is living proof that reinvention is lifelong and that tenacity matters more than timing.

As a die-hard Gilmore Girls fan, this was a must-read for me. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to the audiobook version so I could hear Kelly tell her own fascinating story. It such a gem! I absolutely loved it!

“I admit it, given a choice, with a handful of exceptions, I tend to prefer the company of animals to the company of people. Animals are honest—there’s not a hint of pretense about them, they just unapologetically are who they are, and their capacity to love and be loved outshines ours by about a million.”

Unexpectedly fantastic.