Kids, Wait till You Hear This! My Memoir

Decorated entertainer Minnelli’s debut delivers on the razzle-dazzle intrigue of its title. Narrating her life story to musician Feinstein, her longtime friend, Minnelli invites readers to join her at the piano bench and soak up the highs and lows of her storied career. She begins on the MGM lot, where she grew up the only child of filmmaker Vincente Minnelli and superstar Judy Garland in the 1940s and ’50s (“We were living our own version of Meet Me in St. Louis.... But it wouldn’t be all blueberry pie for long”). First witnessing the cracks in her parents’ marriage soon after her fifth birthday, Minnelli became a keen observer of her mother’s addictions to “pills and alcohol” before grappling with her own addictions in adulthood. Among other chatty showbiz anecdotes, Minnelli recalls breaking an ankle during rehearsals for her Broadway debut and making career-defining turns in the film Cabaret and its companion TV special, Liza with a Z. Through multiple marriages and divorces, successes and flops, she catalogs the pendulum swings of her life with gumption and good humor (“One day it’s kicks, then it’s kicks in the shins”). Fans new and old will appreciate this portrait of a woman forever committed to putting on a show. (Mar.)