No Job for a Man: A Memoir

As an actor and comedian best known for his role on The Big Bang Theory, Bowie could have taken the easy way out with a typical showbiz memoir. Instead, he focuses on the lead-up and the somewhat long, winding road that finally led to his childhood dream of acting on television. Growing up in New York City in the 1980s amid his parents’ divorce, Bowie was a bit of a misfit who found solace and an outlet for his adolescent anger in punk rock. His parents schooled him in their love of Broadway and classic films, passing onto him their own unfulfilled dreams. Bowie writes in a style that is both comfortably earnest and humorous about his time as a college DJ, a high-school English teacher, and leader of his own punk band, Egghead. He also writes candidly of dealing with depression, and it’s clear that by the time he joins the Upright Citizens Brigade, that there is nothing he takes for granted. Bowie’s hard-won success on television is truly only a small part of his story.