Yearbook

This memoir of sorts by actor, comedian, writer, and producer Rogen is filled with both laugh-out-loud tales from his life and surprisingly insightful essays about societal ills. Rogen describes how he began performing stand-up in Canadian clubs and bars at 13 (his mother drove him to gigs), and happily he includes some of his earliest jokes, many of which revolved around his Jewish grandparents. After realizing that his strengths didn’t lie in stand-up, Rogen turned to movies and television; here he details fascinating run-ins with everyone from Tom Cruise to Kanye West to Nicolas Cage. Rogen describes codirecting the controversial film The Interview, which centers on the fictional assassination of Kim Jong-un; in real life, the North Korean government threatened retaliation against Sony if it released the film. Rogen gets opinionated, too; he criticizes Twitter for doing little to combat the spread of antisemitic messages on the site and he makes clear his hatred for Donald Trump. He devotes much space to his daily weed habit, calling it “super fun” and the source of his insights; for some readers, these stories may wear thin.