I Tried to Change So You Don’t Have To by Loni Love

Synopsis: Personal journey of a celebrity comedian.

Pacing: FAST!

Writing: Humble. Humorous. Matter of Fact.

Personal Highlights: Oh.My.Goodness! I loved Loni’s memoir, ‘from the tooter to the rooter!’ —that meaning, from Brewster-Douglass Housing Projects to Hollywood.

First, there was that table of contents. Haha. Loved it. And Intro, check. Followed by the gospel gangsters, to brother Bruce and the answering machine, the fake Santa, the baby-snatching ho, the highlighting fool and being ketchup-sandwich poor. Loni makes her hard start fun to read, not that this was her job to do.

Overall, her journey, told in an organized, patently clear and engaging manner delivers a one-two-three knock-out punch. There were many surprises, because like Loni who hadn’t heard of Malcolm X before reading his autobiography, I learned of her through the Food Network channel; (Worst Cooks/Beat Bobby Flay). I only connected her to the movie Soul Plane, and the Emmy awarding winning talk show The Real, as her story blossomed. Flawless is another word I’d use to describe the telling of her story. And then, before stepping up to mics entertaining crowds she was an electrical engineer, working in corporate, which didn’t happen overnight, or more precisely… is what makes this memoir so humbling and touching and impactful all rolled in one. Look, not everyone from ‘the neighborhood’ cares to mock ‘the hood’. Some grew up playing the French horn… and have never dabbled in, or sold drugs. Some leave the hood virgins, and can genuinely laugh about ‘cube farm’ living. Simply put, this is a MUST READ. Absolutely beautiful! Highly recommended!!!