Audiobook Review: Honey, Baby, Mine: A Mothr and Daughter Talk About Life, Death, Love (and Banana Pudding) by Laura Dern and Diane Ladd

Honey, Baby, Mine: A Mother and Daughter Talk About Life, Death, Love (and Banana Pudding)
by Laura Dern and Diane Ladd (Compact Disc 791.43 Der)

Award-winning mother-and-daughter actresses Diane Ladd and Laura Dern collaborate for this unusual autobiographical conversation. When Diane’s doctor gives her a life-threatening diagnosis of lung damage due to exposure to pesticides, one of his recommendations for an activity which could improve her condition is for her to to take walks to force her to breathe more deeply and expand her damaged lungs.

 

Daughter Laura Dern (from Diane’s brief marriage to fellow actor Bruce Dern), eager to get her mother exercising, proposes an arrangement — they will both take walks in Diane’s Santa Monica neighborhood and instead of focusing on Diane’s difficulties they will swap stories, share memories, and ask each other the kinds of questions that loved ones should get the answers to before it’s too late. Dern recorded their conversations during these walks, and although this audiobook is not the original audio (the two actresses recreate these conversations for this recording), you can still feel both the love and occasional friction between the two women.

 

While I really did enjoy this audiobook (the print edition also has multiple photo inclusions), this recording did, admittedly, feel a little “staged”. None-the-less, it was fascinating to gain some additional insight into some of the life events that shaped such significant performers — both have been divorced and lived as single mothers, both had similar insecurities, both have inhabited groundbreaking stage and/or screen roles, and both have developed into strong, independent women.

 

If you’re at all interested in either Diane Ladd or Laura Dern, enjoy reading about life growing up in the South, are fascinated by the world of stage or film/tv production, or are fascinated by the inner workings of mother/daughter relationships, you’ll enjoy this one.

 

( official Diane Ladd web site ) | ( official Laura Dern feed on Instagram )

 

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

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