Handbook for an Unpredictable Life: How I Survived Sister Renata and My Crazy Mother, and Still Came Out Smiling (with Great Hair) Hardback - 2014

Media reviews

“I read Rosie Perez's magnificent, very real, and heart wrenching book with equal parts joy and horror--horror that the world can and routinely does inflict its terrors on its children, and joy that Rosie made it out to become not only the superior, iconographic artist she is, but the magnificent woman this book reveals her to be. Her voice is the captivating instrument here: forthright, funny, and utterly her own.”—Hilton Als, staff writer, The New Yorker 

“Rosie Perez's Handbook For an Unpredictable Life is a shockingly brave, honest book, filled with so much grace, forgiveness  and humor that you feel invigorated reading it. A deeply moving story, told with unapologetic courage and heart.”-- George C. Wolfe
 
“Reading this story I was shaking my head in amazement that Rosie is even walking around on the earth, still smiling, let alone creating, contributing and caring about the world.  I know lots of artists who had to persevere and overcome a lot to get where they got and do what they do, but Rosie takes the prize for triumph of a spirit undimmed.  Charles Dickens never dreamed up a more incredible hard-knocks story.”--Edward Norton
 
“Rosie Perez has written a brave, hysterical, wise and compulsively readable chronicle of growing up and surviving the dual challenges of a crazy family and crazy life in Hollywood.  Like Running With Scissors before it, Handboook For an Unpredictable Life is ultimately a story of survival and will inspire us all.”—Liz Garbus

“With refreshing candor and sass, Perez transforms the painful details of her life into an inspiring reminder that even the most unforgiving of personal circumstances can be overcome.  A spunky and heartfelt memoir.” —Kirkus