Party of One A Memoir in 21 Songs Author:Dave Holmes From comedian, Esquire contributor, and former MTV VJ Dave Holmes, the hilarious coming-of-age memoir of a music geek and perpetual outsider fumbling his way toward self-acceptance, with the music of the '80s, '90s, and '00s as his soundtrack. — Dave Holmes has spent his life on the periphery, nose pressed hopefully agains... more »t the glass, wanting just one thing: to get inside. Growing up, he was the artsy kid in the sporty family. At his high school and Catholic college, he was the closeted gay kid surrounded by crush-worthy straight guys. And in his twenties, in the middle of a disastrous career in advertising, he accidentally became an MTV VJ overnight when he finished second, naturally, in the Wanna Be a VJ contest, opening the door to fame, fortune, and celebrity -- well, almost. But despite all the close calls, or possibly because of them, he just kept trying, whether as the quirky kid obsessing over Casey Kasem and Spin while his peers played sports, the music geek working at a station less focused on "M" or "V" than on Britney's "T & A," or the overweight guy trying to take on the Los Angeles entertainment world. A
nd if (spoiler alert) he never quite succeeded, at least he got some good stories out of it. In Party of One, Dave tells the hilariously painful and painfully hilarious tales -- in the vein of Rob Sheffield, Andy Cohen, Josh Kilmer-Purcell, Paul Feig, and even Augusten Burroughs -- of an outsider desperate to get in, of a misfit constantly changing shape, of a guy who finally learns to accept himself. Structured around a mix of hits and deep cuts from the '80s, mostly '90s, and '00s -- from Bruce Springsteen's "Hungry Heart" to Wilson Phillips's "Impulsive" to En Vogue's "Free Your Mind" and beyond -- and filled with fun interludes like "So You've Had Your Heart Broken in the 1990s: A Playlist," this book is for anyone who's ever felt like a square peg, especially those who found their people, as we often do, around a band, an album, or a song. It's a laugh-out-loud funny, deeply nostalgic story about never fitting in, never giving up, and listening to good music along the way.« less