Reese’s Pieces – Examining Whiskey in a Teacup

I ordered Reese Witherspoon’s brand-new book, a recipe and lifestyle opus Whiskey in a Teacup, as soon as it hit the Internet bookstands.

I had been a dedicated follower of many a recipe and lifestyle account on Instagram for quite a while already, not to mention fashion, (here’s to you fellow Kinks fans, I just know you were dying for it) and naturally, being a woman in the arts and a movie and a book fan and just simply a fan of the fabulousness that is Reese Witherspoon, I had all three of her accounts on Follow. Therefore, I was long aware of her book coming out before it did and was an easy target for her marketing campaign. Christ, I even had the date of the appearance of the book marked in my calendar; it is one of three major book premieres of my personal fall season of new books – what the other two are, stay tuned!

My journey with Reese started without really realizing it had. She was one of those pretty new faces in late Nineties cinema, your basic Southern belle with buxom figure and blond hair, and perhaps she would have completely escaped my radar back then had it not been for her appearing in the remake of Dangerous Liaisons along with future husband Ryan Philippe, and, the reason the film was on my must-see list that year, Sarah Michelle Gellar. It was the height of my Buffy years, and though Ms. Gellar’s career in movies hasn’t perhaps been all that it could have been, I still consider Cruel Intentions her best role on the big screen.

Luckily, not Reese Witherspoon’s, though. After the movie was out and I was checking out some interviews with the young stars on TV, one of the things the young Miss Witherspoon said caught my attention and made me look twice into those smiling eyes. Turned out when she and Ryan Philippe fell in love, they, very un-Nineties-like, started to write each other letters to get to know one another. Well, as an avid letter writer back then, I was immediately impressed, and felt a certain kinship to someone who was willing to go the extra mile like that, and of course, letter writing is so very romantic, old-fashioned, a lost art, really, so this comment, extricated from some E! interview or another, stayed with me, and is still one of the first things that come to mind when she is mentioned. Reese? Oh, she’s into letter writing, like me.

Years passed, and our lives unraveled. She appeared, famously, on Friends, as one of Rachel’s sisters, and though her character was never one of my favorites as far as guest stars on the show go, her appalled line to Jennifer Aniston at Central Perk during one of their arguments always struck me as truly hilarious, and still makes me laugh, and here it is: “You made me doubt how smart I was! *gasps in horror* You made me doubt my fashion sense!”

I have no real memory of what happened in Legally Blonde other than I watched it with a boyfriend when I was living back East, and though we both loved it, we would never mention having seen it to anyone. I am not really sure why it was on the guilty pleasure list so fast, perhaps it was the whimsical, nonsensical fun, the bright colors, the Cosmo-girl angle that made us embarrassed by our own laughter. But there is a line there that has stuck with me all these years, even though I saw the movie exactly one time; it is just that memorable. I use it a lot in my life in different situations, not really caring anymore if people have seen the original version or not. Fans know what line I’m talking about, but since I have made this a habit of mine, writing my go-to comeback lines down here so that everyone will know all my funniest bits have been swiped from some popular culture vehicle or another, here goes. It is Reese’s character’s comeback line to the boyfriend who dumped her in the beginning to go study law at Harvard. When he bumps into her on campus and it turns out she, too, has been accepted to Harvard and is attending, he unwisely exclaims: “You got accepted to Harvard?” Elle’s reply: “What? Like it’s hard!”

I have written elsewhere on the blog that I was always a huge country music fan, and when I went to see Walk the Line and Reese Witherspoon was in it, I guess that was the moment in mine and Reese’s relationship when my guard was finally let down and doubts really melted. Any friend of the country music scene is a friend of mine, and seeing her truly put herself out there and witnessing how carefully the role of June Carter Cash had been researched and magicked into life, and especially after I later learned how afraid she was to do the scenes where she had to sing, well, that kind of dedication really takes my breath away. We all know how difficult it is to get out of our comfort zone, and how important getting out of it is for our sense of meaning and inspiration in life, and she talks about this in Whiskey in a Teacup, too: if you are afraid to do something, even if you are scared you’ll screw it up, you should go ahead and do it anyway. Better to have tried and failed than not to have tried at all. This is something we all know, but it is nice to hear it said every once in a while, and better yet, to see it in action. Of course, she hardly failed in Walk the Line, getting her leading-role Oscar for the part n’all, but spectacular though her performance as June may be, her best acting parts, in my opinion, were yet to come.

Reese Witherspoon has slowly grown into a giant in the entertainment business. It is true. She is probably the most influential, important, powerful person in the field right now, and you know what? More power to her! Her first project for her own company was Wild, her very best role, so raw and gorgeous, and so different from what we as an audience were used to see, and seeing what she has done with her resources one can only assume there is a treasure chest of even better thing yet to come – I believe I have mentioned elsewhere that I have watched Big Little Lies, season one, three times. People around the world are at the edge of their seats until she announces her online book club’s title of the month. She has become a power figure worthy of Oprah as to what to read or what to watch, she has embraced social media as an awareness-raising tool of positive thinking and considering the cup half full the way few of her peers have thought to do, her positivity and beautiful attitude and zest for life make her one of the best role models out there at this moment in history. She is vivacious, funny, always poised and ladylike, and that smile of hers is one of those all-American gorgeous wide smiles that move mountains.

And now, after that rather lengthy intro, what of the book? Her hugely drummed, anticipated book of what growing up in the South taught her, as the tag line of her opus goes?

Well, Reese’s pieces is right. Whiskey in a Teacup is a feather-light, large coffee table book full short stories on a variety of topics relating to Southern living and values, such as interior design, the look of Southern women, community and friendship, and music, and lousy with gorgeous posed pictures of Reese Witherspoon in a variety of stunningly beautiful outfits I believe are genuine vintage dresses, surrounded with beautiful things, her family and friends, shot in her home, always smiling and inviting the reader into a brightly-colored adventure of light fun that unravels in the a little shy of three hundred pages.

Don’t get me wrong. As soon as my initial disappointment that it was not a heavier book dissolved, I did embrace the loveliness of the design and artwork of the book, and Reese Witherspoon is not a bad writer at all, y’all! I guess the only thing is that if I had gotten to choose, I would have preferred a little more meat to the stories.

For example, knowing she knows Dolly Parton personally and seeing there was a whole chapter in the book about her, I expected a little more in-depth anecdotes and stories about the Queen of Country Music and their friendship. Not that a book needs to be a reveal-it-all exposé to be of interest to me, but I just missed something, a deeper slice, with all the layers and fixings, of that wonderful life Ms. Witherspoon leads and is telling us about, instead of another round of, granted, exquisite pictures. Pictures are a big part of a coffee table book, and I get that she wanted to keep her stories rather short, I guess it was about the viewer being able to read a chapter at one go.

Still, I was so interested in so many of the topics and felt after each chapter still thirsty for more. Her grandparents, her upbringing, the Easter egg hunts! I always felt a chapter ended abruptly and in the middle of things, and instead of giving, say, a mere list of interesting films that take place in the South, or a list of her favorite books, I would have been interested in knowing what it was that made her choose these exact pieces and why she loves these books and these movies, other than the fact that they were by Southern writers or took place in the South. I was yearning for more after every chapter!

Also, I am not saying it was all fluff and therefore not very interesting. At all. Hey come on now, there are so many wonderful things about fluff, lord knows my own writing is anything but fluff-free, and I personally don’t think women these days have enough of it in their lives. I mean one can yammer on about Schopenhauer’s influence on Nietzsche only for so long without wanting to kill oneself.

No, just the opposite, as a matter of fact: I think Reese Witherspoon keeps just enough fluff close by to not make her work stuffy and overtly cerebral so that the book makes one feel right at home and part of things, even when she points out that one can tell a lot about a man based on how he is with people whose occupation it is to ease the lives of others, and proceeds to mention waiters as an example. This, elitist as it may sound, is so true. Take it from someone from behind the counter.

Whiskey in a Teacup is just like Reese herself: gorgeous, carefully composed and made up and all about happiness and feeling good and good times with family and friends. This is a rave review, folks, no matter how I am making it sound! Women, go read it and be ready to want to monogram stuff right away, or at least be prepared to feel a new appreciation for those old pillowcases and tea towels and sheets our mothers and grandmothers have monogrammed in needlepoint all those years ago! Get ready to immediately want to fry some chicken, put on some lipstick and your best dress and sip mint juleps under a giant silver willow while gracefully observing the Kentucky Derby, sitting on wicker chairs on the lawn, legs together like the ladies that we are, while the kids run around with the family dogs and barbecue roasts in the backyard. Be ready to want to hit the old Country and Western records on the old turntable and crank the volume so that singing along and stomping to the music in your cowboy boots will have the right force! Get ready to get rowdy in the hay stacks with your partner while Steve Martin plays the banjo in the barn, because love is what it’s all about! And yes, get ready to try the hot-rollers-in-a-car hair, a hair styling trick Jennifer Garner immediately tried out after reading her copy; she also posted the experiment in all its hilarity on her Instagram account. If you haven’t seen it yet, go check it out! Regram is found on Reese Witherspoon’s own account.

Reese’s love for her roots and family is infectious, and after reading Whiskey in a Teacup I found myself rummaging through stacks of old photographs, getting reacquainted with my extended family from the days of yore and thinking about having more of the better pictures framed. I will be trying out most of her recipes, too, though to give the Hot Rollers Hair a shot one should first have to have enough, you know, hair, so that will have to wait.

An honorary mention goes to Reese Witherspoon's own mention of Steel Magnolias in her book, and especially the scene in the beauty parlor where Shelby, played by the insufferably beautiful young Julia Roberts, suddenly goes into hypoglycemia while having her hair done for her wedding on the same day. Perhaps it was a given that this particular movie was to be mentioned in the book; it is about strong, Southern women and their friendship and it was shot on location in Louisiana. Still, as some of you must know by now, Steel Magnolias is one of my all-time favorite movies, I have seen it a hundred times and have no idea if that is even an exaggeration anymore, I love everything about it, and, every time someone else points out or mentions a movie I happen to love especially I always feel simultaneously giddy to the point of over-the-moon, and exceptionally defensive.

I once read about how Katja Kallio, a Finnish writer, has a private hankering, a fantasy really, for wanting to buy every available celluloid copy of her very favorite movies and then stash them all in her home so that she alone could enjoy them forever without having to defend them to anyone or even talk to people about them. I understand perfectly. Our favorite books and movies tell so much about us, our choices can be quite revealing, and I, too, sometimes want to keep my true favorites hidden and not talk about them or expose them under any form of scrutiny or critique or ridicule. We can be quite vulnerable with the works that really get under our skin, that really break our hearts, and make us weep, and Steel Magnolias, for me, is one of those movies.

Luckily, Reese Witherspoon is a fan, too. Yes! And she doesn’t mention the movie once, but twice, discussing the aforementioned scene in detail at one point. There is nothing quite as satisfying as finding a like-mindedness concerning the arts with others, and since unfortunately the world is divided into two types of people, those who love Steel Magnolias, and those who consider it melodramatic and overtly sentimental, I for one was so happy, though not entirely surprised, to find Reese Witherspoon firmly in the first category, even more so when she wanted to talk about something specific about the film in her own book about Southern upbringing and the Southern way of life. And P.S. Did you know that, at least according to the experts of IMDb, the funeral scene was shot in one take? If that is not actors throwing themselves in the moment in the most magnificent way imaginable, I don’t know what is.

So, all in all, Reese, I loved your beautiful book and I love you. I wish I possessed even a smidgen of that glorious Southern grace that you talk about and do, and can only hope I carry myself with a similar sense of knowing who I am and where I come from. You have a warm, marvelous sense of humor and a beautiful respect for all life, I am in awe of your command and the way you demand beautiful manners, dignity, and honesty from everyone around you, and remind us all of our duty to help others and remember the humanity in all of us, and I for one can never deny anything from a fellow dog lover. And I am so jealous that you know Dolly Parton.

Yes, I was and am dying to know more. But that just means there will be another book, right?

Reese Witherspoon, Whiskey in a Teacup, 2018.