-
Your next favorite book
is waiting.
Reflections on My Life
by Alex Trebek
Longtime Jeopardy! host and television icon Alex Trebek reflects on his life and career.
Since debuting as the host of Jeopardy! in 1984, Alex Trebek has been something like a family member to millions of television viewers, bringing entertainment and education into their homes five nights a week. Last year, he made the stunning announcement that he had been diagnosed with stage four pancreatic cancer. What followed was an incredible outpouring of love and kindness. Social media was flooded with messages of support, and the Jeopardy! studio received boxes of cards and letters offering guidance, encouragement, and prayers.
For over three decades, Trebek had resisted countless appeals to write a book about his life. Yet he was moved so much by all the goodwill, he felt compelled to finally share his story. "I want people to know a little more about the person they have been cheering on for the past year," he writes in The Answer Is…: Reflections on My Life.
The book combines illuminating personal anecdotes with Trebek's thoughts on a range of topics, including marriage, parenthood, education, success, spirituality, and philanthropy. Trebek also addresses the questions he gets asked most often by Jeopardy! fans, such as what prompted him to shave his signature mustache, his insights on legendary players like Ken Jennings and James Holzhauer, and his opinion of Will Ferrell's Saturday Night Live impersonation. The book uses a novel structure inspired by Jeopardy!, with each chapter title in the form of a question, and features dozens of never-before-seen photos that candidly capture Trebek over the years.
This wise, charming, and inspiring book is further evidence why Trebek has long been considered one of the most beloved and respected figures in entertainment.
"[A] moving memoir…[a] friendly, often funny account marked by a reluctance so deep that it confers a curious integrity upon the celebrity tell-all...In the autumn of the media patriarchs, [Trebek] stands practically alone, untinged by scandal. His authority derives from his defense of facts, not their distortion." —The New York Times
"Alex Trebek's memoir is everything a Jeopardy! fan could want...It's an amusing and at times sobering series of vignettes—a quickly inhaled highlights reel of Trebek's life...[He] quotes Mark Twain, Malcolm Gladwell and Chinese proverbs, and he shows off a quick wit and reverence for intellect...The behind-the-scenes intel is fun, especially for longtime fans of the show. But the rare insights into Trebek's personal life are far more revealing...After nearly four decades at the lectern, Trebek is more than the face of Jeopardy!—he's its heart. He's so synonymous with the show, and the charm that's made it an evening ritual, that even after a satisfying memoir, at least one question remains. How does the show continue without him? Give a 'daily double' to whomever has the answer for that one." —The Washington Post
This information about The Answer Is ... was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Alex Trebek hosted the syndicated quiz show Jeopardy! for thirty-six seasons, earning him seven Daytime Emmy Awards—including a Lifetime Achievement Award—and the Guinness World Record for most episodes of a game show hosted by the same presenter. Prior to Jeopardy!, he hosted numerous quiz shows and game shows, including The Wizard of Odds and High Rollers. He began his career with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, working there for more than a decade. He graduated from the University of Ottawa and held honorary doctorates from the University of Ottawa and Fordham University. He worked with the humanitarian organization World Vision and contributed to various other philanthropic organizations, including the USO, UNCF, National Geographic Society, and the Hope of the Valley Rescue Mission. He died in Los Angeles on November 8, 2020, at the age of eighty.
If you liked The Answer Is ..., try these:
Professor Chandra Follows His Bliss
by Rajeev Balasubramanyam
Published 2020
Follow the completely infuriating, utterly charming Professor Chandra as he tries to answer the biggest question of all: What makes us happy?
by Ken Jennings
Published 2019
From the brilliantly witty and exuberant New York Times bestselling author Ken Jennings, a history of humor - from fart jokes on clay Sumerian tablets all the way up to the latest Twitter gags and Facebook memes - that tells the story of how comedy came to rule the modern world.
by Joy Williams
Published 2018
From "quite possibly America's best living writer of short stories" (NPR), Ninety-Nine Stories of God finds Joy Williams reeling between the sublime and the surreal, knocking down the barriers between the workaday and the divine.
Show me the books he loves and I shall know the man...
Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!
Can you name the title?
Test your book knowledge with our daily trivia challenge!
Your guide toexceptional books
BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
