This Month's Theme: Who Gets to Tell Your Story?

Hayden Panettiere was working before she could walk, and by her early teens she was a fixture of early-2000s pop culture — the girl next door in Remember the Titans, the cheerleader in Heroes, the unraveling country star in Nashville. The public version of that life was written for her, in tabloids and magazine covers, for nearly three decades. This Is Me: A Reckoning is her attempt to take the pen back. Amazon

The memoir opens the door on postpartum depression, addiction and recovery, trauma, domestic abuse, and loss — what Panettiere calls her "lifequakes," the moments that broke her sense of self and forced her to rebuild it from the inside out. It is not a redemption arc tied up neatly. It's an accounting, written by someone still in the middle of the story. Hachette Book Group

That last part sits differently now. Panettiere died on August 16, only months after publication. We'll be reading a book about survival by a woman who did not get to see how her own story ended — and that changes what a "reckoning" means. Come ready to talk about it.

A note for our readers: this one is heavy. The book deals frankly with addiction, depression, abuse, and grief, including the sudden death of her brother Jansen. Please take care of yourself with it, and skip the call without explanation if you'd rather sit this one out.