Only Say Good Things: Surviving Playboy and Finding Myself
4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars | 2,251 ratings
Price: 17.05
Last update: 12-20-2024
About this item
AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER AN APPLE BOOKS STAFF PICK AND AUDIBLE EDITORS SELECT ONE OF PEOPLE'SBEST CELEBRITY MEMOIRS OF 2024 NAMED A BEST BOOK TO READ THIS JANUARY BY THE GLOSS
From a former Playboy Playmate, an unflinching look at the objectification and misogyny of the Playboy mansion, a woman’s stolen young adulthood, and her journey to self-acceptance–plus a rare look inside Hugh Hefner’s final days.
Crystal Harris’ life changed forever when she was just twenty-one and attended a party at the notorious Playboy mansion. Picked out of the crowd by Hugh Hefner, Crystal Harris became one of his infamous “girlfriends,” attending glamorous Hollywood parties and traveling the world. But being Hef’s number one girlfriend came at the cost of Crystal’s identity outside her role in the Playboy universe, and she grew increasingly restless to understand who she truly was away from what she saw as Playboy’s toxic culture. Hef controlled his girlfriends with strict rules regarding everything from their hair and makeup to their curfews, forcing them to compete with one another as part of a highly hierarchal system.
Only Say Good Things provides a fascinating look behind the scenes at a powerful cultural icon and brand, and an empowering perspective on hard-won lessons about who we allow to determine our value.
Top reviews from the United States
5.0 out of 5 stars powerful woman
I wish I could know Crystal in real life because she has a beautiful soul!
4.0 out of 5 stars Self discovery and healing
5.0 out of 5 stars A Journey of Healing and Self Discovery
If you take the time to read this book, then you will be on a journey with Crystal of healing and self-discovery.
Her story is tastefully written, and she wrote a pellucid account of her life with Hugh Hefner and living behind the mansion walls. She was a young woman when she entered the mansion, and like many thought, this surreal world was a piece of a fairytale. The truth is that Hugh Hefner was not prince, and his world was a far cry from a fairytale. Despite public open Crystal Harris was a girl that after losing her father and her true love lost a part of herself. As she became a part of Hef's world, she lost not only a part of herself but everything that encompassed her as a woman.
This story portrays a woman who had true empathy and compassion. A woman who learned never to rely on a man again for her happiness and a woman who fought to create her own financial freedom. Furthermore, this is a story that while trying to keep her word to "only say good things," she also reveals her truth. Hugh Hefner was a narcissist who manipulated and exposed women for his own personal gain.
I would like to see Crystal write another book documenting her healing journey and the steps she has taken to heal and to find her voice that was lost for so long. This is definitely a must-read book!
3.0 out of 5 stars decent biography
5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely amazing read.
Her skills as a writer - and in many ways a historian - are top notch.
I grew up in So. California many years before her story takes place-those years where we watched “Playboy After Dark” on TV, and observed the growth of Hefner’s empire unfold.
Although I lived in the area, the Mansion was never anywhere I wanted to go. As a young woman growing up in the late 60’s we had already begun living a life of new freedoms-none of which went along with the Playboy lifestyle.
Hefner’s world seemed old-fashioned to us back then. But the Playboy Mansion, and the Playboy Club, with its scantily-clad bunnies at the door, was a major part of life in LA during the 70’s and 80’s.
I had very little knowledge of Mr. Hefner’s world after that time-and Ms. Hefner’s wife Crystal writes an amazingly thorough historical compilation of an even later period.
Her capable writing skills are obvious, and she is someone who readers can appreciate her ability to tell this story without succumbing to the usual practice that celebrity writers have of including “tell-all” lists of famous names and their overtly suggestive stories in their books.
For this reason and for the expertise she exhibits in relating her own stories to Mr. Hefner and his lifetime,
I very much enjoyed reading this book.