Laura's note: I have not read this memoir (The Last Black Unicorn, by Tiffany Haddish), so this post is not a book review. When I heard this author interviewed on NPR, though, I immediately recognized what she was describing as the theme of her new book: growing up with ACEs--and overcoming them through positive thinking to succeed as an actress, comedian, and now, an author. In the interview with David Greene, Haddish says it best:

I hope a little girl or little boy reads this and be like, 'My life is hard, but it ain't that hard. If she could survive that, I could survive anything.' Because I honestly believe in my heart that it's all about how you think, like your thoughts are what either have you excel in life or have you fail in life. I just feel like it'll really help somebody, and if not, it'll give people something to talk about.

Interview excerpt and link to article and interview below ....

In Tiffany Haddish's new memoir, The Last Black Unicorn, she writes "I know that a lot of these stories will seem unbelievable. I look back over my life and I'm like, 'For real, that happened?'"

You could just look at Tiffany Haddish's career this year and ask that question. She was the breakout star of this summer's raucous hit movie, Girl's Trip, and last month, Haddish became the first African-American woman stand-up comedian to host Saturday Night Live.

On the day Tiffany Haddish swung by our New York studio for this interview, she confessed that she was flat out tired.

"I gotta go do The View and then I get to go to sleep." Haddish said. ... "And I'm going to meet Whoopi, and then I'm going to be so happy and then I'm going to have the bestest of dreams!"

And that's the thing about Tiffany Haddish. From the outside, she's arrived — a full-on celebrity. But inside, she still kind of seems like the girl from South Central Los Angeles who's super excited to meet Whoopi Goldberg.

"Life happened for me," she says. "But I just kept pushing 'cause I know what I'm supposed to do here on this Earth."

You read her memoir, and you start to understand why Tiffany Haddish had to keep pushing — through a marriage that she says turned violent and before that through years in foster care and group homes. Ultimately, it was a challenge from a social worker that put her on the path to a career in comedy.

"I was getting in trouble in school," Haddish says. "She was coming up there all the time, and she was like 'You got two choices this summer, Tiffany. You can go to the Laugh Factory Comedy Camp or you can go to psychiatric therapy — which one you want to do?'"

[To read the rest of this interview summary and to listen to the interview, click here.]