Andy's Bravo Scrapbook
Andy Cohen opens up two decades of Bravo history in a photo-and-memory scrapbook, part backstage pass and part affectionate family album. It is the rare book club pick you can flip through on the couch with a blanket and still talk about for hours.
Come over for mac and cheese, hot cocoa, and Andy Cohen's photo-stuffed scrapbook. Bring slippers and one embarrassing old picture of yourself.
Best for: A club that likes to laugh, trade stories, and treat reading night like a long catch-up with friends
Discussion
Warm-up
- 1.Flip to whichever photo or page made you smile first and just show us. What about it got you?
- 2.Was there a Bravo show (or any show) that got you through a rough patch? Tell us about that season of your life.
Digging in
- 1.Looking at these photos spanning twenty years, what did seeing people visibly age and change on camera stir up in you?
- 2.Andy writes about these casts almost like family. Who is in your chosen, slightly chaotic, non-blood family?
- 3.Which moment in the book felt genuinely tender rather than spectacular, and why did that land for you?
- 4.Have you ever kept a scrapbook, photo wall, or shoebox of printed pictures? What does holding a physical memory do that scrolling cannot?
Going deep
- 1.Andy spent decades being the person who keeps everyone comfortable and talking. Does that caretaking role feel familiar in your own life, and what does it cost?
- 2.By the time you closed the book, what did it leave you feeling about your own twenty years, and is there something you want to start saving?
On the table & to sip
To eat
To sip
Run of show
Host tips
- Ask guests to bring one printed photo of themselves from twenty years ago. It transforms the night and costs nothing.
- Keep the book physically circulating. This one is meant to be handled, pointed at, and laughed over, not held by one reader.
- Resist running on time. If a tangent about someone's grandmother's photo albums takes fifteen minutes, that is a successful cozy night.
Playlist
Soft, slightly glittery nostalgia, like a reunion special scored for a living room with the lamps on low
- 01 Dreams - Fleetwood Mac
- 02 I Say a Little Prayer - Aretha Franklin
- 03 Vogue - Madonna
- 04 Lovely Day - Bill Withers
- 05 Dancing on My Own - Robyn
- 06 Landslide - Fleetwood Mac
- 07 Groove Is in the Heart - Deee-Lite
- 08 Linger - The Cranberries
Trivia
- 1.Which late-night talk show does Andy Cohen host on Bravo? (Watch What Happens Live)
- 2.What major television award has Andy Cohen won? (An Emmy Award)
- 3.Beyond hosting, what executive role did Andy Cohen long hold at Bravo? (Network executive overseeing programming and development)
- 4.Andy Cohen is closely associated with hosting the reunion specials for which long-running franchise? (The Real Housewives)
- 5.Roughly how many years of reality television does this book cover? (About two decades)
- 6.What format sets this book apart from a standard prose memoir? (A scrapbook of photographs paired with the author's recollections)
- 7.Which American city is Andy Cohen originally from? (St. Louis, Missouri)
- 8.Before this, Andy Cohen published bestselling books in which genre? (Memoir and personal diaries)
Bookmarks
Print, cut, and tuck one at every seat, a small keepsake from the night.
“Pass the book. Pour the cocoa. Remember everything.”
“Twenty years of glitter, kept in a shoebox.”
“Some families are assembled on camera.”
Rate the book
We hope the company was good and the conversation even better. Until the next chapter.