If you’re in it for the stargazing, you’ll be rewarded with plenty — but that’s not what lingers most after the telling ... As actors, Dern and Ladd have spent decades peeling back layers to reveal their characters’ fears and desires. It’s when they turn that focus to each other and themselves that something remarkable emerges ... At first it seems a bit repetitive ... They tell funny anecdotes ... Then the tone shifts. On a later walk, Dern admits that she often resented being left with her grandmother while Ladd was away for work. A suddenly emotional Ladd says she sometimes felt unfairly burdened with the responsibility of supporting not only her daughter but her mother ... The book is at its most memorable and affecting when they work up the courage to excavate heavy, sharp-edged emotional artifacts ... They yell, grow quiet, accuse and forgive, allowing us to witness their relationship evolving, walk by walk. Ladd’s health improves. Dern draws even closer to her mother. For them, the experiment proves successful. For readers, it may depend on what we come for. I recommend going into Honey, Baby, Mine curious about the origin stories, separate and intertwined, of two prolific artists who pushed through private challenges — are pushing through still — while forging lives in the public eye.

A brilliant end-run around the one-sidedness of a traditional memoir ... The exchanges convey a rich mixture of love, exasperation, nostalgia and resentment that will be familiar to anyone who has ever been a mother or a daughter. At the same time, they offer rare glimpses behind the curtain of two great Hollywood careers.

Mostly a series of heartwarming personal conversations between a daughter and her sick mom. Even the hardest of hearts might shed a tear or two thanks to the ways in which this book forces the reader to consider their own relationship with their mother ... But it also dishes the occasional Hollywood gossip, even if it is in a wholesome kind of way that one familiar with Dern’s general Southern affect would expect ... And while the intimate stories may seem like a vulnerable glimpse into the lives of these two women, it is difficult to discern, given their cognizance of the fact that their conversations will be made public, how much of that vulnerability is genuine.

From their favorite colors to the legacy they share as single mothers and award-winning artists, this becomes a very full and generous picture of a mother and daughter, imbued with genuine gratitude.

Intimate ... The book is also sprinkled with a few of their favorite recipes—banana pudding, chicken and dumplings—which makes for a warm and engaging memoir. Ladd’s good friend and Dern’s godmother, actress Shelley Winters also figures prominently in the stories ... Generously illustrated with family photos, this book will be a treat for fans of celebrity memoirs.