Touching account of a surprising life and inspiring friendships.

Great for fans of Jill Ireland’s Life Wish, Theresa Saldana’s Beyond Survival.

Three & Me: Three Actresses Made the Difference Sue Lika Dotan | Cardinal Press 488p, hardcover, $26.99, ISBN 979-8-9885107-2-7

This warm, spirited, continually surprising memoir, Dotan’s debut, surveys with humor and quick-moving storytelling a life boldly lived, despite health crises, occasional tragedy, youthful insecurity, and the complex generational cycles of anger and bitterness that shaped her upbringing—cycles she broke when she and her husband adopted a child. The book’s heartis in intimate friendships with actresses Jill Ireland, Theresa Saldana, and Heather Menzies Urich, extraordinary women with whom Dotan shared wisdom, laughter, and deeply supportive connections in the face of life’s most wrenching passages. This sprawling,loosely organized account also, like life itself, routinely upends expectations, as Dotan experiences events both horrific—a near kidnapping as a child— and heartening, like finding lasting love in a kibbutz.

Dotan writes with vivid scenecraft and in-the-moment excitement, telling her story in brisk, engaging incidents. Chance encounters with the famous and notorious (Buzz Aldrin, Stephen Stills, Jerry Rubin, more than one prince) are memorable and funny, while Dotan shares sharp insights, such as how the “Los Angeles hierarchy … felt like the social structure of high school.”

No sooner does she come to that conviction, though, than she’s befriended, at the Santa Monica stables where she trained horses, by Jill Ireland, who welcomes Dotan into her exciting life with husband Charles Bronson. Dotan’s accounts of their jokes, routines, and caring for each other, especially during Ireland’s cancer treatments, are both moving and, when appropriate, hysterical. This epic-length book lacks a strong narrative throughline but bursts with life and fascinating stories, including the tragedy of Dotan’s brother, of Saldana’s strength and resilience, and of Dotan’s late-in-life re-bonding with her father. The Billy Graham story is a knockout.

Cover: B+ | Design & typography: A | Illustrations: A Editing: A- | Marketing copy: A