Why am I passionate about this?

I am a writer, actor, and comedian. I began on the Second City mainstage in Toronto. I was a writer and an actor on the Canadian television series, Call Me Fitz and I won the Gemini Award and the Canadian Screen Award for Best Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for my work opposite Jason Priestley on that show. Let Me Be Frank is my first book and it brings together so much of what I love to write and read: feminism, women, history, underdogs, and humor.


I wrote

Let Me Be Frank: A Book about Women Who Dressed Like Men to Do Shit They Weren't Supposed to Do

By Tracy Dawson,

Book cover of Let Me Be Frank: A Book about Women Who Dressed Like Men to Do Shit They Weren't Supposed to Do

What is my book about?

Written from a very personal POV, Let Me Be Frank is a sardonic and thoroughly impassioned homage to female ingenuity…

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of We Are Never Meeting in Real Life.

Tracy Dawson Why did I love this book?

I simply love Samantha Irby’s writing. It was hard to choose which of her books to include on my list! This collection of essays is breathtakingly honest, witty, and at times heartbreaking. Irby’s writing makes me cackle, while also levelling me with her vulnerability. Irby is a fierce and funny truth-teller that I can’t get enough of. Buy this book. Buy the audiobook too! Having Irby in your ear as you walk the dog or run errands is like hanging out with a friend and you will not regret it. 

By Samantha Irby,

Why should I read it?

4 authors picked We Are Never Meeting in Real Life. as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

'Irby might be our great bard of quarantine.' New York Times

In this painfully funny collection, Samantha Irby captures powerful emotional truths while chronicling the rubbish bin she calls her life. From an ill-fated pilgrimage to Nashville to scatter her estranged father's ashes to awkward sexual encounters to the world's first completely honest job application, and more, sometimes you just have to laugh, even when your life is permanently pear-shaped.

'I cannot remember the last time I was so moved by a book. As close to perfect as an essay collection can get.' Roxane Gay
'Hilarious. I love it.' Candice…


Book cover of A Room Of One's Own

Tracy Dawson Why did I love this book?

When re-reading A Room Of One’s Own a couple of years ago, I was reminded of how funny Woolf is. Room is an extended essay of sorts and it is based on a series of lectures  Woolf gave to female students at Cambridge University in 1928. I cannot overstate how much I recommend reading this work. It is slight in size but mighty in its power to inspire, revitalize, and stimulate! It is also biting and laugh-out-loud funny at times and this is simply heaven to me: feminism, phenomenal writing, pointed wit? Yes, please!  Does this text hold up? You bet your arse it does. Please do yourself a favor and read this. Go, do it now!  

By Virginia Woolf,

Why should I read it?

5 authors picked A Room Of One's Own as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 14, 15, 16, and 17.

What is this book about?

Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves - and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives - and destroyed them. Now Penguin brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization, and helped make us who we are.


Book cover of The Wreckage of My Presence: Essays

Tracy Dawson Why did I love this book?

As cliché as it sounds, I truly did laugh and cry my way through this excellent book of essays by actress and comedian Casey Wilson. Wilson is an excellent storyteller and someone who is just profoundly, naturally funny. But she does not shy away from some heartbreaking and emotionally raw material too, which, quite frankly, is my jam. I did that thing where you get both the book and the audiobook, so when you are walking the dog you can still be reading. I highly recommend following suit because Wilson is such a  delight to listen to. I may have had to pull my car over while listening one day because it was not safe to drive whilst weeping uncontrollably.  

By Casey Wilson,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked The Wreckage of My Presence as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

"Magnificent." -People Magazine

The instant New York Times bestseller: Laugh-out-loud, deeply insightful, and emotion-filled essays from multitalented actress, comedian, podcaster, and writer Casey Wilson.

Casey Wilson has a lot on her mind and she isn't afraid to share. In this dazzling collection, each essay skillfully constructed and brimming with emotion, she shares her thoughts on the joys and vagaries of modern-day womanhood and motherhood, introduces the not-quite-typical family that made her who she is, and persuasively argues that lowbrow pop culture is the perfect lens through which to examine human nature.

Whether she's extolling the virtues of eating in bed,…


Book cover of Thick: And Other Essays

Tracy Dawson Why did I love this book?

A National Book Award finalist, Tressie McMillan Cottom’s Thick is a brilliantly written compendium of essays that should be read by everyone. This awe-inspiring collection tackles beauty standards, media, capitalism, and white supremacy all with a fierce wit and through a Black feminist lens. You will count yourself lucky to read these essays by one of the most important thinkers of our time. Cottom is wildly sharp and funny. She is an academic and profound but this book is accessible and readable. If you are like me you will want to read this twice.  

By Tressie McMillan Cottom,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Thick as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In eight highly praised treatises on beauty, media, money, and more, Tressie McMillan Cottom - award-winning professor and acclaimed author of Lower Ed - is unapologetically 'thick': deemed 'thick where I should have been thin, more where I should have been less,' McMillan Cottom refuses to shy away from blending the personal with the political, from bringing her full self and voice to the fore of her analytical work.In eight highly praised treatises on beauty, media, money, and more, Tressie McMillan Cottom - award-winning professor and acclaimed author of Lower Ed - is unapologetically 'thick': deemed 'thick where I should…


Book cover of Delicacy: A memoir about cake and death

Tracy Dawson Why did I love this book?

Katy Wix, the brilliant actress and comedian, has written a memoir about “cake and death” in which she delves into womanhood, body image, disordered eating, grief and addiction. Because Wix is a genius comedian, she is able to paint the deeply human,  painfully honest stuff here while also making us laugh. Again, this is the type of work that I gravitate to! Honest, human, darkly humorous…I simply adore truth-tellers. Ones,  like Wix, that make us laugh, make us uncomfortable, make us look at our own “shit”,  but also help us to heal.  

By Katy Wix,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Delicacy as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

'Mesmerising . . . an extraordinary piece of writing.' - The i paper

'A book that has the rare quality of being both poetic and accessible . . . missing Delicacy would be a huge mistake.' - Guardian

'A book that gets wiser, darker, and more brutally truthful every time you turn the page. Word of mouth is slowly turning it into a passionately recommended cult hit. A book you give a friend in trouble.' - Caitlin Moran

'Hilarious . . . heartbreaking.' - The Observer

'A layer cake of truth, pain and wisdom iced with charm. I loved it.'…


Explore my book 😀

Let Me Be Frank: A Book about Women Who Dressed Like Men to Do Shit They Weren't Supposed to Do

By Tracy Dawson,

Book cover of Let Me Be Frank: A Book about Women Who Dressed Like Men to Do Shit They Weren't Supposed to Do

What is my book about?

Written from a very personal POV, Let Me Be Frank is a sardonic and thoroughly impassioned homage to female ingenuity and tenacity. The women profiled in this inspiring anthology broke the rules to reach their goals and refused to take “no” for an answer. They took matters into their own hands, dressing—sometimes literally,  sometimes figuratively—as men to do what they wanted to do.

“An astonishing collection, Let Me Be Frank is a witty, sometimes infuriating,  wholly inspiring look at the lengths that women had to go to." — Buzzfeed  

Book cover of We Are Never Meeting in Real Life.
Book cover of A Room Of One's Own
Book cover of The Wreckage of My Presence: Essays

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Follow Me to Africa

By Penny Haw,

Book cover of Follow Me to Africa

Penny Haw Author Of The Invincible Miss Cust

New book alert!

Why am I passionate about this?

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Penny's 3 favorite reads in 2024

What is my book about?

Historical fiction inspired by the story of Mary Leakey, who carved her own path to become one of the world's most distinguished paleoanthropologists.

It's 1983 and seventeen-year-old Grace Clark has just lost her mother when she begrudgingly accompanies her estranged father to an archeological dig at Olduvai Gorge on the Serengeti plains of Tanzania. Here, seventy-year-old Mary Leakey enlists Grace to sort and pack her fifty years of work and memories. 

Their interaction reminds Mary how she pursued her ambitions of becoming an archeologist in the 1930s by sneaking into lectures and working on excavations. When well-known paleoanthropologist Louis Leakey…

Follow Me to Africa

By Penny Haw,

What is this book about?

Historical fiction inspired by the story of Mary Leakey, who carved her own path to become one of the world's most distinguished paleoanthropologists.

It's 1983 and seventeen-year-old Grace Clark has just lost her mother when she begrudgingly accompanies her estranged father to an archeological dig at Olduvai Gorge on the Serengeti plains of Tanzania. Here, seventy-year-old Mary Leakey enlists Grace to sort and pack her fifty years of work and memories.

Their interaction reminds Mary how she pursued her ambitions of becoming an archeologist in the 1930s by sneaking into lectures and working on excavations. When well-known paleoanthropologist Louis Leakey…


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