11. A biography or memoir: In the Form of a Question: The Joys and Rewards of a Curious Life by Amy Schneider

List Progress: 4/30

Memoirs walk a fine line: the reader picked up the book because they want to learn more about the subject, but revealing too much can make that very same reader uncomfortable. Most people don’t speak openly and bluntly about topics like sex, drugs, mental illness, and their feelings about their own bodies. Readers especially may not expect those topics to come up in the memoir of a record-breaking Jeopardy winner, as the game show appeals to many older audiences. But Amy Schneider has decided that she doesn’t have room in her life for shame, given how much it influenced her early life, and if this is her moment in the public consciousness, she’s not going to waste it. This can make her 2023 memoir, In the Form of a Question, uncomfortable at times, like listening to someone overshare at a party, but her light tone and frank writing mostly carries it along.

Amy Schneider made headlines in 2022 when she became the most successful female contestant on the trivia game show Jeopardy, as well as the most successful openly transgender contestant. Her presence on and victory in a show like Jeopardy introduced a transgender woman to a large portion of the American population that had not often encountered members of that community. It feels especially notable that Schneider transitioned as an adult, after a complete adult life being perceived as a man, including a seemingly-heterosexual marriage with a woman. This complication to the common narrative of trans people “knowing since they were kids” is also an important contribution to the portrayal of trans people in the public consciousness, allowing a multitude of experiences to exist and be shared. So a focus on her gender and sexuality makes a lot of sense for her memoir. But the level of detail given to her sexual history can feel a bit gratuitous. 

The memoir also occasionally feels like it’s struggling to fill page space. Chapters on tarot, Boy Scouts and the merits of Oakland, CA surely are important to Schneider but aren’t always the most engaging. (I say this as someone who lives in Oakland and loves it.) Oddly enough, the book doesn’t have quite enough to say about Jeopardy; the audition and preparation parts are portrayed in detail, but very little of the actual experience of being on the game show. Amy Schneider probably doesn’t want to be The Jeopardy Lady until the day she dies, but right now that is what people know her for and why they picked up the book. (On a personal note, I was a big fan of the long-running podcast Schneider made with her ex-wife, reviewing Downton Abbey and other shows, and was disappointed that it didn’t get more than a passing mention.)

In the Form of a Question doesn’t owe readers anything, doesn’t have to be palatable to the masses or tell the stories people think they want to hear. But steering away from those topics does make the book somewhat less enticing. For anyone interested in learning more about Schneider as a person, or reading a completely open and honest account of what it is to come out as trans as an adult, this book will be a good fit. For a Jeopardy fan or someone with no previous interest in Schneider, this might be one to pass.

Would I Recommend It: Soft yes.