Friday Finds- November 13, 2009

Here are my finds for the week:

The Snowball Effect- Holly Nicole Hoxter

Lainey Pike can tell you everything you need to know about the people in her family just by letting you know how they died. Her reckless stepfather drove his motorcycle off the highway and caused the biggest traffic jam in years. Her long-suffering grandmother lived through cancer and a heart attack before finally succumbing to a stroke. And Lainey's mother--well, Lainey's mother hanged herself in the basement just days after Lainey's high school graduation. 

Now Lainey's five-year-old brother is an orphan, and her estranged older sister is moving back home to be his guardian. Meanwhile, Lainey's boyfriend is thinking about having a family of their own, and her best friends are always asking the wrong sorts of questions and giving advice Lainey doesn't want to hear. As she tries to pull away from everything familiar, Lainey meets an intriguing new guy who, through a series of Slurpees, burgers, and snowballs, helps her to make peace with a parent she never understood. (From Holly Nicole Hoxter's website)

Cast Member Confidential- Chris Mitchell

What do you do when everything in your life falls apart? If you're Chris Mitchell, you run away from home—all the way to Disney World, a place where no one ever dies—and employees, known as Cast Members, aren't allowed to frown. In this utterly candid account, Mitchell shares the behind-the-scenes story of his year in the Mouse's army. From his own personal Disneyfication, to what really happens in the hidden tunnels beneath the Magic Kingdom and what not to eat at the Mousketeria, it was a year filled with more adventure—and surprises—than he could ever have imagineered.

Funny, moving, and unflinchingly honest, Mitchell tracks his ascent through the backstage social hierarchy in which princesses rule, and his escapades in the "Ghetto" where Cast Members live and anything goes. Along the way, he learns to love BGM (background music), and commits the forbidden act of SOP (sex on property). Most of all, he unmasks the misfits and drop-outs, lifers and nomads who leave their demons at the stage door as they preserve the magic that draws millions to this famed fantasyland—the same magic that Mitchell seeks and ultimately finds inthe last place he ever expected. (From BarnesandNoble.com)