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Ms. Yingling will return on Monday, 12 April!

Spring Break is this week, and it takes five minutes just to log into Blogger. During the summer, I jog to school and post, but school is closed, and the library is two miles away and I'm just not that fast yet! So, I'm taking a little hiatus, during which I may look into ISPs for something high speed.

Also, this will give me an opportunity to read something different-- like Isabel Gillies Happens Every Day, which was a little whiny (Gee, darn. Sorry that while you were living in Oberlin you didn't have a nanny and staff.) but had the best description of trying to get tenure track academic professorships I've seen, and Colm Toibin's Brooklyn, which was an interesting snapshot of Ireland and Brooklyn in the 1950s. Have a TBR pile heavy on chick lit and travel books. Did, however, read:

Williams, Maiya. The Fizzy Whiz Kid.
Mitch moves frequently with his bug-studying father and mother, this time ending up in LA in a school that caters to the children of the rich and powerful Hollywood types. He has some trouble fitting in (especially after a fiasco with his father's roaches), so tries out for a commercial for Fizzy Whiz soda-- which he gets. The commercial is successful, and soon he's having to miss school to shoot, and going to parties with other Hollywood types. The details of every day existence in such a situation is interesting, and since Williams produced television shows, they ring true. A quick, fun read. Enough action and goofiness that boys will like it.

Calonita, Jen. Secrets of My Hollywood Life: Broadway Princess.
Kaitlyn Burke is still mourning the loss of her long-running television show, Family Affair, and still having to deal with celebutantes Ava and Lauren's sniping. Luckily, she has a two month gig in New York on Broadway; unluckily, one of her costars is mad that she is replacing the original actress. Sky, her nemesis from Family Affair, is in New Tork as well, but the two are getting along, banding together against Lauren and Ava. Throw in complications with a long-term relationship with her boyfriend Austin, New York life, and this is a decent celebrity fiction book. This was, for me, also the shark jumper. There is one more book planned, and I'll certainly read it, but Kaitlyn was pretty whiny in this one, and I don't think I can take many more books. I do like Calonita's writing, and had this been the final volume, I would have been much happier. Rick Riordan has the right idea-- five volumes is a good length for a series. Leaves the readers satisfied but wanting a little more.