Queen of the Oddballs: And Other True Stories from a Life Unaccording to Plan

Carlip's fresh, funny memoir of growing up at celebrity's edge in Hollywood, accompanied by photos and highlights of current events from the 1960s through 2004, is at once hilarious and heartbreaking. Even before her childhood appearance on Art Linkletter's TV program House Party , Carlip had been bitten by the showbiz bug. With shameless determination, in her teens she pursued friendships with celebrities such as Carly Simon and Carole King, and created her own minor celebrity as a juggler on The Gong Show , an extra in films like Xanadu , and the star of her own rock band. Carlip also turns the lens on her love life and the experience of growing up gay in Los Angeles. Ending the book with an anticlimactic flashback to her appearance on Oprah for her collection of writings by teenage girls, 1995's Girl Power , the author takes a step back from her continuing pursuit of fame to realize that by feeling like she's never "enough," she has been forced to "welcome limitless possibilities by doing everything unaccording to plan." (Apr. 25)