The Only Woman in the Room/ Marie Benedict/ 243 pgs

This is a fictionalization of the early life of Hollywood actress Hedy Lamarr. Hedy was born in Austria to wealthy Jewish parents, though the family didn't practice the religion. Hedy was universally recognized as beautiful. The novel details her marriage to a older, wealthy arms manufacturer who had close ties to the Austrian government as well as Italy's Mussolini. Hedy was treated as a trophy wife but she was actually quite intelligent and learned a lot from those who came to meet with her husband. After a few years she was able to escape her controlling, abusive husband and she made her way to the US where she became a well-known actress. Lesser known, she was a brilliant inventor whose idea for a more accurately controlled torpedo firing system was shot down by the Navy. This technology was later used to create wi-fi. A fascinating look at a woman who was only seen for her beauty, not her brains.

Skip Beat! Vol 9 / Yoshiki Nakamura / 200 pages

Kyoko is determined to get vengeance on her ex-true love, Sho by becoming more famous in showbiz than him.  She becomes part of the LME section at an agency and has to wear eye searing hot pink jumpsuits along with Moko the other member of LME.  Kyoko finds out Moko is having some trouble on one of the job offers she gets and tries to help. Then Kyoko meets Moko’s huge family and their friendship becomes closer.  Kyoko also resolves the misunderstanding with her coworker Ren. Translated by: Tomo Kimura

Skip Beat! Vol 8 / Yoshiki Nakamura / 216 pages

Kyoko is determined to get vengeance on her ex-true love, Sho by becoming more famous in showbiz than him.  She becomes part of the LME section at an agency and has to wear eye searing hot pink ‘jumpsuits. Kyoko gets a job acting in one of Sho’s music videos as an angel and instead of ruining the video she gets one up on Sho by out acting him.  However later Sho interrupts a phone call from Ren, and now because of a misunderstanding Ren is angry with her and her friend Moko is keeping secrets. Hopefully her friend Maria the granddaughter of her agency’s president can help her. Translated by: Tomo Kimura

Skip Beat! Vol 7 / Yoshiki Nakamura / 200 pages

Kyoko is determined to get vengeance on her ex-true love, Sho by becoming more famous in showbiz than him.  She becomes part of the LME section at an agency and has to wear eye searing hot pink jumpsuits. Ren, Sho’s nemesis in showbiz, and who works in the same agency as Kyoko didn’t originally like Kyoko, thinking she had joined showbiz only to get revenge on Sho, however he learns that she also did it for herself because she enjoys it.  Kyoko is now also going back to school to finish her education while working for LME. Then she gets an offer to be part of a music video for one of Sho’s songs and she doesn’t know what to do. Translated by: Tomo Kimura

Skip Beat! Vol 6 / Yoshiki Nakamura / 208 pages

Kyoko is determined to get vengeance on her ex-true love, Sho by becoming more famous in showbiz than him.  She becomes part of the LME section at an agency and has to wear eye searing hot pink jumpsuits along with Moko the other member of LME.  After Kyoko and Moko both win the audition they both get to act together in a commercial and it is their official debut into the acting world.  Kyoko gets another LME job this time as Ren’s (a coworker from the same agency) substitute manager when his manager gets sick during this time Kyoko and Ren get to know each other more. Translated by: Tomo Kimura

Skip Beat! Vol 5 / Yoshiki Nakamura / 208 pages

Kyoko is determined to get vengeance on her ex-true love, Sho by becoming more famous in showbiz than him.  She becomes part of the LME section at an agency and has to wear eye searing hot pink jumpsuits along with Moko the other member of LME. Kyoko decides to audition for a part and also finds out that Moko also auditioned for it, their both determined to win but someone from Moko’s past is determined to destroy Moko.  Then the one in charge of the audition changes how the actresses are set up they have to audition in pairs and Kyoko and Moko get paired together. Translated by: Tomo Kimura

Skip Beat! Vol 4 / Yoshiki Nakamura / 208 pages

Kyoko is determined to get vengeance on her ex-true love, Sho by becoming more famous in showbiz than him.  She becomes part of the LME section at an agency and has to wear eye searing hot pink jumpsuits along with Moko the other member of LME.  A lot of LME jobs are work as a grunt but when Moko volunteers them to be extras on a daytime talk show, Kyoko has to dress up as their mascot when they have an emergency and then she has to deal with one of the guests on the show, Sho. She also bumps into Ren while still dressed in the mascot and sees a different side to him. Translated by: Tomo Kimura

Skip Beat! Vol 3 / Yoshiki Nakamura / 208 pages

Kyoko, determined to get revenge on her ex-true love Sho, by becoming more famous than him, joins the LME section at an agency. When she becomes fired up about acting she decides she wants to join the agency’s talent school to become better an actor, and gets involved with an act-off between some of the girls from the school and Moko the newest LME member. Kyoko met Moko when she first auditioned for the agency and who also failed. Now they have to prove that they both have the right to join the school.  Kyoko also meets Maria the granddaughter of the agency’s president. Translated by: Tomo Kimura

Skip Beat! Vol 2 / Yoshiki Nakamura / 208 pages

When Kyoko followed her true love Sho to the big city to help support him become a famous musician, she never though he would break her heart.  Now she has sworn to get revenge on him by becoming even more famous than him in showbiz, by becoming an actress. Kyoko joins the LME (Love-Me) section of the talent agency and now works in the same agency as Ren Tsuruga, Sho’s nemesis, however Kyoko and Ren don’t get along.  The LME section wears eye catching hot pink jumpsuits and does odd jobs around the agency for people. On one of her jobs being a grunt and working behind the scenes lugging things around for people she gets the chance to dress up and act against an actress for her position.  The results although not what she expected fire up her desires to become an actress. Translated by: Tomo Kimura

Skip Beat! Vol 1 / Yoshiki Nakamura / 184 pages

Ever since she was little Kyoko was in love with her best friend.  When she was young her best friend Sho’s family took her in due to her family situation.  When Sho decides to run away from home to follow his dreams to become a famous musician, Kyoko goes with him, quits highschool, and takes multiple jobs to support him.  Now that he has made it big Kyoko finds out he has been dating other women and doesn't care about her. She vows that she will get vengeance and that she will become even more famous than him. Kyokok gets a makeover and decides to join the talent agency that competes against Sho’s agency when that doesn’t work, she pesters one of the agents until he lets her audition. Translated by: Tomo Kimura

Believe Me/ JP Delaney/ 334 pgs

This is by the author of The Girl Before, which I thought was an excellent suspense novel. In my opinion, Believe Me isn't quite as good, but it is still fascinating. Claire is an actress but she's struggling because she's British and doesn't have a green card. To make ends meet she works on the side for a law firm, helping their investigator trap unfaithful men for their suspicious wives. Claire is very good at what she does but soon becomes embroiled in an unsolved crime involving one of those cases. This is a book where you aren't really sure who's telling the truth. I can't quite put my finger on why but the story lost my attention in the second half. The ending seemed to come out of nowhere and was not as satisfying as I would have wished. As a warning, this book deals with some dark, troubling issues.

This is Just My Face: Try Not to Stare/ Gabourey Sidibe/ 246 pgs

I don't often (think never) read biographies, but this one intrigued me. Gabourey (I learned this rhymes with cabaret) is an actress, a still young one, but she has thoughts. Funny thoughts. Insightful thoughts. She talks about her childhood (stable but she's a worrier), her parents' possibly illegal marriage (immigration fraud) and eventual divorce, her relationship with both of her parents, and her first job (fascinating). This is a quick, sometimes humorous, always real, read.