In this exuberant, candid memoir, entertainer Chenoweth provides an intimate look at her life as an actress, a Christian, and a small-town girl in the big city, reflecting on how faith and family have kept her grounded in the dysfunctional rodeo of show biz. color photos. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

Currently seen as waitress Olive Snook in ABC's Pushing Daisies, the Tony Award-winning singer-actress Chenoweth looks back at her multifaceted career, which has encompassed recordings (As I Am), films (Four Christmases), television (The West Wing), Broadway (Wicked), solo concerts, animation (Tinker Bell), opera and Opryland. Beginning with the intriguing speculation that her unknown birth mother could be watching her career rise, she recalls her Oklahoma childhood and vocal training when she learned "[t]he music didn't come from notes and lyrics; it came from life and mileage." Personal revelations, such as her experiences with Meniere's disease, are balanced with bubbling backstage anecdotes. A chapter about her on-and-off relationship with writer-producer Aaron Sorkin includes a section written by Sorkin himself. With digressions, detours and words like "whack-a-noodle," the book is busy with show-biz flip quips and writing reminiscent of Julia Phillips's You'll Never Eat Lunch in This Town Again (minus the drugs and invective). Chenoweth has a frenzied, free-associative style; it's as if she's speaking breathlessly into a tape recorder between sitcom scenes. To use her phrase, this book is "a hoot and a holler"-a fast-paced frolic that her fans will appreciate. (Apr. 14) Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

The autobiography of Chenoweth, a Tony Award-winning performer, recording artist, and actress best known for originating the role of Galinda the Good Witch in the hit musical Wicked, is a mostly lighthearted, humorous survey of the artist's life. Chenoweth has opted to make her story more of a tea party and less of a Wagnerian night at the opera, and the resulting tale is a frothy confection of backstage anecdotes mixed with stories of Chenoweth's upbringing in Oklahoma. She also discusses the contradictions and challenges of being a Christian in Hollywood. While Chenoweth's consistently sunny tone occasionally grates, she emerges as a fun, humble, and highly likable figure, and fans of the performer will certainly enjoy this entertaining read. Recommended for large public library collections and all theater and musical theater collections.-Katherine Litwin, Donors Forum Lib., Chicago Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

No doubt about it, Broadway musical sensation Kristin Chenoweth is a firecracker, and this romp through some of her life's most dramatic moments pops in bright sparkles off the page. Kristin, born Kristi Dawn and adopted as an infant by the Chenoweths of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, provides commentary hilariously self-deprecating in her tale of the little Christian country girl with the big voice who grows up to earn a master's degree in opera performance, win a Tony Award, and create the role of Glinda in the Broadway hit Wicked. Like any good dramatist, she notes the valleys as well as the peaks in her life, loves, and career, including an outrageous running gag about her short-lived NBC sitcom. Now an Emmy-nominated TV actress with movies and records to her credit, Chenoweth is a true twenty-first-century multimedia personality, and this book makes for fun reading along with her video clips on YouTube and her songs on iTunes.--Hawkins, Valerie Copyright 2009 Booklist From: Syndetics Solutions, Inc. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.