Today I continue my list of 365 Groovy Books Worth Reading (in random order). Click here for the previous 138 books - and click on a title for more information or to purchase a copy:

139) Knock Wood (1984) by Candice Bergen
Four years before she became Murphy Brown and won five Emmy Awards, the actress was best known for her film career (Carnal Knowledge, Starting Over) and for being "Charlie McCarthy's little sister" (the beloved dummy of her ventriloquist father, Edgar Bergen). And in her engaging memoir, she discusses her relationship with her father and her struggle to come to terms with herself.

140) Dolly: My Life and Other Unfinished Business (1994) by Dolly Parton
The Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter shares the rags-to-riches story of her life with warmth, humor and a down-home philosophy.


141) Christine (1983) by Stephen King
This horror novel about a possessed car named "Christine" was made into a 1983 film directed by John Carpenter and starring Keith Gordon, John Stockwell and Alexandra Paul.


142) A Prayer for Owen Meany (1989) by John Irving
Irving's seventh novel is one of his best as he tells the story of 11-year-old Owen Meany, who hits a foul ball during a 1953 Little League game that kills his best friend's mother. And that's only the first chapter.


143) Sellevision (2000) by Augusten Burroughs
Before writing his bestselling 2002 memoir, Running with Scissors, Mr. Burroughs penned this "darkly funny and gleefully mean-spirited" novel about the world of a fictional home-shopping network.


144) What's My Line?: The Inside History of TV's Most Famous Panel Show (1978) by Gil Fates
Mr. Fates, the executive producer of the 1950-75 game show, goes behind the scenes to provide an entertaining insider's view of what made the show such a success.


145) Misadventures in the (213) (1998) by Dennis Hensley
Hensley's debut novel is about a struggling Hollywood screenwriter and his friends, and this Amazon review sums it up best: It's "like the best kind of gossip - something you might hear from a friend who heard it from a friend who knows someone who does Tori Spelling's hair - and it's just bitchy enough to be very, very funny."


146) Wisecracker: The Life and Times of William Haines, Hollywood's First Openly Gay Star (1998) by William J. Mann
This interesting biography tells the story of William Haines (1900-73), whose successful film career as a wisecracking romantic lead came to an end in the 1930s when he refused to deny his homosexuality. So he became an interior designer and had a 50-year relationship with his lover, Jimmie Shields (Joan Crawford, their best friend, called them "the happiest married couple in Hollywood"). The book won a Lambda Literary Award for Gay Men’s Biography/Autobiography.


147) Love in the Afternoon (1971) by Ed Zimmermann
Mr. Zimmermann, who played Dr. Joe Werner on the CBS soap opera, Guiding Light, from 1967 to 1972, wrote this amusing novel about an actor who plays a ruthless young doctor on a daytime drama.


148) The Season: A Candid Look at Broadway (1969) by William Goldman
The Academy Award-winning screenwriter (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Stepford Wives) offers his highly opinionated account of the 1967-68 Broadway and Off-Broadway season, which included such shows as Judy Garland at Home at the Palace, Golden Rainbow (with Steve & Eydie) and The Freaking Out of Stephanie Blake (with Jean Arthur).