Best To Laugh

 I saw Best To Laugh on the shelf at the library and I thought to myself, "Here is a Lorna Landvik book you haven't read yet. This book is about a girl growing up with her Grandmother in Minneapolis. Her Korean born mother died at a young age. Her father was depressed by her death and he died when she was in high school so Candy Pekkala relies on her Grandmother. As a child Candy and her Grandmother watched the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. During commercials Candy would imitate Carson and the guests to her Grandmother's delight. Candy is a little lost after finishing college. When her cousin calls and asks her to sublet her Hollywood apartment while she works as an entertainer on a cruise line Candy agrees to go. She moves into the apartment building and decides to make friends by asking to borrow a cup of sugar. Candy loves to bake and her neighbors appreciate her yellow cake with fudge frosting. She gets a job at a record production agency as a temp. Her biggest ambition in life is to do stand-up comedy. When she finally faces her fears she finds out that eventually she is quite good at it. Her special talent is handling hecklers. If she has a heckler, she is bound to do well on stage. She takes the stage name Candy Ohi (yes, like the county in western Minnesota). The book is a hoot and I did laugh at this description or Lorna's years living in Hollywood.