THE IRRESISTIBLE HENRY HOUSE (Lisa Grunwald) - January 15/11

This interesting yet overlong book charts the upbringing and young adulthood of a "practice baby" named Henry House. Grunwald does a good job of vividly establishing the '50s world and the various characters, yet the meandering structure of the book ensures that it runs out of steam somewhere around the halfway point. And while I did enjoy the stuff involving Henry's work at Disney, the book's second half, which tediously unfolds in the swinging '60s, is quite a slog to get through. **1/2 out of ****