Book ~ "The Way I See It" (2010) Melissa Anderson

From Goodreads ~ Few television celebrities of the 1970s were as widely known and loved as Melissa Anderson. Her big break came at the age of eleven, when she landed an audition for “a pioneer western.  From among more than two hundred young actresses, she was selected to play Mary Ingalls on Michael Landon’s Little House on the Prairie. 

In The Way I See It, Melissa Anderson— remembered by many as “the blind sister, —tells her side of the story for the first time. From life on the set to her relationships on screen and off with other stars, this is a thoroughly absorbing, season-by-season journey into a series that has touched the lives of hundreds of millions of viewers across America and the world. 

I was never a fan of Little House on the Prairie but I like reading bios. I'd read Alison Arngrim's Confessions of a Prairie Bitch last year and enjoyed it.

The author starts the book around the time she got the call to do the audition for Little House on the Prairie.  The book focuses on the show with lots and lots of details of specific shows ... as I said, I wasn't a fan of the show so found it a bit much at times.  She doesn't really talk about her coworkers except to rat Michael Landon out about being short, mean at times, a cheater and smoking drugs.

I didn't really get to know Anderson ... she keeps her own life pretty high level.  For example, there is a mention that she dated Frank Sinatra Jr. when she was about 18 but she doesn't mention when exactly, for how long and why they broke up.  There's no discussion of how her being in the show affected her home life.  I found the writing unemotional.

I'd recommend this book if you are a fan of Little House on the Prairie and want to relive it.