Overbooked Book Lists

Amusement and Theme Park Stars

Page Modified: June 19, 2009

Books set in or featuring amusement parks or theme parks - all genres.

Fiction

• The Five People You Meet in Heaven
  Author: Albom, Mitch
  Publisher: Hyperion $ 19.95 ISBN: 0786868716 Date: 2003
  PW
  From the author of the New York Times bestseller Tuesdays with Morrie comes a novel that explores the unexpected connections of readers' lives and the idea that heaven is more than a place--it's an answer.
  Updated 8.18.03
• Dreamland
  Author: Baker, Kevin
  Publisher: Harpercollins List Price: $ 26 ISBN: 0060193093 Date: 1999
  PW BL LJ
  A literary tour de force in the tradition of E.L. Doctorow's Ragtime that delivers both a masterful, sweeping chronicle of an era of American history and an intimate portrait of a city, depicting it in all its garish, squalid, exuberant, frightening magnificence.
  Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction | All Stars
• England, England
  Author: Barnes, Julian
  Publisher: Knopf List Price: $ 23 ISBN: 0375405828 Date: 1999
  Kirkus PW
  Shortlisted for the Booker Prize, this "commanding and imaginative achievement" (Sunday Times - London) tells the story of Sir Jack Pitman, who seeks to realize a "destination" where replicas of all England's national treasures - from Stonehenge to Princess Diana's grave - can be conveniently gathered together for tourism purposes.
  
• Out of Season
  Author: Bausch, Robert
  Publisher: Harcourt $ 24 ISBN: 0151010145 Date: 2005
  Four characters burdened by the past intersect at a fading resort town. With the intensity of a Shakespearean tragedy, they are drawn into the gravitational pull of family that resonates with the purity of redemption in the face of irretrievable losses.
  Updated 6.28.06
• Death Dream
  Author: Bova, Ben
  Publisher: Bantam $ 22.95 ISBN: 0553082345 Date: 1994
  Booklist
  CyberWorld is destined to be the ultimate adult playground. Using the latest technology of virtual reality, players can fly jet fighters in combat or walk on the moon. Dan Santorini has been hired to make sure CyberWorld opens on schedule. But the people who test the simulators have begun to die, and Dan soon realizes that he and his family might be next.
  Updated 6.28.06
• Utopia
  Author: Child, Lincoln
  Publisher: Doubleday $ 24.95 ISBN: 0385506686 Date: 2002
  Voya Best Speculative Fiction
  Rising out of Nevada, Utopia is a theme park attracting thousands each day, its dazzling robots and futuristic holograms make it a sensation. But ominous mishaps are beginning to disrupt the once-flawless technology. Like Jurassic Park, Utopia sweeps readers into a make-believe world of riveting suspense, technology, and adventure.
  Updated 6.28.06
• Jurassic Park
  Author: Chrichton, Michael
  Publisher: Knopf $ 29.95 ISBN: 0394588169 Date: 2006
  Kirkus
  State-of-the-art science and suspense combine in this uniquely exciting high-tension thriller from the author of The Andromeda Strain. Bioengineers create authentic, detail-perfect, real-life dinosaurs for a Pacific island theme park, but scientific triumph explodes into horrendous disaster as the first visitors encounter the unbelievable.
  Updated 6.28.06
• Deep Water
  Author: Date, S.V.
  Publisher: Putnam $ 23.95 ISBN: 0399148159 Date: 2001
  Kirkus
  Before he passed away, Waldo Whipple hoped his Florida theme park, called WhippleWorld, would be home to a suburban Utopia on park grounds. But the make-believe town of Serenity must face real problems. When a reporter begins to dig up the dirt on America's Hometown, he quickly discovers Waldo's successors have a decidedly different vision for the town's future.
  Suggested Reading: If You Like Carl Hiaasen
  Updated 8/23/01
• Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom
  Author: Doctorow, Cory
  Publisher: Tor $ 22.95 ISBN: 0765304368 Date: 2003
  Locus Award Best First Novel | Nebula Award Nominee
  On the skids in the transhuman future, Jules is a young man barely a century old. He's lived long enough to see the cure for death and the end of scarcity, to learn ten languages . . . and to realize his boyhood dream of taking up residence in Disney World.
  Updated 6.28.06
• Tilt A Whirl
  Author: Grabenstein, Chris
  Publisher: Carroll & Graf $ 23.95 ISBN: 0786715847 Date: 2005
  Booklist LJ
  There isn't much sun in the fun when a billionaire real estate tycoon is found murdered on the Tilt A Whirl at a seedy seaside amusement park in the otherwise quiet summer tourist town of Sea Haven. John Ceepak, a former MP just back from Iraq, heads up the murder investigation.
  Suggested Reading: Debuts
  Updated 10.4.05
• Mad Mouse
  Author: Grabenstein, Chris
  Publisher: Carroll & Graf $ 24.95 ISBN: 0786717602 Date: 2006
  Kirkus
  It's almost Labor Day, and the end of summer could mean the end of someone's life in this exciting sequel to Chris Grabenstein's Tilt-a-Whirl.
  Young Danny Boyle, the part-time summer cop "down the shore" in Sea Haven, New Jersey, gets taken on a wild ride when he and his longtime beach buddies become the unwitting targets of a mad-man's twisted scheme for revenge. Fortunately, John Ceepak, the cop with a soldier's unshakeable code of honor, stays at Danny's side to help him negotiate the quick twists and turns that threaten to destroy his life, his friends, and everything about the world he loves. Whipping from the boardwalk to the beach and back again, Mad Mouse keeps zigging and zagging at a breakneck pace, all the way to the surprising finish.
  Updated 5.24.06
• The Castlemaine Murders: Phryne Fisher
  Author: Greenwood, Kerry
  Publisher: Poisoned Pen $ 24.95 ISBN: 1590581172 Date: 2004
  Phryne Fisher, her sister Beth, and her faithful maid, Dot, decide that Luna Park is the place for an afternoon of fun and excitement with Phryne's two daughters, Ruth and Jane. But in the dusty dark Ghost Train, amidst the squeals of horror and delight, a mummified bullet-studded corpse falls to the ground in front of them. Phryne Fisher's pleasure trip has definitely become business. - Publisher Marketing
  Updated 6.28.06
• Native Tongue
  Author: Hiassen, Carl
  Publisher: Knopf $ 21 ISBN: 0394587960Date: 1991
  The Florida Keys--overdeveloped and overrun by tourists--are the setting for the hilarious, serious, satirical new thriller by the author of the bestselling Skin Tight. A driven and dubious realtor has an itch to bury the local flora and fauna under condos and golf courses . . . and it doesn't matter to him how many people are dying to stop his corrupt plan.
  Updated 6.28.06
• Where the Truth Lies
  Author: Holmes, Rupert
  Publisher: Random $ 24.95 SBN: 0679452206 Date: 2003
  Kirkus LJ Booklist
  " Rupert Holmes seats you gently next to an irresistible narrator only to entangle you completely in her twisted, dark, exhilarating troubles. The ensuing thriller crosses a Dickensian world of deceit and destiny with the slipping glory of 1970s New York and Los Angeles. Every character is so alive with delicious secrets that you'll never suspect Where the Truth Lies." --Matthew Pearl, author of The Dante Club
  Suggested Reading: All Stars | Fiction & Mystery Debuts
  Updated 6.25.03
• Rabbit Factory
  Author: Karp, Marshall
  Publisher: Macadam Cage $ 25 ISBN: 1596921749 Date: 2006
  Booklist PW
  Rambunctious Rabbit--Rambo to his fans--is an American icon and a theme park's biggest draw. When the actor inside the Rambo costume and two other theme park employees are murdered, LAPD detectives must catch the madman before he brings the family entertainment giant to its knees.
  Suggested Reading: Debuts
  Updated 4.10.06
• Angle of Impact
  Author: MacDougal, Bonnie
  Publisher: Ballantine $ 24 ISBN: 0345414454 Date: 1998
  Booklist
  An exhilarating new thriller by the author of Breach of Trust. The carefully ordered existence of a brilliant Philadelphia attorney is shattered when the helicopter carrying her client collides with an airplane over the amusement park where her two daughters are spending the day. As she desperately races to the scene to find her children, the lawyer learns that the collision was not an accident.
  Updated 6.28.06
• In Cahoots: A Novel of Southern California, 1953
  Author: MacPherson, Malcolm Cook
  Publisher: Random $ 21 ISBN: 0679422048 Date: 1994
  PW
  A charming, nostaligic novel about a small town's attempts to get rich off the construction of Disneyland in their backyard. When a ten-year-old boy figures out Disney's secret plans for a "fun park", the race is on for success, riches, and a town's chance to become a municipal Cinderella.
  Updated 6.28.06
• Who Will Run the Frog Hospital?
  Author: Moore, Lorrie
  Publisher: Knopf $ 20 ISBN: 0679434844    Date: 1994
  Booklist PW Krikus
  The summer Berie was fifteen, she and her best friend Sils had jobs at Storyland in upstate New York, where Berie sold tickets to see the beautiful Sils portray Cinderella in a strapless evening gown. They spent their breaks smoking, joking, and gossiping. After work they followed their own reckless rules, teasing the fun out of small town life, sleeping in the family station wagon, and drinking borrowed liquor from old mayonnaise jars. But no matter how wild, they always managed to escape any real danger until the adoring Berie sees that Sils really does need her help and then everything changes.
  Updated 6.4.07
• Mourning Wood
  Author: Paisner, Daniel
  Publisher: Bonus $ 21.95 ISBN: 1566252091 Date: 2004
  Booklist
  Best-selling author Daniel Paisner makes an indelible impression with a moving and funny novel reminiscent of Carl Hiassen and Peter Lefcourt. From its dramatic and humorous opening to its touching conclusion, Mourning Wood hooks readers with its eccentric characters and offbeat sense of humor. -Publisher Marketing.
  Suggested Reading: If You Like Carl Hiaasen
  Updated 2.23.04
• The Last King of Texas
  Author: Riordan, Rick
  Publisher: Bantam $ 23.95 ISBN: 0553801562 Date: 2000
  Booklist PW
  Tres Navarre has a passion for tequila, a Ph.D. in English, and a penchant for trouble. His latest assignment puts him on a carousel-ride collision course with a killer - one-way ticket to betrayal and death in a novel of suspense in which everyone is guilty of something.
  Suggested Reading: Private Investigators
• Dogland
  Author: Shetterly, Will
  Publisher: Tor $ 25.95 ISBN: 0312851715 Date: 1997
  Kirkus
  Set in Florida in the late 1950s, this "intriguing hybrid of fantasy that mixes life on the streets with magic and glimpses of unworldly beauty" ("Kirkus Reviews") introduces the Nix family who manage to outrage the locals with their tourist attraction, Dogland, as well as their outspoken beliefs in integration.
  Updated 6.28.06
• Coastal Disturbance
  Author: Speart, Jessica
  Publisher: Avon $ 6.99 ISBN: 0380826025 Date: 2003
  U.S. Fish and Wildlife Agent Rachel Porter heads to Georgia's coastal swampland, where she's determined to shut down an illegal manatee park. However, when both manatees and people die for unknown reasons, Rachel must enter a toxic zone for answers.
  Updated 6.28.06

Nonfiction

• Walt Disney: Hollywood's Dark Prince
  Author: Eliot, Marc
  Publisher: Birch lane$ ISBN: Date: 2006
  PW
  Updated 6.28.06
• Married to the Mouse: Walt Disney World and Orlando
  Author: Foglesong, Richard E.
  Publisher: Yale $ 35 ISBN: 0300087071 Date: 2001
  PW
  Joined together in an "economic development marriage", Walt Disney World and Orlando, Florida, have become the world's most popular tourist destination. This intriguing book traces the evolution, conflict and compromise of the relationship between the Disney Co. and the surrounding community since it began in the 1960s
  Updated 6.28.06
• Team Rodent
  Author: Hiassen, Carl
  Publisher: Ballantine $ 9.95 ISBN: 0345422805 Date: 1998
  Bestselling author Carl Hiaasen smells a rat in the Disneyfication of contemporary culture. Hiaasen takes an unflinching look at the Disney monolith, which he argues is destroying the ecology, creating an unhealthy environment (physically and morally), has taken over the media, ruined Florida, New York, Southern California, and France and has its eyes on the rest of the world.
  Updated 6.28.06
• DisneyWar
  Author: Stewart, James B.
  Publisher: Scribner $ 29.95 ISBN: 0684809931 Date: 2005
  PW
  Based on hundreds of interviews with company executives and voluminous documents, accounts of critical meetings and strategy sessions, this book explores the company that captures the essence of American capitalism and popular culture like no other.
  Updated 6.28.06