NPR: What We're Reading April 20-26

Each week NPR chooses 3-4 titles to read and review. This week Scribner's American Subversive is at the top of that list.

I have yet to read, but the more my friends get caught up in the Gawker-culture, the online writing business, and the general New York gossip - the more this seems relevant. However, it does seem odd to tackle terrorism and blogging as two central themes? Or not? I dunno I guess I'll have to read.



NPR describes the book:

In New York's downtown, Aidan, a press blogger for a Gawker-like empire, socializes with his frenemies in the city's media demi-world, gleaning gossip for his next day's posts. As the book opens, the journalists he drinks with, sleeps with and then writes about are all working overtime, trying to crack the case of a terrorist bombing that rocked midtown earlier in the week. Meanwhile, in Vermont, an earnest young woman scans the Internet, searching for the next corporate target whose destruction will, she believes, enable her radical-left terrorist cell to shock a complacent nation out of its stupor. When someone sends Aidan an anonymous tip about the bombing, complete with a photo of Paige, the alluring young radical, he sets out to break a real news story for a change. His hunt will bring these two very different people and value systems face to face.

Joe Matazzoni, senior supervising producer, Arts & Life says:

...New Yorkers and fans of New York stories like Sex and the City will enjoy the novel's spot-on skewering of the downtown media scene, a landscape of fashionable people and dumpy apartments.

How a political terrorism thriller gets comped to Sex and the City is beyond me.

The AP says "Goodwillie provides us with a triumphant work of fiction that's every bit as credible as what's happening in the country these days."

And goodreads.com seems to have a highly favorable review (of the paltry 7 people who seem to have read the book).

More pseudo celebs for the fall....

Olympian Johnny Weir to pen book


iVillage | Susan Boyle Memoir Secrets - iVillage

Oxymoron?

Celebrity Books Galore

We've got a hefty (and eclectic) list of celebrity/psuedo-celebrity books coming out this fall - something for everyone I suppose...


Portia de Rossi Portia de Rossi has an untitled memoir, which will discuss her struggle with eating disorders and coming out.

HODA: How I Survived War Zones, Bad Hair, Cancer, and Kathie Lee


Dionne Warwick: The Amazing Dionne Warwick Story

Roseanne Barr: Roseannearchy

Alison Sweeney: The Mommy Diet

Buddy Valastro: Cake Boss


Bethenny Frankel: A Place of Yes


In Paperback:

STAR: How Warren Beatty Seduced America


And for you Music fans:

Rick Springfield: Late, Late at Night
From the man who brought you "Jessie's Girl" comes a story of depression, and of course, sex addiction.

Neil Young Journal (1945-1972)

The Collected Writings of Jim Morrison

Scott Weiland: Not Dead & Not for Sale
(of the Stone Temple Pilots)


In paperback:

Paul McCartney: A Life

And Misc:
Hunter S. Thompson - Fear and Loathing at Rolling Stone

Suspence Queen: Mary Higgins Clark

I had the pleasure of meeting Mary Higgins Clark earlier this week - what a lady! She came in the room with such energy - and such a glow about her - at 82 no less!

She had such spunk and sass - throwing out jokes, laughing at how she first got rejected at Simon & Schuster, talking with such enthusiasm about her most current book (AND the next to come!).

She's a perennial favorite in the suspense writing world - she might have been the first recognizable adult author I knew by name because of my Mother would read her on our family vacations. She is the author of 29 suspense novels. Her first book with Simon and Schuster - Where Are the Children - is in its 75th printing! And her books have sold over 100 million copies. And from the looks of it, she's not stopping anytime soon!

Her latest book - The Shadow of Your Smile - comes out next Tuesday 04/13. And she'll be on the TODAY show on Wednesday 04/14.

I hope you enjoy the video above, in which she offers a quick bit of advice to aspiring writiers.