Jezebel: Book Report

Black Maid Sues Over Best-Selling Novel The Help

Dodai Stewart — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 16:42:00 EST

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The 2009 best-selling book The Help — written by Kathryn Stockett — is set in the 1960s and focuses on the relationships between three people: a young white woman, Skeeter, who aspires to be a writer, and two black maids, Aibileen and Minny. According to ABC News, the fictional character Aibileen Clark speaks in "heavy ethnic lingo" in the novel, and, in in one passage, compares her skin color to that of a cockroach. More »

The Situation Defends Calling Women "Grenades"

Dodai Stewart — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 10:33:00 EDT

Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino was on the Today show this morning, and Al Roker asked him about the subtitle of his book, Here's The Situation, which includes the words "a guide to creeping on chicks" and "avoiding grenades." More »

Twilight No Longer On Best-Seller List

Dodai Stewart — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 12:03:00 EDT

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For the first time since July 2007, Stephenie Meyer is missing from the top 50 on USA Today's Best-Selling Books list. The top 10 books are by men: Stieg Larsson, Jonathan Franzen, Nicholas Sparks, and, of course, Jon Stewart. More »

Candace Bushnell To Produce Even More Literature

Dodai Stewart — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 10:40:00 EDT

Candace Bushnell (Sex And The City, Lipstick Jungle) will write two more novels, one of which, The Two Mrs. Stones, will hit stores in 2012. Think the plot involves affluent white people with relationship problems? [AP] More »

"Jenny Sanford Is Best Known For The One Role She Refused To Play"

Katy Kelleher — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 09:45:00 EST

Jenny Sanford's book will be released on February 5th, a month earlier than expected, her publishers announced. And Ballantine Books has posted a lengthy synopsis of Staying True, the "candid and compelling memoir" of Sanford's "very public betrayal." [CNN, NYDN] More »

Julie Powell's Cleaving Is A Bloodbath Of Meat/Sex Metaphors

Sadie Stein — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 16:20:00 EST

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A combination of the writer-learns-to-clown/cobble/farm genre and that newish breed, the personal-meat-journey, with the subgenre that might be called the infidelity-food memoir (a venerable oeuvre pioneered by M.F.K. Fisher, advanced by Ruth Reichl and Judith Jones), Cleaving gives good blood. More »

Book: Michael Jackson Was Gay, A Bottom, And Had Progressive Views On Porn

Tracie Egan Morrissey — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 19:00:00 EDT

While on vacation, I read Unmasked: The Final Years of Michael Jackson. Like any corny piece of crap, it contains some golden kernels (e.g. Liza Minnelli smoking pot, Mark Ronson's personal anecdotes, and interviews with Jackson's supposed gay lovers). More »

Elisabeth Hasselbeck Sued For Plagiarism

Tracie Egan Morrissey — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 13:40:00 EDT

Elisabeth Hasselbeck is being sued for plagiarism and copyright infringement. Author Sue Hassett claims that Hasselbeck's book, The G Free Diet-A Gluten Free Survival Guide, rips off Hassett's book, Living with Celiac Disease, which she sent to Hasselbeck last year. More »

Rosie O'Donnell just got the first copy...

Tracie Egan Morrissey — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 15:45:00 EDT

Rosie O'Donnell just got the first copy of her book Celebrity Detox only to discover that her publisher effed up big time on the book jacket bio. It reads: "When Rosie O'Donnell's mother was diagnosed with cancer in 1968, ten year old Rosie thought fame could cure her." Rosie responds on her blog (in her weird haiku-esque way): More »

Someone Tell Nietzsche: Luxury Is (Also) Dead

Jennifer — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 11:00:00 EDT

"Luxury"? A fallacy. At least that's what Dana Thomas concludes in her new, widely-publicized book Deluxe, reviewed by Michiko Kakutani in today's New York Times. And apparently Prada is to blame! Those nylon backpacks spotted everywhere in the 90's? They were at so low a price point ($450) that tons people bought them, thereby making the concept of "luxury" available to the masses. Kakutani's review notes that Deluxe is not only very good but very easy to read ("a crisp, witty social history that's as entertaining as it is informative") but, most importantly, Kakutani takes the opportunity to give a slight, backhanded bitchslap to Vogue editor Anna Wintour: More »