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New York Times reporter Jodi Kantor has a new book coming out this week called The Obamas, about—as you might have guessed from the title—the Obamas. For the book, which many are calling "explosive" for its revelations about the very private Obama White House, Kantor says she interviewed 33 members of Obama's staff. She seems to have a gotten a fairly deep look into the administration's inner workings, but particularly into Michelle Obama's role in the whole show. There are plenty of juicy details (for instance, did you know the Obamas threw a lavish Alice in Wonderland Tea Party during the worst of the recession but didn't tell anyone about it?), but mostly what emerges is a picture of a very smart woman struggling to adapt to her new life in the public eye—and mostly succeeding. More »
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The most surprising aspect of Sunday's NY Times Book Review wasn't the big thumbs up Michael Kinsley gave to Christopher Hitchens' latest assault on organized religion, but Times reporter Jodi Kantor's review of One Perfect Day: The Selling Of The American Wedding, Rebecca Mead's new book on nuptial excess. Kantor all but rejects Mead's major thesis: That there's something obnoxious about the way soon-to-be-married Americans buy into marketers' hard sell of the ever-bigger cakes, the fancier limos, the more heavily-beaded $5,000 gowns. As evidence, Kantor cites her own "tasteful... if I do say so myself" wedding of four years ago, and complains that Mead doesn't seem in nuptials like hers (the horror!). More »
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