Hollywood Is Like High School With Money

Hollywood Is like High School with Money --

From Real Simple: Author Zoey Dean first fed readers’ appetite for behind-the-scenes looks at the überwealthy with How to Teach Filthy Rich Girls (made into the TV show Privileged). Now she takes on the glitz and glam of the movie industry with nice-girl Taylor, who’s struggling to navigate Hollywood. When a group of mean girls terrorize her at work, she realizes that L.A. is eerily similar to the caste system of high school―which might be her way to the top.

From Publishers Weekly: Dean delivers another pop artifact in her latest riff on the Gossip Girl generation, this time dressing up the goings-on with a very Devil Wears Prada vibe. Landing a job as second assistant to Iris Whitaker, a Metronome Studios hotshot, sounds like a dream come true for Ohio native Taylor Henning, who naturally wants to make it big in Hollywood. But this fish out of water needs to learn quickly how to swim with the sharks, as Iris's first assistant, Kylie Arthur, would prefer she drowns. Thankfully, a fairy godmother appears in the fierce form of Quinn, Iris's 16-year-old daughter, who suggests Taylor follow her surefire high school rules: fake it till you make it; speak up in class; make one cool friend; and realize lunch is a battleground. But there are unforeseen consequences for Taylor, who remembers some age-old advice just in time. It's a slick little novel: catty, glitzy and just mean enough.

Queen of Chick Lit: Jennifer Weiner

In an era when the publishing industry is floundering and a print run of 50,000 is considered good, author Jennifer Weiner can boast some pretty strong stats: more than 11 million books in print in 36 countries; her sophomore effort “In Her Shoes” was a hit movie starring Cameron Diaz, and she’s seven for seven on The New York Times Best-Seller List with her latest, “Best Friends Forever,” set to be number one Aug. 2.

For Weiner, it’s all icing on the cake. “I just write the best book I can,” she says over banana pudding from the Upper West Side Magnolia Bakery. “Let Dan Brown save publishing.”

But in the eight years since her debut with “Good in Bed,” the 39-year-old has collected a legion of loyal fans, who keep in touch via Weiner’s blog, MySpace and Facebook pages and Twitter feed.

“It makes me feel good that people feel like I’m someone that they know, because I probably am,” says the former journalist. (A typical message on her MySpace page gushes, “I think you’re fantastic & because of you, I’ve been reading like crazy, something I hadn’t done in years!” along with hundreds of Happy Birthday and Happy Mother’s Day wishes).

Such devotion might be due to the fact that Weiner puts a lot of herself in her books, from her clothing size, which is “plus,” to her family.

“I’ve had this life that’s given me a ton of raw material,” says the author, who writes every afternoon at her local Philadelphia coffee shop. “If your mom comes out of the closet when she’s 54 and you find out because your brother found love letters when he was looking for toenail clippers — if you don’t use that, God will hate you.” (So she did, in “Good in Bed.”)

She does let her family, friends and her lawyer husband take a look before anything goes to press, but “no one has ever complained.”

“I write fiction — it’s a novel. It says so on the cover,” says Weiner, who studied creative writing at Princeton under Toni Morrison, Joyce Carol Oates and John McPhee. After graduation, “I asked my parents, ‘Would you like to become a patron of the arts while I write my novel about how your divorce messed me up?’ and they were like ‘No,’” she recalls. “So I had to get a job,” which meant working at regional newspapers before landing a features writing position at the Philadelphia Inquirer.

“Journalism is great training,” says Weiner, who spent her free time on short stories and a novel “that will never see the light of day....Getting rejected a lot is great training, too.”

Then came 2001’s “Good in Bed,” which, cumulatively, remains the highest selling of any of her novels, and Weiner hasn’t looked back since. She doesn’t even mind being labeled a “chick-lit doyenne.”

“I don’t get too worked up because it hasn’t hurt my sales,” she says. The market, she recognizes, has been saturated with the genre, making her figures even more remarkable. “Like with any trend, there were people who thought, ‘I can do that,’” she comments. “‘I date, I shop. Here’s my book — 400 pages.’”

Though they also contain dating, shopping and brunching, Weiner’s books aim to address “the big questions: How do you make a happy life? The choices women make—what you get and what you give up.”

In particular, she is known for her plus-size characters. “Fifty-percent of women in America wear size 14 or bigger, but if you read bestsellers, it’s like those women don’t really exist. I wanted plus-size women to be the heroes, not the goofy sidekicks,” Weiner says. But entertainment, not activism, is her top priority. “I don’t want people thinking, ‘Ugh, a message book.’ But I want the idea that your worth does not reside in your jean size to be in everything I do,” she says.

For now, Weiner is enjoying her success and her cozy Philadelphia life, where days are filled with playing with her two young daughters, watching “The Real Housewives of New Jersey,” working on the next bestseller and Twittering to her fans. (“I sort of want to buy a tiara. And the bad news is, I think I actually could. Someone talk me off the ledge...” begs one recent post.)

“I always loved the idea of growing up and telling stories,” she says. Now she has 11 million people to listen. Article via WWD.com.

See my previous post here.

Love Is a Four-Letter Word

Love Is a Four-Letter Word: True Stories of Breakups, Bad Relationships, and Broken Hearts --Breakups are hard to forget, and this collection-surprisingly restrained yet full of emotion-is equally memorable. Patty Van Norman's two-frame graphic story "Dear Ugly, Dear Fatso" (other graphic entries are from Lynda Barry and Emily Flake) resonates like a quick punch to the solar plexus. Josh Kilmer-Purcell writes of the lover who could only perform with Wonder Woman on the television. George Singleton urinates a bellyful of beer into his ex's kitty litter box. Maud Newton tells of a sex- and rage-filled relationship, wondering: "was he the abusive one, or was I?" Taeckens, publicity director at Algonquin Books, anthologizes modern heartbreak in stories replete with contemporary commentaries (e.g., using Match.com to express a new relationship status). In a book full of hits, Amanda Stern's "Scout's Honor," about camping in the Washington Cascades, stands out. The collection's material could make one feel a bit voyeuristic, but throughout this tender book one instead feels like a privileged confidant.

Edith Bouvier Beale of Grey Gardens: A Life in Pictures

Edith Bouvier Beale of Grey Gardens: A Life in Pictures

From the Author: As the immediate family of Edith Bouvier Beale, it is with great pleasure and pride that we present this collection of work after almost half a century of collecting dust in family archives.

Following her death in 2002 our family began the heartbreaking task of putting my aunt, Little Edie's, remaining possessions in order. Nostalgic and captivated, I carefully sifted thought the contents of the boxes, suitcases, and scrapbooks that she had saved over the decades: photographs, journals, writings, poetry, sketches, and letters were packaged in small, labeled bundles (an arrangement that eventually made the publication of this collection possible), that presented an insightful chronology of Little Edie's life.

Although Little and Big Edie Beale were thrust into the public's view following the release of the Grey Gardens documentary, the true story of Little Edie's life has essentially remained a mystery since the mid 1950's. In contrast to the documentary, what became strikingly clear was the love, dedication, and seeming normalcy of her privileged youth. Filled with family vacations, costume parties, soirées, fashin shows, fundraising functions, and weekly trips to the cinema, the Beale family lived a remarkably loving life within the Hamptons high society of the early 20th century. I found an astounding number of photographs, letters, and poems from her childhood, presenting quite the contrast to the cats and decrepitude of Grey Gardens during the 1970s. However, as was reflected in various letters, bank statements, and attorney correspondences, as the economic pressures of the Depression years set it, life began to change for little Edie at Grey Gardens, gradually transforming into the familiar scene of the 1970s documentary. Nonetheless, despite the Beale's steady economic decline over the course of almost half a decade, the loving and graceful writings from these years make their continued creativity, dedication to one and other, good nature, and attempt to maintain their dignity conspicuously clear.

Immediately following my Aunt Edie's death, I began the arduous process of reconstructing her young life in order to compile this collection. As a close family member, I have enjoyed the privilege of having Edie's humor and wisdom in my life, and as a result this anthology was conceived with deep dedication, understanding, and personal connection.

We hope this book will help see Edie differently and with a deeper appreciation of how she grew into the familiar character from the Grey Gardens documentary. We hope not to only restore her dignity, but also make known her sensitivity, passion, and genius that we, as her family, remember vividly. It was clear that Little Edie wanted her story to be shared.

I'm So Happy For You

I'm So Happy for You: A Novel About Best Friends -- What if your best friend, whom you've always counted on to flounder in life and love (making your own modest accomplishments look not so bad), suddenly starts to surpass you in every way?

Wendy's best friend, Daphne, has always been dependably prone to catastrophe. And Wendy has always been there to help. If Daphne veers from suicidal to madly in love, Wendy offers encouragement. But when Daphne is suddenly engaged, pregnant, and decorating a fabulous town house in no time at all, Wendy is...not so happy for her. Caught between wanting to be the best friend she prides herself on being and crippling jealousy of flighty Daphne, Wendy takes things to the extreme, waging a full-scale attack on her best friend-all the while wearing her best, I'm-so-happy-for-you smile-and ends up in way over her head.

Rosenfeld has a knack for exposing the not-always-pretty side of being best friends--in writing that is glittering and diamond-sharp. I'm So Happy for You is a smart, darkly humorous, and uncannily dead-on novel about female friendship.

Chronicle Books Summer Sale!

Go to Chronicle Books now especially if you have kids!

Dom Perignon: A History of Champagne

Dom Perignon: A History of Champagne -- Dom Pierre Perignon tells the story of the world's most luxurious champagne, tracing its circuitous history across four centuries, arranged in three chapters--one each for the seventeenth, eighteenth and twentieth centuries. Beautifully produced, in keeping with its subject, this page-turning luxury object unravels the myth of Dom Perignon champagne, beginning with its namesake--the pioneering Benedictine Monk Dom Pierre Perignon--who set out to create the best wine in the world. Offering glimpses of the champagne-infused hedonism of Louis XV's court at Versailles, Marilyn Monroe's glamorous affiliation with the beverage and Karl Lagerfeld's recent advertising campaign for the brand, this volume incorporates a spectrum of artifacts, including texts, drawings, paintings, photographs and film stills from artists and writers such as Francois Boucher, Denis Diderot and Jonathan Swift.

Lillian Bassman: Women

Great article in the NY Times today about photographer Lillian Bassman (there is a short slideshow that accompanies the article with great pictures) and also a post by Helene at The Luxe Chronicles (I wanted to comment but Typepad won't let me!). I worked with Lillian's son in NYC and have met both Lillian and her husband Paul Himmel (also a photographer). Facinating and talented people. I am really looking forward to the new book Lillian Bassman: Women which will be released in October.

At Home with Wedgewood

At Home with Wedgwood: The Art of the Table -- There’s only one Wedgwood, but there are limitless expressions of Wedgwood style.

At Home with Wedgwood showcases 250 years of the company’s innovations–in all its manifestations–and the imaginative ways today’s collectors draw inspiration from the past and integrate Wedgwood pieces into their lives. Whether gracing a table for Saturday breakfast, bringing whimsy to a garden party, or arranged for a formal affair, Wedgwood is classically beautiful yet contemporarily stylish. Quite simply, Wedgwood is as much at home on the everyday table as it is when carefully styled for special occasions.

At the heart of At Home with Wedgwood are the homes of a group of renowned collectors, beautifully photographed to reveal how this diverse and dynamic group of people live and entertain with Wedgwood. From Carolyne Roehm’s movable feast to Charlotte Moss’s after-the-ballet supper, from the vintage collection that fills Thomas O’Brien’s country house to Jasper Conran’s English style, and from Vera Wang’s elegant bridal shower to Martha Stewart’s perfect setting, you will see how today’s style makers draw on their Wedgwood for every occasion.

At Home with Wedgwood also includes a stunning visual gallery of patterns–from classic favorites to popular new motifs–and a portrait of Josiah Wedgwood, the company’s inspirational founder whose values still inform Wedgwood today. Finally, a resource section makes this both a sumptuous book of style and a practical guide to the world’s best-known maker of tableware.

Foreign Tongue: A Novel of Life & Love in Paris

Foreign Tongue: A Novel of Life and Love in Paris -- Few streets have been more hungrily plumbed for romance than those of Paris, and Marsot's debut is no exception. Fluent in English and French, Anna leaves Los Angeles for Paris after breaking up with her boyfriend. She devotes her time to translating an erotic French novel into English and, at times, Anna's voice mirrors the tedium she ascribes to the task. Her frequent expositions on the nature of translation become miniature lessons on idiom, nuance and linguistics, ironically delivered with greater passion than the erotic scenes themselves, which fall flat. Though the plot generates a series of questions—will Anna end up with actor Olivier? will she keep her job despite her disgruntled editor? whose work is she translating?—Marsot is more interested in Anna's inner tumult. Despite Anna and Olivier's somewhat textbook love affair, the increasingly complex relationship between Anna and elderly bachelor Bunny helps shore up the novel. The stunning descriptions of Parisian food and social life will certainly satisfy Francophiles.

Hope in a Jar

Hope in a Jar -- Twenty years ago, Allie Denty was the pretty one and her best friend Olivia Pelham was the smart one. Throughout high school, they were inseparable…until a vicious rumor about Olivia — a rumor too close to the truth — ended their friendship.

Now, on the eve of their twentieth high school reunion, Allie, a temp worker, finds herself suddenly single, a little chubby, and feeling old. Olivia, a cool and successful magazine beauty editor in New York, realizes she’s lonely, and is finally ready to face her demons.

Sometimes hope lives in the future; sometimes it comes from the past; and sometimes, when every stupid thing goes wrong, it comes from a prettily packaged jar filled with scented cream and promises.

Beth Harbison has done it again. A hilarious and touching novel about friendship, Love’s Baby Soft perfume, Watermelon Lip Smackers, bad run-ins with Sun-In, and the healing power of “Gee Your Hair Smells Terrific.” Hope in a Jar: we all need it.

Kids Books: Custard and Mustard

Custard and Mustard: Carlos in Coney Island -- Carlos the French Bulldog takes the subway to Coney Island where he is smacked by salty breezes and captivated by its cornicopia of carny delights Nathan's Cyclone, Wonder Wheel, Aquarium, the Ballpark, Mermaid Parade and beach.

Pop Tart

Pop Tart -- An eager, aspiring make-up artist, Jackie O'Reilly has always dreamed of a high-profile Hollywood career—and now fate has made her fantasy a glittering reality. Filling in at the last minute for her boss, Jackie finds herself working with America's newest sweetheart—wild and glamorous Brooke Parker, who's on the brink of superstardom.

Jackie's right where she's always wanted to be: in the entourage of an "it-girl," a globe-trotting world of private jets, long white limos and all-night parties. Brooke is fun and real, but also impetuous and unpredictable. And when the pop princess begins to unravel, Jackie will have to decide where her true loyalties lie—or become a victim of the unrelenting chaos of the twenty-four-hour media circus.

A blistering, dazzling, and authentic novel written by two knowledgeable Hollywood insiders, Pop Tart is a high-speed roller-coaster ride through the treacherous playland of pop culture stardom.

Why Is My Mother Getting a Tattoo?

Why Is My Mother Getting a Tattoo?: And Other Questions I Wish I Never Had to Ask -- Dunn's travails will be instantly recognizable to readers in their late 30s and 40s—a generation that's shifted the family bickering about what to serve at holiday dinners to conference calls and e-mails. Her parents are a bottomless well of comedy, sending her wacky newspaper clippings and grilling her loudly about her inability to go to the bathroom during their vacation. Her circle of friends is equally familiar, like the gay buddy who invites her over for TV-movie parties and can always be counted on to make catty remarks about strangers. Several chapters are filled with transcripts of phone conversations with her best friend, Julie, flitting from topic to topic, comparing the embarrassing songs saved on their iPods and wondering why their parents haven't figured out voice mail isn't like an answering machine (Hello? Anybody there? Hello, it's Dad). Dunn's tone is genial, only turning serious briefly near the end when she discusses not having kids—and then inadvertently discovers she's finally pregnant. The seriousness doesn't last long, though, and soon it's back to affectionately mocking her mom's decision to get tattooed—although, as her sisters point out, she's secretly pleased to have something new to write about.

Dunn also wrote "Don't You Forget About Me" which I read last summer and "But Enough About Me: How a Small-Town Girl Went from Shag Carpet to the Red Carpet." Plus, she's a fellow Jersey girl which always makes me want to read.

The Marriage Bureau for Rich People

The Marriage Bureau for Rich People -- Zama’s debut novel captivates the reader as an entertaining chronicle of a contemporary Indian matchmaking service and as insightful commentary on the lingering dictates of religion and class in modern India. Mr. and Mrs. Ali live in Vizag, on India’s eastern coast. Several years into his retirement, Mr. Ali grows bored, so he opens a marriage bureau, where the city’s well-to-do can come to find the perfect match for their offspring based on their unique requirements as to caste, religion, dowry amount, age, and height. The business flourishes, forcing Mr. Ali to hire an assistant, Aruna, a young woman whose family’s financial collapse forced her to give up her postgraduate studies and go to work. Aruna has a knack for making even the most difficult matches—failing only to find a young woman for a wealthy young doctor with especially picky parents. Zama sprinkles his lively narrative with morsels of everyday life and age-old traditions, from marriage and burial rituals to the making of mung-bean crepes—all of which enrich and enliven his simple and engaging plot.

Friday Nights

Friday Nights -- When a British retiree invites two young single mothers from the neighborhood to her flat, a Friday night tradition begins. As their klatch widens, Trollope's memorable characters do more than just represent varying female predicaments: they develop as rich individuals who come to triumph over their pasts. Paula has a wary relationship with the married man who fathered their son, Toby: she must move on, yet stay in touch for Toby's sake. Struggling Lindsay was widowed before she gave birth, while her sister, Jules, is a careless aspiring nightclub DJ with a wild streak. Independent, put-together Blaise contrasts starkly with her often bedraggled business partner, Karen, who barely manages her role as mother and breadwinner. And then there is Eleanor, the catalyst for the gatherings, a no-nonsense older woman who, though full of wisdom and spunk, keeps her thoughts to herself unless asked. When a new man enters Paula's life, Trollope masterfully shows how work and romance can tip the scales in female friendships. The result is a careful and compelling examination of one man's insidious effect on a group of female friends, as memorable as it is readable.

Moon Shell Beach

Moon Shell Beach -- Lexi and Clare, townies on the island resort town of Nantucket, have been best friends since childhood. When the girls hit college, though, things start to change. Lexi, eager to leave the small town, elopes with a wealthy developer, angering the community. Clare struggles to maintain her relationship with the town lothario. Years later, the divorced Lexi returns, and the friends once again try to find their way together. The title, Moon Shell Beach, tells you all you need to know: that this is a thoroughly enjoyable if slight novel perfect for reading in Nantucket or on any other beach. The characters and events are interesting, if not completely fleshed out. The focus on women’s friendship as opposed to romance makes for an enjoyable change of pace.

Someday My Prince Will Come: True Adventures of a Wannabe Princess

Someday My Prince Will Come: True Adventures of a Wannabe Princess -- Many little girls dream of becoming a princess and finding their Prince Charming. Fine was no different and, at the age of six, traced the Windsor family tree to Peter Phillips, an English royal of her same age, and announced she would marry him. Unlike other girls, however, this dream did not fade away with adolescence. With a story line akin to a chick lit novel, her memoir follows her single-minded path to become suitable wife material for a prince, to move to England and to be swept away in a royal romance. Born to hippie parents in rural Colorado, Fine comes of age feeling out of place and escapes to the East Coast for college and then to graduate school in London. There she ingratiates herself into English social circles, eventually rubbing shoulders with Princess Anne, the Duchess of York and others. Amid her lessons in British society and the universal woes of dating, she also gains the important knowledge that the strength of one's conviction can be the strongest predictor of one's fate. Provided the reader doesn't grimace to see her determination, intelligence and grace used to pursue a man she's never met, Fine's is a charming and humorous story.

This is a wonderfully entertaining read that I highly recommend!

American Adulterer

American Adulterer -- "The subject is an American citizen holding high elected office, married, and father to a young family..."

From its opening line, American Adulterer examines the psychology of a habitual womanizer in hypnotically clinical prose. Like any successful philanderer, the subject must be circumspect in his choice of mistresses and employ careful calculation in their seduction; he must exercise every effort to conceal his affairs from his wife and jealous rivals. But this is no ordinary adulterer. He is the 35th President of the United States, John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

JFK famously confided that if he went three days without a woman, he suffered severe headaches. Acclaimed author Jed Mercurio takes inspiration from the tantalizing details surrounding the President's sex life to conceive this provocatively intimate perspective on Kennedy's affairs. Yet this is not an indictment. Startlingly empathetic, darkly witty and deft, American Adulterer is a moving account of a man not only crippled by back pain, but enduring numerous medical crises, a man overcoming constant suffering to serve as a highly effective Commander-in-Chief, committed to a heroically idealistic vision of America. But each affair propels him into increasingly murky waters. President Kennedy fears losing the wife and children to whom he's devoted and the office to which he's dedicated. This is a stunning portrait of a virtuous man enslaved by an uncontrollable vice and a novel that poses controversial questions about society's evolving fixation on the private lives of public officials and, ultimately, ignites a polemic on monogamy, marriage and family values.

See article here for further dirt!

Both Ways Is the Only Way I Want It

Both Ways Is the Only Way I Want It -- Award-winning writer Maile Meloy's return to short stories explores complex lives in an austere landscape with the clear-sightedness that first endeared her to readers.

Meloy's first return to short stories since her critically acclaimed debut, Both Ways Is the Only Way I Want It is an extraordinary new work from one of the most promising writers of the last decade.

Eleven unforgettable new stories demonstrate the emotional power and the clean, assured style that have earned Meloy praise from critics and devotion from readers. Propelled by a terrific instinct for storytelling, and concerned with the convolutions of modern love and the importance of place, this collection is about the battlefields—and fields of victory—that exist in seemingly harmless spaces, in kitchens and living rooms and cars. Set mostly in the American West, the stories feature small-town lawyers, ranchers, doctors, parents, and children, and explore the moral quandaries of love, family, and friendship. A ranch hand falls for a recent law school graduate who appears unexpectedly— and reluctantly—in his remote Montana town. A young father opens his door to find his dead grandmother standing on the front step. Two women weigh love and betrayal during an early snow. Throughout the book, Meloy examines the tensions between having and wanting, as her characters try to keep hold of opposing forces in their lives: innocence and experience, risk and stability, fidelity and desire.

See NY Times Book Review here.

Best Friends Forever

Best Friends Forever -- Addie Downs and Valerie Adler will be best friends forever. That's what Addie believes after Valerie moves across the street when they're both nine years old. But in the wake of betrayal during their teenage years, Val is swept into the popular crowd, while mousy, sullen Addie becomes her school's scapegoat.

Flash-forward fifteen years. Valerie Adler has found a measure of fame and fortune working as the weathergirl at the local TV station. Addie Downs lives alone in her parents' house in their small hometown of Pleasant Ridge, Illinois, caring for a troubled brother and trying to meet Prince Charming on the Internet. She's just returned from Bad Date #6 when she opens her door to find her long-gone best friend standing there, a terrified look on her face and blood on the sleeve of her coat. "Something horrible has happened," Val tells Addie, "and you're the only one who can help."

Best Friends Forever is a grand, hilarious, edge-of-your-seat adventure; a story about betrayal and loyalty, family history and small-town secrets. It's about living through tragedy, finding love where you least expect it, and the ties that keep best friends together.

Jennifer Johnson Is Sick of Being Single

Jennifer Johnson Is Sick of Being Single

From Publishers Weekly: A heroine with Bridget Jones-like neuroses and klutziness learns the costs of scoring a glamorous life in McElhatton's delightful second novel (after Pretty Little Mistakes). Jennifer Johnson is a financially unstable copywriter toiling in the marketing department of Keller's, a family-run Minnesota department store. Jennifer learns her ex is engaged and is subjected to her younger sister's wedding preparations, horrid dates and a fire in her Hello Kitty–adorned apartment. Enter Brad Keller, the caddish heir to the Keller's department store fortune. Though at first she couldn't imagine that he'd ever be interested in her, soon enough they're dating, and a marriage proposal follows. Things, of course, aren't exactly as they appear, and Jennifer's eventually confronted with the classic dilemma: money or love. Jennifer's a wonderful narrator—honest, witty, self-deprecating and sharply observant—which more than redeems the story's familiar aspects (gay best friend, high maintenance sibling's pending nuptials, lame Internet dates). McElhatton blends just enough cynicism into the whimsical narrative, creating a fun romp through a woman's manifold insecurities.

Kids Books: Uncle Andy's Cats

Uncle Andy's CatsIt all started with a little blue cat named Hester. Then along came Sam, and it was love at first sight— and lots of little Sams! While the cats are perfectly happy stampeding through Uncle Andy’s art studio and frolicking among his soup boxes, the humans know things have to change. So Uncle Andy devises a brilliant plan to make his cats famous—and easier to find homes for.

James Warhola’s childhood memories of trips to New York City to visit his uncle, Andy Warhol, inspired this warm, funny story of the famous artist’s house full of cats. Kids will pore over the illustrations trying to spot all the Sams, as well as some very clever mice.

James Warhola’s children’s books include Uncle Andy’s: A Faabbbulous Visit with Andy Warhol, which he also wrote. He lives in the Hudson Valley area of New York and Baltimore, Maryland.

By Invitation Only

By Invitation Only -- Nobody knows the Hamptons like Jodi Della Femina, who captures the inside world of love, society, and scandal in this delicious summer page-turner.

Toni Fratelli has a busy summer ahead.

After several setbacks in Manhattan force her to move home to East Hampton, her To Do list is full. She has to help her father run his popular Italian restaurant. Start up her own catering company. And plan, cater, and be the Maid of Honor at her best friend’s wedding on the beach.

Unfortunately for Toni, the groom’s mother is a competitive New York socialite who’ll stop at nothing to make sure her son doesn’t marry a local girl – especially on the family’s Southampton estate. The biggest caterer in the Hamptons is trying to run her fledgling business out of town. And worse than anything, Toni seems to be losing her best friend to a circle of snooty bridesmaids. Everything might be tolerable – if her dad could just stop treating her as if she was seventeen again.

At least Toni finds love. When she meets a sexy surfer named Chris, it quickly turns into the most romantic summer fling of her life. But there’s more to Chris than his vintage Mustang and used guitar … and he’s not sure Toni’s going to like the truth. Before the end of the summer she’ll be forced to face her hopes – and fears – as trying to forgive becomes her biggest challenge yet.

The Allure of Chanel

The Allure of Chanel -- I've had this book in my Amazon cart for awhile now - I recently saw it on a blog and again on NYSD so I am definitely adding it to my Coco collection of books! Click here for photos and the article from NYSD.