Okay, we feel badly for calling out Jezebel about the whole bitter thing -- it's not all the time! it's just about certain stuff! and we understand how they feel because excessive shallowness is annoying! -- but anyway, we are kissing their collective bums over this Friday Fine Lines feature that they've been running for the past while. We've been meaning to tell you about it but neglected to because we have a lot of trouble concentrating on Fridays. So each week, Lizzie Skurnick reviews and discusses the YA books beloved to most girls in their youth. It's the-next-to-most-delicious-thing other than actually sitting down and rereading them. Today's feature is about the brilliant Katherine Patterson's Jacob Have I Loved, which we totally forgot after our recent revived obsession with Judy Blume yet is absolutely one of our favorite, favorite, FAVORITE YA's of all time. How amazing is that cover. We can't even talk about it. LOUISE WAS TOTALLY THE PRETTIER SISTER. We really want to stop off at the BPL, hustle up to the kid's section, borrow it, take it home, and cry about it all weekend. Our heart breaks.

2/1/2008 5:11:37 PM by Sharon | Comments [0] |  

This Thursday Styles piece about beauty bloggers and swag is basically just repackages a million-year old story about beauty editors (or fashion editors, or whatever kind of editor) and the swag that they're inundated with on a regular basis.

What's funny is the subsequent debate that flared up on Jezebel. Word Up loves the Jezzies but man, they've been bitter lately. We guess yelling at people for jumping on the Juno backlash wagon is okay, but enjoying the idea of playing with make-up as we approach a recession is not? For what it's worth, the impending recession is exactly the sort of thing that makes a lot of girls want to buy themselves cheap lipgloss and chai lattes to help them feel better about life. Delicious books to read while drinking the chai lattes are also in order, which brings us back to the freeloading.

We were just imagining how odd and awkward it would be if the publishing industry worked more like the beauty industry does. So, say Elizabeth Gilbert pens another find-yourself-travel-memoir that is set in Hawaii, just for example's sake. And her publicist sends out a few select emails that go something like this: Dear Book Editor, we would like to fly you to Honolulu and give you spa treatments to help you remember your spirit and vibe with Liz's latest message! OMG please come! It's our treat! Yay! Then write about it! And give Liz another hot-30something-blonde spread in the pages of your magazine!

Instead of, you know, sending out a galley, and advance praise blurbs and then following up with a comped review copy of the book. Which can also work wonders. Especially if Oprah gets involved.

We're quite sure the alternative scheme would never happen. But considering how shallow the publishing industry can be sometimes, we suppose it suffers silently in its own way. Even if the latest chick-lit or lad-lit from whatever major house doesn't come with a free jar of La Mer.

2/1/2008 4:42:37 PM by Sharon | Comments [0] |  

Radar's Gutter Report just alerted us to a new media brouhaha revolving around MICHAEL CHABON. The NY Post's Kyle Smith calls out Chabon (who is Jewish) for the supposedly anti-Semitic themes in his latest tour-de-force, The Yiddish Policeman's Unit. It's a 411-page mystery/noir homage/love story/historical mind-bender about the Jews of the Sikta District in Alaska -- a fictional safe haven built after Israel collapsed in 1948. The introverted citizens of the Sikta are about to be displaced, and in the midst of their crisis, a homicide detective feels obliged to investigate the murder of his chess-prodigy neighbor. Ben Widdicome of the NY Daily News queried Chabon about the attack at his book party:

"It's a badge of honor, I think, to be condemned by one's own people, when you're a Jew," he told me at the launch of his latest novel, "The Yiddish Policemen's Union."

"My mother, when she saw this item in the Post, she was kvelling. She said, 'Now you know you've arrived as a Jewish-American writer. When you've been condemned by other Jews as an anti-Semite, you know you've made it.'"

That Mom quote was terrible. Perhaps NOT the best way to respond to Page Six's shrieking "CHABON'S UGLY VIEW OF JEWS" headline. Does anyone remember that Elle feature on Chabon and wifey Ayelet Waldman? We can't find the article on the web, though you'd probably remember it if you read it -- the couple explained that the secret to their marriage was that they loved each other more than their children. Maybe Chabon just needs a book publicist who can reel him in better.

Also, Gawker points out the Jewish media outlets who have praised the book.

Chabon appears Friday night at the First Unitarian Church, 3 Church St, Cambridge | 6:30 pm | $5 | 617.495.2727, and tomorrow at Borders Books and Music, 511 Boylston St, Boston | 12:30 pm | free | 617.236.1444.

5/3/2007 2:45:26 PM by Sharon | Comments [0] |