Celebutantes by Amanda Goldberg and Ruthanna Khalighi Hopper March 28, 2008

From Publishers Weekly
Gawker.com meets Glamour in this insider’s look at Oscar week penned by L.A. junior royalty: Goldberg, producer Leonard Goldberg’s daughter, has worked for Todd Oldham; Khalighi Hopper, daughter of Dennis Hopper and Daria Halprin, produced and starred in the indie film Americano. After a disastrous turn acting and bedding her superhunk co-star, Lola Santisi, 26 and the daughter of famed director Paul Santisi, swears off actors and acting for good. But Lola agrees to be the Hollywood ambassador for Best Gay Forever designer Julian Tennant, to help get a major actress to wear one of his dresses at the Oscars. Lola woos an array of glitterari, each more self-absorbed than the next in the runup to Graydon Carter’s famed Vanity Fair bash, and competes against the ruthless Prada ambassador Adrienne Hunt for the plum actor bods. There’s up-to-the-minute star chatter and fashion name-checking throughout; wonderfully dead-on moments as Lola negotiates underlings to get on set; and a possibly fatal relapse of actor fever. The shallowness is more severe than Angelina’s neckline, but that’s the point, and it quickly becomes imperative to discover just who is going to wear Julian Tennant to the Oscars.

 Blurbs about the book:

“A terrifying comedy of Hollywood royalty: Celebutantes proves that A-list vanities are still the preserve of the very beautiful, the very brave, or the very, very silly.” –Plum Sykes, author of The Debutante Divorcee

“In Celebutantes, two daughters of Hollywood, Amanda Goldberg and Ruthanna Hopper, take us through the Oscar rituals of that mad and magical week with all the inside knowledge that they have grown up knowing.  They are remarkably adroit and witty story tellers.  Beneath the utter sophistication and gloriously natural name-dropping, there beats a very warm heart.” –Dominick Dunne

“Stylish intrigue, glamorous machinations and such juicy fun.  No one but Hollywood insiders like Amanda Goldberg and Ruthanna Hopper could tell the tale so perfectly.” –Michael Kors

“A hilarious ride through the bumpy Hollywood Hills, complete with a trillion genius nuggets of true insider dish and a silver screen ending.” –Jill Kargman, author of Momzillas

“Fashion, film stars and great fun—a young insider’s view of Hollywood!” -Anjelica Huston

“Celebutantes is a witty, incisive, under-the-sheets look at the chaos that is Oscar week.  I loved it.” –Jackie Collins

“An irreverent satire on Hollywood celebrity, delivered with a keen eye for the absurd, Celebutantes is a wise and witty page-turner.” –Arianna Huffington

“Nothing is stranger than reality and the reality of Hollywood and our celebrity obsessed culture is brilliantly captured in Celebutantes.  Amanda Goldberg and Ruthanna Hopper, both Hollywood insiders, use their wicked sense of humor and keen insight to craft a piercingly intelligent, funny and at times tragic satire of modern-day Hollywood. The authors simultaneously elevate the lives of the beautiful and the famous while also pointing out the emptiness and absurdity of contemporary values.” –Tom Ford

The Sleeping Beauty Proposal by Sarah Strohmeyer November 13, 2007

When I was young, I read voraciously.  I read everything I could get my hands on… as long as it was an easy read, a great story, by a modern-day author, and something my Mom or Aunt Sue would label “Trash.”  (Yes, with a capital “T.”)

 My older self reddens as I admit that I was a romance-novel addict.  They were fun, quick, and easy to lose myself in their fantasty worlds of bodice-ripping rowdiness.

After reading a few “heavier” books, I’m still drawn to these chick lit books – not just romances, but mysteries.  I’m a love-to-dog-him reader of James Patterson, a huge Mary Higgins Clark fan, and noncommittal-but-always-willing-to-try anyone else with an intriguing dust jacket.

And yet, all too often these days I’m left disappointed with choices from this past favored genre.  The latest?  “The Sleeping Beauty Proposal” by Sarah Strohmeyer.  In this cute book, an admissions counselor watches her beau of four years giving an interview on TV and then proposing to the love of his life – imagine her surprise when she learns he didn’t mean her.  Our heroine of the hour decides to keep her mouth shut and enjoys being “engaged” while ex-boyfriend spends the summer and abroad.  Oh the hilarity that follows!

The plot had no holes and Ms. Strohmeyer’s heroine was comical and sweet – I don’t actually have anything bad to say about this novel.  It’s just that for me, I’m left feeling a little frustrated at myself that I wasted a few precious hours reading this instead of choosing to pick up “A Thousand Splendid Suns,” “Ireland,” or “Gone With the Wind” – all current choices on my “MUST READ” list.

It’s interesting how tastes change over time…  Happy reading!

Dedication by McLaughlin and Kraus August 19, 2007

I must be a glutton for punishment – or just have a really terrible memory. 

I decided to read Dedication because the premise sounded fun (girl falls for and is betrayed by now famous rock star.  wants to make him “regret his entire existence.”) and because I recognized the authors – they also wrote Nanny Diaries and Citizen Girl.

Problem is, I really didn’t enjoy Nanny Diaries or Citizen Girl!  Dedication was a fluffy piece that I whizzed through over the last couple days.  Booklist, on Amazon.com, writes that McLaughlin & Kraus detour from the predictable to a suprise.  In my opinion, it was the “surprise” ending that was the predictable cliche.

So anyways, I’ll probably be in the minority of this book’s target audience with my opinion – most people also raved about Nanny Diaries.  It’s not a bad book (quick read, fun 80s details, interesting writing style of switching from past to present in each chapter), it’s just that I know most of my friends don’t read that often – so if you’re only going to read one book this month (or this quarter), I wouldn’t recommend that this be it.