Quote de jour
"Reading like writing, is a creative act. if readers only bring a narrow range of themselves to the book, then they'll only see their narrow range reflected in it."
                                                                                                                                                                                                                 ~Ben Okri

I'm on holiday for the rest of the month and that means beach reads, light and breezy guilty pleasures.  But this doesn't mean something so sweet and frothy I get a tooth ache. No, these two new novels fit the bill perfectly. Bought by Anna David has the tagline "everyone has their price" and the dirty truth is, it's true. She scrapes the designer underbelly of Hollywood to its rotten core. Yum. http://www.annadavid.com/ 


Who hasn't had fantasies about running off to live in Paris? I know I have. The first page of Foreign Tongue by Vanina Marsot sucked me in, and wish I had nothing else to do today so I could finish it. I couldn't find her own website but here's her publisher's http://www.harpercollins.com/ 

The red, white and blue cover aesthetic continues with punches of pink and purple. I predict lots more purple for the fall. Is this not the saddest/lonely/lovely portrait of Michael Jackson? The Obama cover coverage frenzy is making him into a charicature. Enough already! I keep reading reports of the recession being over. Yes, and look, there are pigs flying overhead. I see it as as fake it 'till you make it mentality. It's no wonder we're all gaga for fantasy like the vampire craze. Entertainment did an excellent article about the greatest vamps of all time.