Trashionista

MOVIE NEWS: An Invisible Sign Of My Own

Aimee Bender's novel An Invisible Sign Of My Own is being adapted for the big screen and America Ferrera has signed on for the starring role.

The quirky story is about a twenty-year-old loner, Mona Gray, who as a child turned to maths for salvation after her father became ill. As an adult, Mona teaches the subject and still relies on numbers to keep her world safe and ordered. Will love change that forever?

[Via Hollywood Reporter]

Related posts: Movie news archives

TELEVISION NEWS: Dollhouse

Okay, so this isn't chick lit, but it is Joss Whedon - one of our favourite screenwriters and creator of the kick ass heroine Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Whedon is currently shooting a new series titled Dollhouse. In it, 'dolls' are people who have had their personalities wiped clean so that they can be imprinted with new ones for special assigments. The dolls are hired out for jobs, crimes, fantasies and occasional good deeds. Creepy, no?

Creepier still,  in between tasks they are mind-wiped into a child-like state and kept in a hidden facility known as 'the dollhouse'. The story follows a young female doll called Echo who begins, in her mind-wiped state, to become self-aware.

Echo is played by Eliza Dushku - Faith from Buffy for those who aren't as Whedon-obsessed as I am - and Angel actress Amy Acker (Fred) will also feature.

Related posts: Reading Buffy | Chick lit authors' favourite TV shows | Reading Angel

Tell us about ‘My Video Life’ and win £500 or Topshop vouchers

See, I told you not to worry, that there'd be more competitions and here's one now! (Plus, since you can win vouchers, it's given me a good excuse to show you this completely demented picture of Isla Fisher in the Shopaholic movie. Shopping vouchers. Shopaholic. You see?)

Anyway. The competition.

We have teamed up with Visual Networking experts, Cisco, to offer shedloads of cool prizes and all you have to do is show us a video that illustrates ‘My Video Life’.

Carry on over the cut for more info and details of how to enter.

The overall winner will get £500 worth of vouchers for a shopping spree  and the chance to spend a day in the studio with Cisco’s experts to make another video  – plus have Your Video Life featured on the Cisco consumer web site.

There are also eight £50 vouchers from top shop Topshop up for grabs, so you have a really good chance of nabbing one of the prizes.

We want to know about ‘My Video Life’ in less than three minutes. Show us what you do and how you do it.

What‘s your favourite way to use video and what for?

To enter the competition we need some footage from you which illustrates Your Video World.

- You can shoot a piece straight to camera telling us what you use video for
- You can shoot an interesting and creative video
- You can even send us a link to footage you have shot previously.

All we need from you is a link to the footage which has to be hosted on YouTube. You simply email the link to Ciscovideo2@gmail.com.

Judges from Shiny and Cisco will be looking for videos that are original, interesting, thought provoking, creative and fun too.

So what are you waiting for? Email the links to Ciscovideo2@gmail.com and you could win our fantastic prize, or one of those £50 Topshop vouchers.

Competition Notice
This competition is organized by Shiny Media. (The Promoter).
Entry to the competition is free. Entries must be made via the email address Ciscovideo2@gmail.com.
The Judging Panel will be made up of representatives of Shiny Media and Cisco.
The competition is only open to people over 16 and residing in the UK.
Winner responsible for travel costs for travel to Cisco filming location.
No purchase is necessary but entrants should be aware that they may be subject to local call charges depending on their own individual arrangements for Internet access.
All entries are eligible for the grand prize of £500 of shopping vouchers and the chance to create your own video with the Cisco team. Entrants from each category (Tech, Fashion, Sport) will also be eligible for one of 8 runners up prizes per sector. Fashion entrants can win one of 8 £50 Top Shop Vouchers, Tech entrants can win one of 8 £50 dabs.com Vouchers; Sport entrants can win one of 8 £50 NikeTown Vouchers
The competition is open from 17th April 2008 and entries must be received on or before 19th May 2008. The Promoter reserves the right to revise this date and extend the period for accepting entries to the competition.
The finalists will be announced on www.shinymedia.com and notified via email or their You Tube account within five [5] days of the Closing Date.
The winner consents and agrees to participate in publicity accompanying or resulting from the promotion. No additional compensation will be awarded for such promotional activities. Shiny Media and Cisco reserve the right to use the names and video entries of winners, their photographs and audio and/or visual recordings of them.
Shiny Media will moderate every entry it receives and reserves the right to disqualify any entrant.
By entering the competition, entrants will be deemed to be bound by and have accepted the terms and conditions www.shinymedia.com/tandc including the terms of use http://www.youtube.com/t/terms and Community Guidelines http://www.youtube.com/t/community_guidelines for uploading videos to You Tube.
The Promoter reserves the right to disqualify any entrant deemed to have breached the Terms and Conditions.
All data collected will be shared between Shiny Media and Cisco. Personal data will be processed in accordance with Cisco's Privacy Statement which can be located by clicking here and Shiny Media's Privacy Statement which can be located by clicking here.

COMPETITION: Rules for Saying Goodbye

So today's the last day of April and therefore the last day of Big Giveaway Month! Don't worry, we've actually got some really cool competitions coming up in May too ... just not every day.

The final book is Katherine Taylor's Rules for Saying Goodbye. To be in with a chance of winning, email editor @ trashionista . com (remove spaces) with "Rules of Saying Goodbye" in the subject line. Don't forget to include your name and address and the competition closes at 12 noon GMT tomorrow.

And Kristin Pedroja, Sue Goodyear and Jessie Hwang - look out for a very heavy copy of Cosmo's Guide to Red-Hot Sex dropping through your letterbox in the near future!

BOOK REVIEW: Addition by Toni Jordan

Reviewed by Sarah Hague

We all have our little foibles; certain obsessions such as keeping an immaculate house, cleanliness, football, celebrities' private lives, rescuing cats. Sometimes these obsessions take over, but at what point do they become an OCD?

Grace Lisa Vandenburg is obsessed with numbers. She counts. Everything. Her whole life is regimented by a strict routine based around numbers, but her obsession is also part of her, an integral part. It's just that it has taken her over to the point where she can no longer function in the real world. She doesn't believe she has a problem though, because her hero Nikola Tesla was also obsessed with numbers and he was a genius. She keeps a photo of him next to her single bed.

When she meets Seamus, however, he encourages her to accept that she would be better off, and happier after going through treatment for her OCD. This includes taking powerful drugs and joining a therapy group of 'Germophobics'.

As we join Grace on her journey through her treatment, we discover that it's not that simple removing an integral part of oneself. Normality is a relative issue.

Addition is full of humour and charm. It takes a tender look at the way people suffer from OCDs but does not descend into whimsy. Grace is an intelligent former teacher with a sharp tongue. Her observations are witty, although the tragedy of her obsession at its height is also thought-provoking.

Love and regimented routines are rarely compatible. Will Grace succumb to the strictures of her OCD and lose Seamus forever?

A lovely read.

Rating: 4/5

Like this? Try Miss Understanding by Stephanie Lessing

AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Luisa Plaja

Luisa Plaja is probably my best writer buddy. I love her and I love her first book, Split by a Kiss (but not just because I love her, because it's brilliant), so it was only a matter of time before I had to interview her, wasn't it? Well, that time is now!

Please describe your latest book in 15 words or fewer:

Brit kisses super-hot American boy and splits into two girls: one cool, one not.

Where do you like to write your books (in bed, a coffee shop, an office)?

Anywhere interruption-free, which is more a matter of timing (ie, children asleep!) than location.

Your favourite chick-lit book?

Grown-up chick lit: Rachel's Holiday by Marian Keyes.

Young Grown-up chick lit: oooh, tough, so very very tough. It's a tie between Becoming Bindy Mackenzie by Jaclyn Moriarty, Fly on the Wall by E. Lockhart and Hadley by Sarra Manning. (And Let's Get Lost by Sarra Manning... but maybe I rate being made to laugh more highly than being made to cry!) And Devilish by Maureen Johnson and A Bad Boy Can Be Good for a Girl by Tanya Lee Stone and What My Mother Doesn't Know by Sonya Sones and anything by Helen Salter, Sara Hantz, Amanda Ashby, Keris Stainton... [*blush* - Keris] Oh, did you want me to single out one book? Aaargh, I can't do it!

Your favourite female heroine (if different from above!), and why?

Mia Thermopolis. (I don't have to tell you which series she's from, do I?!) I admire the way she deals with everything life and princess-hood throws at her. Or maybe Shiraz Bailey Wood from Grace Dent's Diary of a Chav series - she's so wonderfully big-hearted. Or maybe... OK, I'll stop, but again, I can't choose just one!

What tips would you give to any of our readers who want to become writers?

1. Enjoy it! Writing is fun, not torture. Honestly. Mostly.

2. Try NaNoWriMo.

3. Be pretentious about it. Example: Pose with a notebook in a soft play area, exclaiming, "Aha!" and scribbling intermittently while those around you hit you with colourful plastic balls.

What are you reading at the moment?

The fourth in Sarra Manning's Fashionistas series (oops - nearly wrote 'Trashionistas' there!) It's called Candy and it's fantastic, just like the previous three books.

What are you working on now? (If you can give us a hint!)

Book Two, also for teenagers, and loosely inspired by this site.

And several other ideas, especially a first draft I've written whose characters won't leave me alone. (See point 3 above.)

Do you have a theme song?

I've had a different theme song for each book I've worked on but they're either too embarrassing or too obscure to mention!

What question have you never been asked in an interview, but think you should have been? (Tell us the question and answer it too, if you like!)

I think I've been asked all the best questions! My favourites so far (oh! apart from these, crawlie crawl crawl!) have been, "Can you ice skate?" which actually has an interesting and not strictly yes/no answer and Pink World's question about the Split by a Kiss soundtrack - I'd been dying for someone to ask me that.

Um, OK... How about: What's your favourite book review site? Answer: It's a tie between Trashionista (so cool), Chicklish (so teen, and so, um, me) and Vulpes Libris (so mind-expanding). :)

Thanks, Luisa! Did I mention that I love you?

Authors take on Tesco

Lad lit king and Trashionista fave Nick Hornby is among the authors taking on Tesco this week. Also involved are Marina Lewycka, Mark Haddon and Deborah Moggach

Putting their morals above book sales, the group has condemned the supermarket for prosecuting a Thai business leader who spoke out against Tesco’s expansion. They say Tesco is using "deeply chilling" techniques to silence its critics and that the action is a breach of human rights.

[Via Bookseller]

Related posts: More book banning madness | The Complete Polysyllabic Spree

COMPETITION: Lullaby

The winner of Pretty Little Mistakes is Asma F of Selangor, Malaysia.

If you read about my reading deal-breakers, you will know there was no way I was going to read Lullaby by Claire Seeber - but that's no reason someone else shouldn't have the chance!

To be in with a chance of winning, email editor @ trashionista . com (remove spaces) with "Lullaby" in the subject line. Don't forget to include your name and address and the competition closes at 12 noon GMT tomorrow.

BOOK REVIEW: Candy Girl by Diablo Cody

I had to read Candy Girl after watching and completely ADORING the movie Juno, the screenplay of which was written by Diablo Cody.

Candy Girl is subtitled "a year in the life of an unlikely stripper" and does exactly what it says on the tin. After moving to Minneapolis, Cody was working in an advertising agency and living with a musician she met on the internet. Bored at work and passing a strip club one day, she wonders what it would be like to strip. And so she volunteers for amateur night.

Cody finds her first experience of stripping both terrifying and exhilarating and soon she's stripping regularly. From stripping she moves on to lapdancing, poledancing and more, eventually working in the Dollhouse, a revolting-sounding peepshow.

Cody's writing is enormously honest and entertaining, but even a couple of weeks after finishing the book, I haven't been able to work out what Cody got out of stripping. She suggests that she did it to challenge and frighten herself, but I didn't find that reasoning entirely convincing.

As I read the book, I argued with myself about whether I was for or against stripping - vacillating between it being a valid way to earn a good living by taking advantage of men's perversions and being, you know, a misogynist and patriarchal disgrace. By the end of Candy Girl I was totally resolved that it's a blight on society and no right-thinking woman should do it willingly. But, of course, I might be wrong.

Oh and remember when I read Good Vibrations and said there was one section that made me sick to my stomach? Well there's a bit in Candy Girl that's (arguably) even worse.

So Candy Girl is absolutely not for the faint-hearted, but it's a thought-provoking and entertaining read.

Rating: 4/5

Like this? Try Good Vibrations by Ayn Carrillo

HELEN'S HEROINES: Jemima Jones

Helen Redfern's weekly column on the fictional females she loves...

Jemima J is a controversial heroine. The book by Jane Green is either loved or hated here on Trashionista with the Yay or Nay Wednesday post (amongst others) showing some strong yays and some equally strong nays. Some find it inspiring, others dislike the disjointed style of writing, the flitting between first and third person, lack of endearing characters other than Jemima and the romantic interest being, shall we say, shallow.

I have stated on this site myself that Jemima J is one of my favourite chick lit books of all time. In my twenties I read it through often, inspired by her determination and complete change in her life. It has to be said though that on reading it through again today, with eyes that have been opened somewhat with experience I can understand the reasons behind the dislikes. I even agree with some of them. My opinion of Jemima the character though has not changed.

Jemima Jones is a large girl. Her first words on opening the book are ‘God, I wish I were thin’. She wishes this to occur instantaneously, perhaps with a mild case of gastroenteritis, not life threatening but enough to make the stones melt away quickly, as she still likes her food. Lots of it.

Even though Jemima herself defines herself by her size, I won’t. She is a journalist, she’s a fantastic writer but somehow can’t get past the Top Tips column for the Kilburn Herald. She has a great sense of humour, a pretty face and is a good friend. She is also lonely, has no confidence but I feel allows her size to get in the way of promotion. She feels hefty in her own head and therefore thinks everyone else is thinking it. Each time she goes to the editor to ask for a promotion to feature writer he says maybe but nothing ever happens. Yet when her more confident thin friend goes for it she is promoted, even though she can’t write for toffee. I don’t think that her size was the issue. It was Jemima's lack of confidence and self esteem (‘why would Geraldine want to befriend someone like me’) and as we read on this becomes more and more apparent. She turns to food for comfort whilst looking at thin models in magazines.

Her editor sends Jemima and Ben (her secret crush) on an internet course and soon Jemima is cruising the internet, immersing herself in it. So much so that she joins a chat room and starts to chat to a man from LA called Brad. He sends her a photograph and she is smitten. Thanks to Photoshop she sends one back of her looking seven stone less. Seeing that photo shows Jemima how beautiful she is underneath the layers of fat and she joins a gym, eats less, if anything at all, and begins a drastic makeover of herself.

On going to LA, she eventually finds out Brad is not all he seems and through looking at some pictures of overweight women who are proud of their body she realises a few things. She still has low self esteem even though she has lost weight. She should have been proud of how she looked before. Being thin has not made her happy. If anything she is less happy than when she was fat. She states, ‘I haven’t felt myself since I lost weight.’

It isn’t the weight loss that I found so inspiring about Jemima though that is in fact amazing (and in three months dangerous and surely not to be advised). The weight loss started a chain of events. Her determination and strong willpower is one of the reasons I am featuring her today. It gave her confidence, after all it takes guts to fly to L.A when you’re secure in a routine and panic about anything outside of it. Gradually though, she starts to learn about herself, piecing things together until she realises it wasn’t her body that needed to change, but the way she perceived herself.

More Helen's Heroines

BOOK REVIEW: No Strings Attached by Clare Dowling

Reviewed by Angela Richardson

Claire Dowling is a scriptwriter for Ireland’s top soap (I’ll have to take their word for that as I haven’t seen it). This is her fourth venture into the novel writing world, so she’s not exactly a novice in this area either. I was understandably expecting great things from her new book, a romantic comedy called No Strings Attached, after hearing Dowling’s impressive CV.

No Strings Attached is based around Judy who is getting married on Saturday and it’s a military operation: the dress, the three-tiered wedding cake, the uncle that nobody will sit beside at reception. She’s determined it’s going to be the happiest day of her life. That is until her fiancé, Barry, mysteriously disappears wearing nothing but his pyjamas. However, when his credit card shows up two days later in the south of France, Judy has to admit that he’s walked out on her.

Fanning Judy’s fury is Lenny, Barry’s best man, who believes that you shouldn’t let commitment ruin a perfectly good relationship. With the love of her life romping around France, Judy might just be in the mood for a little romance – with no strings attached, of course…

This book started out great. It was fast and funny and showed just how well Dowling can write. Unfortunately, I found the middle of the book just concentrated on everyone’s unhappiness. The plot seemed to falter and all the energy and humour of the book was leeched out to a parallel universe.

It did recover itself for the last quarter and regained its star quality, however, I’m not sure that this was enough to save the book. There were a few subplots, which compounded the gloom, having several couples struggling with their relationships and generally being miserable doesn’t really fall into the genre of romantic comedy for me.

No Strings Attached ended up being a very average book in a genre that is already oversubscribed. If only someone had been brave with the editing then this would have been a great read.

Rating: 3/5

Like this? Try The Sleeping Beauty Proposal by Sarah Strohmeyer

BOOK NEWS: American Wife

I enjoyed Prep (although why it wasn't classed as YA chick lit was beyond me) and haven't read Curtis Sittenfeld's second novel The Man Of My Dreams, but I will certainly give American Wife a look.

It's out in September and is narrated by what sounds very much like a fictional version of Laura Bush. Alice Blackwell is married to a man who becomes president of America in 2000 -  even though his opponent receives more popular votes. 

Related posts: Curtis Sittenfeld - chick lit author? | If it's good it can't be chick lit

MORE ON MONDAY: Notes From An Exhibition by Patrick Gale

Reviewed by Jennie Hughes

Right from the first sentence this book pulls you irresistibly into the exciting, crazy, frightening and exhilarating world of a gifted artist (Rachel Kelly) who suffers from bipolar disorder and who has been avoiding her medication in order to experience more fully the dreams and visions she has been having and capture them on canvas before they desert her. These are the final works she will create, as the book starts at the end of her life.

Each chapter is headed by a note from a retrospective exhibition celebrating the artist’s life and work and introduces another perspective on her history, gradually bringing in all the characters involved in the story.

This tale is not told linearly, but weaves and interweaves snippets of her and her family’s life so that it builds up layers of colour and meaning, just as her paintings are described to be. Different player’s viewpoints and experiences at different times in this history come in and out, forward and back in between Rachel’s own experiences of motherhood, creativity, depression and elation.

Gradually the tale unfolds and as it does you get a vivid sense of the Cornish landscape, you feel the quiet contemplation of the Quaker faith, you understand something of the precarious tightrope the family of a creative but unstable mother have to walk and the effect this tension has on them all.

Relationships of all kinds are beautifully evoked and all the people in this book are recognisable, real and inspire empathy. You also get a brief glimpse into the unkind ways in which bipolar disorder used to be treated in the days before it was understood – electric shock therapy and so on. Think, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and you’ll have it.

Finally, the events that have occurred to Rachel and to her family and friends are all laid bare, and the final tragedy which has been glimpsed and hinted at previously is told incredibly simply and without drama.

When I finished this book I wanted to rush down to Cornwall and re-visit the Tate St Ives, or find some good example of abstract art and see if the book had given me more ability to see layers of meaning in the blocks of colour. It certainly feels as if it might.

Rating - 5/5, and I’m going to seek out some more of his books.

Like this? Try: The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai

COMPETITION & EXTRACT: Cosmo's Guide to Red-Hot Sex

The winner of The Automatic Detective was Annette Thomas of Norwich.

Today's book is Cosmo's Guide to Red-Hot Sex and I've got three copies to give away, but it's going to have to be UK only because they're really heavy. And I mean really heavy - I can barely lift the three at once.

To be in with a chance of winning, email editor @ trashionista . com (remove spaces) with "Cosmo's Guide" in the subject line (I thought putting "Red Hot Sex" in the subject line might send all your emails to the spam bin). Don't forget to include your name and address and the competition closes at 12 noon GMT tomorrow.

If you can't enter then swallow your disappointment because there's a treat over the cut. An extract on how to generate a sexy story line. Enjoy!

(I tried to write this without any double entendres, but I couldn't keep it up.)

From Cosmo’s Guide to Red-Hot Sex (Feb. 2008, Hearst books/Sterling Publishing)

How to Generate a Sexy Story Line

Frisky thoughts beget more frisky thoughts, meaning once you tap into a fantasy that makes your pulse race, naughty scenes will flood your brain. Here, ideas for how to start manufacturing those visions.

Think With Your Panties All Day

Start tracking what excites you. Let’s say you’re cruising to work when you suddenly find yourself drooling over a hot highway billboard of a guy whose manhood looks as though it’s trying to break free of his jeans. Or you spot a sexy couple making out and envision what they’ll be doing to each other later that night. Be aware of images that you find sexy or arousing and let your imagi­nation begin to percolate.

Take a Star Turn

Fantasies are like finger­prints—no two are identical. But there is one universal component: You have to be the focus of the action, whether that puts you at the center of a sizzling three­some or in full view of a sex­ual encounter being acted out for your eyes only.

“Many women like to watch and be watched,” explains Melinda Gallagher, founder of CAKE, an enter­tainment and educational company that promotes female sexual empowerment. “Start your fantasy scene simply: Think about some­one watching you undress and see where that idea leads you.”

Peruse Erotica

If you find yourself in short supply of real-world inspira­tion, try reading an erotic short story or popping in a dirty DVD. “Pornographic films serve as visual valida­tion of things we might only dream of trying,” says Gallagher. And sexy movies come in different degrees—from very tame to hard-core skin flicks. “Watch one by yourself to see what stirs you,” says Ava Cadell, PhD, author of The Pocket Idiot’s Guide to Oral Sex.

“Fantasies are about losing your inhibitions, so don’t censor your thoughts.” Let each scene wash over you, paying attention to what, in particular, pushes your hot buttons. Then put yourself in the flick, casting the guy of your choice as the male lead, says Cadell.

BOOK COVER: Melissa Hill

Here's another good example of why photographic covers are better than cartoon covers.

Irish cover on the left. UK cover on the right. Much nicer, no? And, amazingly, the woman's face is showing. Not just her legs or the back of her head. This, people, could be the future! (But I doubt it.)

Related posts: The Last to Know by Melissa Hill review | Never Say Never by Melissa Hill review | My Best Friend's Life cover

Shiny news round-up

A new regular feature to keep you going over the weekend - a round-up of the other Shiny blogs! Because I'm a full-service editor (ahem), I'll do my best to share things I think you'll be interested in, 'kay?

Scrabble Cufflinks: geek chic for your suits [The Bag Lady]

Dollymix finds Elizabeth Gilbert's Borders Book Club discussion of Eat, Pray, Love "the most irritating conversation of all time" [Dollymix]

The top 5 TV shows we couldn't wait to come back for a second series [TV Scoop]

It seems that if you're a supermodel, the more naughty things you get up to, the more you are rewarded for them - Naomi Campbell is to appear on Ugly Betty [Catwalk Queen]

Doctor Who's 'Adipose' a monster hit on Ebay [Crafty Crafty]

Ssssshhhhhhh!!!! Library-themed wedding invitations [Bridalwave]

BOOK NEWS: Gigolo

Having reported recently on the return of the bonkbuster, I'm pleased to announce that some of the new glitz-n-glamour books are pushing the traditional bonkbuster boundaries. A bit.

In Gigolo, the gigolo in question is a man (gasp!). Greg, aka Golden, has rich, glamorous women as clients and enjoys his champagne lifestyle. However, he can't help wondering if he will ever meet Miss Right...

Related posts: Is Kerry Katona the new Jordan? | Two takes on call-girl lit

BOOK REVIEW: Fifteen Minutes of Shame by Lisa Daily

Lisa Daily is a relationships expert and columnist and Fifteen Minutes of Shame is her first novel. I was strangely put off by her day job since I assumed - incorrectly as it turned out - that Daily would simply transmit her nonfiction knowledge to a novel. In fact, Fifteen Minutes of Shame is fun, funny, gripping and moving.

Darby Vaughn - "America's favourite TV dating expert" - is happily married to Will, the love of her life and father to the other loves of her life - his two children from a previous marriage, Lilly and Aidan. Of  course, when I say Darby is happily married, what I mean is that she thought she was happily married but, as the book begins, we learn that Will is not so happy. In fact, Darby suspects that he's cheating and learns that she was right ... on national TV.

Humiliated, heartbroken and at risk of losing everything - not just her husband, but her kids, her house and her career - Darby retreats to stay with a friend and employs a divorce lawyer. A gorgeous divorce lawyer named, Holt. Yes, Holt.

Glossing over the name (Holt?), I loved Fifteen Minutes of Shame. I felt for Darby every second - her shock at Will's betrayal, her attempts to rebuild her life and career, and the pain of being separated from the children she loved, was raising and had come to think of as her own.

(The book raised a serious, and heartbreaking, point I'd never even thought of before - that of step-parents' rights. They don't have any, so you could feasibly spend years raising and loving children, split from their "natural" parent and not even have any right of visitation, let alone hope of any kind of custody.)

Some bits of the book didn't ring entirely true - I could have done without Darby's foray into reality show dating - but that was more than made up for by the character of Darby, who I felt like I knew. And then there's Holt - name aside, the man's a fox.

Rating: 4/5

Like this? Try Marshmallows for Breakfast by Dorothy Koomson

COMPETITION: Pretty Little Mistakes

The winner of The French Gardener is Kerrys Chapman of Milton Keynes.

Glossing over the fact that you might not want it after reading my review, today's book is Pretty Little Mistakes by Heather McElhatton and this one is open to all.

To be in with a chance of winning, email editor @ trashionista . com (remove spaces) with "Pretty Little Mistakes" in the subject line. Don't forget to include your name and address and, because it's Friday, the competition is open until midnight GMT Sunday.

Angels And Demons casting news

Remember we told you about the film adapation of Dan Brown's Angels And Demons?

Well, today the news is out that leading lady Ayelet Zurer (who?) is to be joined by the very lovely Ewan McGregor. He will play an insider at the Vatican who helps Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks).

[Via Empire]

Related posts: Bad Mother's Handbook casting news | Yet more Shopaholic casting

BOOK NEWS: The Accidental Wife

I can't keep up with Rowan Coleman's books (I can't keep up with anyone's books!), but I loved her first, Growing Up Twice, so I'll definitely be reading this one ... someday. It sounds good -

Alison James thinks she might be living the wrong life and Catherine Ashley knows she is living the wrong life. She wonders whether Alison stole her life along with her boyfriend all the years ago. Alison is now moving back to the town where she and Catherine both grew up and they’re about to find out just how different both their lives could still be.

- but the cover's disappointingly wishy-washy, don't you think?

Related: Rowan Coleman interview

BOOK REVIEW: The House at Riverton by Kate Morton

Reviewed by Kathryn Siriwardena

Perhaps unsurprisingly (given the title), this book focuses on a grand English country house - Riverton Manor - and the shocking events of one Edwardian summer.

Narrated by Grace Bradley, a ninety-eight year old ex-housemaid at Riverton, we dip in and out of her memories and recollections to slowly reveal the mystery.

Unfortunately, 'slowly' is the operative word.  Kate Morton is by no means a bad writer, but I found the book very slow to start. And the middle dragged a fair amount, too. In fact, it wasn't until the last third of the book that I really began to enjoy myself.

It could be a matter of wordiness (Morton uses a lot), or could be a problem with the characters - which, sadly, appeared unreal. I didn't believe in their actions or motivations and consequently didn't care for them.

Luckily, the exception to the rule was Grace herself. I did warm to her character and continued reading purely to find out what happened to her.

Unfortunately, that's not quite enough to give this book a whole-hearted recommendation.

Rating: 3/5

Like this? Try: The River King by Alice Hoffman

SPOTLIGHT: Susan Elizabeth Phillips

Susan Elizabeth Phillips has written historical romance, contemporary women's fiction and romantic comedy.

She received the Romance Writers of America Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006 and has won numerous other awards including Borders Best, the American Library Association Genre Fiction Award,and a clutch of RITAs.

However, according to Susan's blog, she started to write "completely by accident".

Susan left her high school teaching job when her first son was born to stay at home. Her best friend lived nearby and the two used to swap books and talk about what they liked and didn't like.

One day, for a laugh, they decided to write a book together. They submitted the first half to Dell and got an offer. Just like that! Susan says: "I never tell this story at writers' luncheons for  fear I'll have to duck flying french rolls."

The book was historical romance, titled The Copeland Bride and published under the pen name Justine Cole.

Afterwards, Claire decided to follow her own ambition of attending law school.  However, Susan had well and truly been bitten by the writing bug and she set about learning how to write a book on her own.

The result was published under her real name - Susan Elizabeth Phillips - and she hasn't looked back since.

Susan lives in Illinois with her husband Bill. She has two grown up sons and is a keen walker.

Bibliography:

Risen, Glory (1984)
Glitter Baby (1987)
Fancy Pants (1989)
Hot Shot (1991)
Honey Moon (1993)
It Had To Be You (1994)
Heaven, Texas (1995)
Kiss an Angel (1996)
Nobody's Baby But Mine (1997)
Dream a Little Dream (1998)
Lady Be Good (1999)
First Lady (2000)
Just Imagine (2001)
This Heart of Mine (2001)
Breathing Room (2002)
Ain't She Sweet? (2005)
Match Me if You Can (2005)
Natural Born Charmer (2007)

Related posts: Spotlight archives

BOOK EXTRACT: Tommy Sullivan is a Freak

Yep, another day another Meg Cabot book! Tommy Sullivan is a Freak - which was called Pants on Fire in the US - is finally out and we've got an exclusive extract!

Tommy Sullivan is a Freak by Meg Cabot

‘Oh my God, what’s she doing here?’ my best friend, Sidney van der Hoff, was asking as I came up to the corner booth to hand out menus.

Sidney wasn’t talking about me. She was glaring at someone at another table. But I couldn’t be bothered to look and see who Sidney was talking about, since my boyfriend, Seth, was sitting next to her, smiling up at me . . . that smile that’s been making girls’ insides melt since about the fifth grade, when we all started noticing Seth’s even white teeth and highly kissable lips.

It still freaks me out that of all the girls in school, I’m the one he picked to kiss with those lips.

‘Hey, babe,’ Seth said to me, blinking his long, sexy eyelashes – the ones I overheard my mom telling Sidney’s mom over the phone are totally wasted on a guy. He snaked an arm around my waist and gave me a squeeze.

‘Hi,’ I said a little breathlessly. Not because of the squeeze, but because I had a table of twelve (Mrs Hogarth’s ninety-seventh birthday party) that was running me ragged, refilling their iced-tea glasses and such, so I was panting a little anyway. ‘How was the movie?’

‘Lame,’ Sidney answered for everyone. ‘You didn’t miss anything. Lindsay should stick with red, blonde does nothing for her. Seriously, though. What’s Morgan Castle doing here?’ Sidney used the menu I’d just given her to point at a table over in Shaniqua’s section. ‘I mean, she’s got some nerve.’

I started to say Sidney was wrong – no way would Morgan Castle be caught dead at the Gull ’n’ Gulp. Especially at the height of the summer season, when the place was so packed. Locals – like Morgan – know better than to try to set foot near this place during high season.

At least, not without a reservation. If you don’t have a reservation at the Gull ’n’ Gulp – even on a Tuesday night, like tonight – during high season, you can expect to wait at least an hour for a table . . . two hours on weekends.

Not that the tourists seem to mind. That’s because Jill, the hostess, gives them each one of those giant beepers you can’t fit into your pocket and mistakenly walk away with, and tells them she’ll beep them when a table’s free.

You’d be surprised how well people take this information.

I guess they’re used to it, from their T.G.I.Fridays and Cheesecake Factories back home, or whatever. They just take their beeper and spend their hour wait strolling up and down the pier. They look over the side rails at the striped bass swimming around in the clear water (‘Look, Mommy!’ some kid will always yell. ‘Sharks!’) and maybe wander over to historic Old Towne Eastport, with its cobblestone streets and quaint shops, then wander back and peer into the yachts at the Summer People watching satellite TV and sipping their gin and tonics.

Then their beeper goes off and they come hurrying over for their table.

Sometimes, while Jill’s leading them to a table in my section, I’ll overhear a tourist go, ‘Why couldn’t we just have sat THERE?’ and see them point to the big booth in the corner.

And Jill will be all, ‘Oh, sorry. That’s reserved.’

Except that this is a total lie. The booth isn’t reserved.

Well, not technically. We just hold it open every night, in case of VIPs.

Not that Eastport, Connecticut, sees that many VIPs.

Or, OK, any. Sometimes, between lunch and dinner, when there’s a lull, Jill and Shaniqua and I will sit around and fantasize about what we’d do if a REAL celebrity walked into the place, like Ryan Phillippe (although we’ve gone off him a bit since his divorce) or Justin Timberlake, or even Prince William (you never know. He could have got lost on his yacht or whatever).

The crazy thing is, even if by some incredible fluke an actual VIP like that did show up at the Gull ’n’ Gulp, he wouldn’t get a seat at the VIP booth. Because in Eastport, Connecticut, the only true VIPs are the Quahogs.

And that’s who the corner booth is always saved for any Quahog who, for whatever reason, might not have  made a reservation at the Gull ’n’ Gulp during high season, and needs a table.

Shocking but true: every once in a while a tourist will wander into the restaurant who has never heard of a quahog.

Peggy, the manager, had to take me aside my first day working at the Gulp last June, when a tourist was like, ‘What’s a quahog?’

Only they said it the way it’s spelled, kwah-hog, instead of the way it’s supposed to be pronounced, which is kohhog.

And I was all, ‘You don’t know what a QUAHOG is???’ and almost died laughing.

Peggy explained to me, very stiffly, that quahogs actually aren’t that well known outside the north-east, and that people from the Midwest, for instance, have probably never even heard of them before.

She was speaking of the bivalve, of course. Because that’s what a quahog is – a type of clam that, when mixed in a pot with a lot of potatoes, onion, leeks, heavy cream and flour, make for the Gull ’n’ Gulp’s bestselling chowder.

Those types of quahogs are what Eastport has been known for since like the 1600s, practically.

Now, though, our town is known for a different type of quahog entirely. Because the Quahogs is also the name of Eastport High School’s football team, which has won the state championship every year since before I was born, sixteen years ago.

Well, except for one year. The year I was in eighth grade.

But no one ever talks about that year. It’s hard to say which quahogs the town’s residents are proudest of, the clams or the team. If I had to guess, I’d say it’s the football team. It’s easy to take a clam – especially one that’s been around for that long – for granted. The team’s only been on its winning streak for a decade and a half.

And the memory of what it felt like NOT to have the best team in the state is still fresh in everybody’s mind, since it was only four years ago, after all, that they were forced to forfeit that single season.

That’s why nobody in town questions the corner booth.

Even if some local did, for whatever reason, show up at the Gull ’n’ Gulp during the summer season without a reservation, he wouldn’t expect to be seated in the empty corner booth. That booth is for Quahogs, and Quahogs only.

And everybody knows it.

Especially my boyfriend, Seth Turner. That’s because Seth, following in the footsteps of his big brother,  two-time first-team All-State defensive-end Jake Turner, is this year’s varsity Quahog kicker. Seth, like his brother before him, loves the corner booth. He likes to stop by the Gull ’n’ Gulp when I’m working, and sit there till I’m done, drinking free Cokes and inhaling quahog fritters (deep-fried dough with bits of clam inside, that you dip in a sweet ’n’ sour sauce. This is the only kind of quahog I can stand to eat, because the dough masks the quahog’s rubbery texture, and the sauce masks its total tastelessness. I am not a fan of the quahog – the bivalve variety, I mean. Not that I’ve dared mention this to anyone. I don’t want to get run out of town).

Anyway, then, when my shift is up, Seth puts my bike in the back of his four by four, and then we make out in the cab until my curfew, which is midnight in the summertime. So the corner booth is a total win-win situation, if you ask me.

Of course, lots of times Seth isn’t the only Quahog in the corner booth. Sometimes his brother Jake – who now works for their dad’s construction company – comes along.

Not tonight though. Tonight Seth’s brought along Quahog defensive lineman Jamal Jarvis and his girlfriend, Martha Wu, as well as quarterback Dave Hollingsworth.

And of course, wherever Dave goes, my best friend, Sidney van der Hoff, has to trail along, since she and Dave have been attached at the hip all summer, ever since Sidney’s former boyfriend – last year’s Quahog quarterback, All-State most-valuable-player Rick Stamford – graduated in the spring and sent Sidney a Dear Sidney text message, telling her he needed his space and wanted to see other girls when he went to UCLA in the fall.

Which, if you ask me, was pretty decent of him. He could have strung Sidney along all summer and then just dumped her when he got to California – or even just gone ahead and seen other girls behind her back and not told her, and come back for Thanksgiving and Christmas vacations expecting to pick things up where they’d left off. It’s not like, being all the way across the country, Sidney would ever have known Rick had his tongue in some Kappa Kappa Gamma’s mouth.

Although actually it is possible – even easy – to see other people behind your significant other’s back while living in the same town, without that person – or anyone else, for that matter – ever finding out. Easier, for instance, than hiding the fact that you can’t stand quahogs (the supposedly edible kind).

I’m just saying.

So it was nice of Rick not to string Sidney along. I told her that at the time, even though it didn’t seem to console her much. Sidney didn’t really calm down until she found out Dave had broken up with Beth Ridley due to her cheating on him with this hottie from Australia she met while crewing on her uncle’s parasailing charter.

So Sidney invited Dave over to her house to commiserate about their no-good exes in her jacuzzi over Boylan’s Creme Soda (Sidney’s was sugar free, of course). And Dave didn’t even try to take her bikini top off, which really impressed Sidney.

So of course she hooked up with him.

For such a small town, a lot of stuff happens in Eastport.

Sometimes it’s hard to keep up.

Like right now, for instance. Because when I looked over at Morgan Castle’s table and saw who she was with, I knew EXACTLY what she was doing at the Gull ’n’ Gulp on a Tuesday night in high season.

And I also knew I didn’t have time for the drama that was about to erupt. I mean, I had Mrs Hogarth’s birthday to deal with.

Sidney didn’t know that though, and even if she had, she wouldn’t have cared. I’ve been best friends with Sidney van der Hoff, the most popular girl in my class, since second grade, when I let her cheat off me during a spelling quiz. Sidney had been a wreck that day, on account of her kitten having gone in to get spayed. Sidney had convinced herself Muffy wasn’t going to survive.

So I took pity on her and let her copy my answers.

Muffy got through her surgery just fine, and grew into a fat cat who I got to know quite well from the frequent slumber parties I attended at Sidney’s house afterwards, Sidney not being the sort of person to forget a kindness.

That’s what I love about Sidney.

It’s all the drama I could live without.

‘Oh my God, is that Eric Fluteley?’ Sidney was totally staring at Morgan’s table. ‘That’s even WEIRDER. What’s HE doing here? This is hardly his kind of place. I mean, considering that no Hollywood casting scouts are likely to walk in.’

‘Hey, Katie,’ Dave said, ignoring his girlfriend’s outburst.

This was typical Dave behaviour. He is a notorious smoother-over . . . one of those people who is always calm, no matter what the situation – even Morgan Castle and Eric Fluteley dining together at the Gull ’n’ Gulp. That’s why he and Sidney make such a good couple. She’s a disrupter and he’s a smoother-over. Together, they’re almost like one normal person. ‘How you doing? Busy tonight, huh?’

‘Way busy,’ I said. He had no idea. This family from like Ohio or something had come in earlier, and the parents had let their kids run around all over the place, bothering Jill up at the hostess stand, throwing French fries out into the water (even though the signs on the pier supports say, very clearly, Do Not Feed the Birds or Fish), getting in the way of the busboys when they were carrying enormous trays of used plates, shrieking for no reason, that sort of thing.

If my brother and I had acted that way in a restaurant, my mom would have made us go sit out in the car.

But these parents just smiled like they thought their kids were so cute, even when one of them blew milk at me from a straw.

And then, after all that, they only left a three-dollar tip.

Hello. Do you know what you can buy in Eastport for three dollars? Nothing.

‘I’ll make this quick then,’ Dave was saying. ‘I’ll have a Coke.’

‘Make it two,’ Jamal said.

‘Make it three,’ Seth said, with another one of his kneemelting smiles. I could tell by the way he couldn’t take his eyes off me that things were going to get steamy in the cab of his truck later on. I knew the cami I was wearing had been a good idea, even though Peggy has a thing about bra straps showing and had almost made me go home to change until Jill had pointed out that her bra straps show every single night, and if it’s OK for the hostess, why not the waiting staff?

‘Diet for me, please, Katie,’ Martha said.

‘Me too,’ Sidney said.

‘Two diets, three regulars, and two quahog fritter platters coming up,’ I said, regathering the menus. We always throw in free quahogs for the Quahogs. Because it’s good for business to have the most popular guys in town hanging out at your establishment. ‘Be back in a minute, guys.’/p>

I winked at Seth, who winked back. Then I hurried to turn in their order and get the drinks.

I couldn’t help glancing in Eric’s direction on my way to the soda station – and saw him staring at me over the top of Morgan’s head. He had that look on his face – the same look he got when I was taking his headshots for his college apps and the stills of him for the Gazette during that really intense scene from The Breakfast Club, which our school put on, where Bender talks about how his dad burnt him for spilling paint on the garage floor. Eric played Bender, and you could TOTALLY see how Claire, the school’s prom princess, would go for him.

Eric really is talented. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him in the movies some day. Or some TV series about sensitive but fearless doctors or whatever. He’s already got an agent and goes on auditions and everything. He almost got a part in a Daisy Brand Sour Cream commercial, but was dropped at the last minute when the director decided to go in a different direction and use a five-year-old instead.

Which I could understand. I mean, it’s sour cream.

How intense do you want the guy to look about it? Even now, Eric was looking at me so intensely that Morgan, who was trying to talk to him, totally paused and looked around to see what he was staring at.

Quick as a flash, I turned my back on them and leaned down to ask Mrs Hogarth if there was anything she needed.

‘Oh no, Katie dear,’ she said, beaming at me. ‘Everything is just lovely. Larry, honey, you remember Katie Ellison, don’t you? Her mother and father own Ellison Properties, the real estate firm in town.’

Mrs Hogarth’s son, who was in Eastport with his wife (and some of his kids and some of their kids and a few of their kids) to take his mom and her best friends from her assisted living community out for her birthday, smiled. ‘Is that so?’

‘And Katie takes pictures for her school paper,’ Mrs Hogarth went on. ‘And for our community newsletter. She took that nice picture of the quilting club. Remember, Anne Marie?’

‘I thought I looked fat in it,’ said Mrs O’Callahan, who, by the way, is fat. Although I’d tried to Photoshop out some of the excess, knowing she’d complain later.

‘Well,’ I said super-chipperly. ‘Is everyone ready for dessert?’

‘Oh, I think so,’ Mrs Hogarth’s son said with a wink.

He’d stopped by earlier with a cake from Strong’s Bakery, which we’d stashed in the back and which I was supposed to bring out while singing ‘Happy Birthday’. The Hogarths had forgotten to get candles though, so I’d run over to the card shop and picked up two shaped like the numbers nine and seven. They were kids’ candles, with clowns on them, but I knew Mrs Hogarth wouldn’t mind.

‘Oh, nothing for me, thanks,’ Mrs Hogarth said. ‘I’m stuffed. That grouper was delicious!’

‘I’ll be right back to see if anyone wants coffee then,’ I said, and hurried around the corner to the soda station, still careful not to look back in Eric’s direction.

Ducking into the kitchen, I grabbed Mrs Hogarth’s cake, threw on the two candles and started out again – and almost crashed right into Eric Fluteley, who – looking at me intensely the whole time – took the cake from my hands, set it next to the coffee-maker, grabbed me by both shoulders and kissed me on the lips.

Would you stick your books on the back of a door?

I know that sounds like a mad question, but look!

Spotted in Marie Claire Maison by those amazing Apartment Therapy people, the books are held up by the "Sticklebook". The innovative design comprises an aluminium extrusion which acts as a bracket and polypropylene combed strip that grips the cover and pages of paperback books. The shelf is screwed onto the wall which itself helps support the weight of the book and is an integral part of the design. It is totally secure and fall-proof."

(Do you know, I can read that, but after "aluminium" all I hear is blah blah blah.)

So what do you think? Would you?

Related posts: A blog about bookshelves | Books squeezed in too tight? | Mooj bookcase

COMPETITION: The Automatic Detective

Brandi Bradley, of Norco, Louisiana wins a copy of Green Chic.

Today's book is something a little bit different: The Automatic Detective by A Lee Martinez, which is described as a "fast-paced mishmash of SF and hard-boiled detective story".

Today's comp is open to all and the usual details apply: email editor @ trashionista . com (remove spaces) with "The Automatic Detective" in the subject line. Don't forget to include your name and address and the competition closes at 12 noon GMT tomorrow.

BOOK COVER: Pack up your troubles

Remember that Sesame Street song - one of these things is not like the others? Well, now it's time to play my game (it's time to play my game). (Of course, if you don't remember the song, you'll just think I've lost my marbles...

I spotted the Marian Keyes covers while Googling around trying to find the US cover for This Charming Man (more about that another day...).

I like both of them and they reminded me of the Allison Winn Scotch cover, which I also loved. And then I saw the paperback cover of The Department of Lost & Found and, while I haven't read the book so I don't know which is more appropriate, I'm not loving it. Looks like a blatant attempt to grab some Jodi Picoult readers to me.

What do you think?

Related posts: The Other Side of the Story review | The Department of Lost & Found review

Bad Mother's Handbook casting news

ITV adapted Kate Long's Bad Mother's Handbook last year, but it's also being made into a pilot for a TV series by ABC in the US.

Alicia Silverstone has been cast as the mother (who has a sixteen-year-old daughter). She seems kind of young for the role to me; what do you think?

[Via TV Squad]

Related posts: Author interview: Kate Long | Top 10 chick lit film adaptations

COMPETITION: The French Gardener

The winner of Split by a Kiss was Karin Andersson of Gothenburg, Sweden.

Today's book is The French Gardener by Santa Montefiore (has there ever been a more glamorous name?). This one's UK only, I'm afraid, because it's a hardback.

To be in with a chance of winning, email editor @ trashionista . com (remove spaces) with "The French Gardener" in the subject line. Don't forget to include your name and address and the competition closes at 12 noon GMT tomorrow.

BOOK REVIEW: Small World by Matt Beaumont

Reviewed by Deborah Riccio

If, like me, you loved Matt Beaumont's last offerings - E and the wonderfully easy, laugh-out-loud funny Staying Alive - then be prepared to have to take a little more time over his latest contribution to the world of (dare I say it?) lad lit. It's a bit hard going and I don't mean in a metaphysical way.

The tagline on the cover reads "Some paths cross, others collide", and there's no doubt about it, the premise is a great one: all our paths cross somewhere and sometime one day either in a big way or without us even noticing.

But - and this is a Big BUT - I found it very difficult trying to keep track of names and situations when the 10 (yes, 10) main characters appear in the first chapter. In all there are 17 characters to get to grips with, plus three or four who don't have their own voice, but appear as significant others to the main ones.

There's a couple trying for a baby (only he's ambivalent and she doesn't know) and they're friends with another couple who have four kids (and they feel as uncomfortable having kids as the friends who can't but they don't know that either). And they're friends with another couple, one of which is besotted to the point of stalking, one half of the first couple mentioned.

Phew. But that's not all.

There's also au pairs who'd rather not, a policeman struggling with his temper, his wife and the local drunk, a waiter dreaming of stand-up comedy, a comedian who's losing the will, a mother frantic for her streetwise son who keeps getting nicked because of the way he looks and a shop assistant who loves the bones of him if only he had time to notice.

And as these are all written in the first person - present, the whole thing has more the feel of a script than a novel and I spent most of the first few chapters having to turn back and find out who was married to/sleeping with/working with/mother or father to and/or nanny of and where they'd got up to last.

That said, each storyline was particularly well crafted and the whole thing flowed seamlessly and rather cleverly. Sex, age, creed, social position, deviance, you name it, this book has got it. There's raw emotion, wishful thinking, regrets, desires, some good one-liners (not least from the stand-up wannabe) oh, and the odd murder. And as every good plan should, it all comes together in the end, one way or another.

It's a bit like peeking through someone's net curtains - from the outside - and getting a covetous insight into their personal world. In a good way of course.

Rating: 4/5

Like this? Try Two Doors Down by Annie McCartney

AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Heather and Rose

Twins! Who've written a book together! They're Heather and Rose MacDowell, their book is called Turning Tables and I'll be reviewing it soon!

Please describe your latest book in 15 words or fewer:

Heather and Rose:  Manhattanite loses marketing job, gets waitressing position at demanding, high-end restaurant. Disaster and love ensue!

Where do you like to write your books (in bed, a coffee shop, an office)?

Heather: At a laptop in my tiny home office and on the couch next to my cat.

Rose: In an alcove off my living room.

Your favourite chick-lit book?

Heather and Rose: Cooking for Mr. Latte by Amanda Hesser – witty, fun love story, great recipes!

Your favourite female heroine (if different from above!), and why?

Heather and Rose: The unnamed narrator in Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca. She’s someone every woman can relate to, thrown into wonderful and terrifying circumstances. You don’t just read about her, you feel like you’re actually experiencing her life at the mysterious Manderley.

What tips would you give to any of our readers who want to become writers?

Heather and Rose: Read a lot, choose a topic you know and care about, and write and revise until you can’t stand it anymore!

What are you reading at the moment?

Heather: The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls for my book club.

Rose: Remember Me? by Sophie Kinsella    

What are you working on now? (If you can give us a hint!)

Heather and Rose: A novel involving Rachel, the friend of our main character in Turning Tables. Rachel is hired by an extremely wealthy family to take care of their pampered dog while they’re away. She promptly loses him in the middle of Manhattan!   

Do you have a theme song?

Heather and Rose: Any song by Astrud Gilberto 

What question have you never been asked in an interview, but think you should have been? (Tell us the question and answer it too, if you like!)

Question: Have either one of you ever had sex in a restaurant during a dinner shift like your main character in Turning Tables?

Heather and Rose: No comment.

Thanks, Heather and Rose!

BOOK Cover: Comfort Food

Kate Jacobs - author of The Friday Night Knitting Club - has a new book coming out in May (June in the UK). Okay, so we already told you this, but the UK book cover has been released and I thought it was worth commenting on.

The US version is arresting, individual, and, dare-I-say-it, literary-looking (if a little dark). Carry on over the cut for the UK version.

Well. Yet another beheaded woman. Are UK publishers so frightened of women that they only dare show bits of them?

And she's carrying a bag. Because women love bags, of course. Sometimes the world makes me sigh very deeply.

Related posts: Rate my book cover | US versus UK covers | Does a book cover matter?

More Marian Keyes TV news

Did you catch the wonderful Ms Keyes on Paul O'Grady yesterday?

She's also going to be on Loose Women today, ITV1 at 12.30pm. And if that's not enough to tempt you, their other guest is Chris de Burgh. Woo.

MOVIE NEWS: The Oxford Murders

Ooh, I like the look of The Oxford Murders. It's out this week and is adapted from an award-winning novel of the same name by the Argentine mathematician and writer Guillermo Martínez.

It's a thriller, but with addded mathematics and philosophy. Set at Oxford University, Professor Arthur Seldom  (the wonderful John Hurt) and his student Martin (Elijah Wood), work together to solve a series of puzzling murders...

Related posts: Movie News archives

COMPETITION: Green Chic

Tara O'Boyle of Larne - a copy of It Must Be Love will be on its way to you, once I can hire a small truck to take me to the post office...

To celebrate Earth Day, today's book is Green Chic: Saving the Earth In Style by Christie Matheson. And this one's open to all!

To be in with a chance of winning, email editor @ trashionista . com (remove spaces) with "Green Chic" in the subject line. Don't forget to include your name and address and the competition closes at 12 noon GMT tomorrow.

BOOK REVIEW: Once Upon Stilettos by Shanna Swendson

I've wanted to read Shanna Swendson's Once Upon Stilettos for ages, but somehow hadn't got around to it. I finally managed to snuggle down with it over one of the recent rainy and miserable weekends and it brightened me up considerably!

The first book in the series, Enchanted Inc, sees innocent Texan, Katie, living in New York and learning that she is a magical immune - in other words she can see magical acts - but is unaffected by them, which sees her recruited by MSI, Magic, Spells and Illusions, Inc.

In Once Upon Stilettos, Katie's job (she's assistant to Merlin - yes, *that* Merlin) is going very well except it seems MSI may be harbouring a spy. She's got a crush on one of her colleagues, Owen, but she's actually dating another colleague, Ethan. She's put in charge of the Secret Santa as a team-building exercise. And then her parents decide to come to New York for a visit.

Katie's horrified when it seems her mother can see the magical happenings around them. Her mum can't also be an immune, can she? I say also, it seems that Katie's immunity might be on the wane, which couldn't happen at a worse time: how can Katie find the spy without revealing she's lost her immunity? And will she get it back? And, if not, will she be out of a job (and the chance to see Owen every day)?

I enjoyed this book every bit as much as the first in the series. They're so sweet-natured and such good fun. I certainly won't leave it so long before reading the next in the series, Damsel Under Stress.

Rating: 4/5

Like this? Try Jinx by Meg Cabot

BOOK NEWS: I'm With Stupid

Written by Elaine Szewczyk, editor of Kirkus Reviews, I'm With Stupid sounds like an exuberant read.

Kas meets William while on safari in Africa and thinks he is the perfect man. Back home, she wonders if she'll ever hear from her holiday fling again... But when an email finally arrives, it isn't quite what she expects. Misunderstandings ensue, which lead (bizarrely) to William travelling to New York and moving in with Kas. Don't you just hate it when that happens?

The blurb on Amazon goes on:
Readers are along for the outrageous ride as Kas copes with her new roommate's eccentricities, including a preoccupation with the Psychic Friends Network and a passion for collecting Big Apple-themed souvenirs, and the realization that her dream man is a comic nightmare.

It sounds a little self-consciously wacky, but she's hooked me with the title...

Related posts: Meg Cabot title changes | Melissa Nathan Award for comedy romance

HELEN'S HEROINES: Nell Dysart

Helen Redfern's weekly column on the fictional females she loves...

Nell Dysart. Wow. Where do I start? As research for this heroine I took pages and pages of notes and quotations which I thought were relevant to the character of Eleanor (Nell) Dysart, heroine of Jennifer Crusie’s Fast Women. There is so much to explore as she goes on an exciting journey to a new life, uncovering crimes in the process.

First published in 2001, Fast Women is my first and only (so far) Jennifer Crusie novel. I bought it, tempted by a great review by Sarah here on Trashionista a few weeks ago. I thoroughly enjoyed the novel for many reasons, but what captured me most of all was Nell. All the time I was reading it I was thinking, here is a great character for Helen’s Heroines.

In the first few pages she comes across as passive, depressed, letting her ex husband ride all over her. Even before she knew the real reason for his desire to divorce she ‘wanted to be mad’ with him. Instead she didn’t allow those feelings to surface as they wouldn’t be ‘productive’ making things ‘more difficult for everybody.’

In the same week she starts working at the detective agency she discovers the real reason behind their marriage break up and she releases these feelings in the form of a good smash up in her ex-husband’s office. She states that she doesn’t feel better after doing this, but it is a turning point in her life, allowing her to move forward. You get the sense for the first time she lets her real self come to the fore. She starts to shake up her life and the detective