Politiics & Prose is revealing an artsier side to Washington with a new in-house printed literary journal. The idea is to show that Washington isn’t all politicians, lobbyists and lawyers.

District Lines, according to a release, is edited by Susan Coll and contains essays, short fiction, poems, sketches and photography on quirky and serious subjects ranging from a sighting of Effi Barry on a Metro bus to an August night on the Q Street Bridge to hotcakes at the Florida Avenue Grill to an ode to the Dupont Circle metro escalator.

Contributors will read from it on June 15 at the book shop. The cost of the journal: $15. It goes on sale today.

Karin Tanabe, formerly a reporter at Politico CLICK, just had her first novel, The List, published in February and she’s already churning out another.

Publisher’s Marketplace, a forum for publishers and authors to promote their work, just posted a synopsis for the forthcoming book titled Lot 24. It reads:

… Tanabe’s Lot 24 [is] about a hot young antique furniture specialist at Christie’s in NYC who discovers a mysterious piece of Middle Eastern pottery that sends her career and her love life into a tailspin…

Tanabe told FishbowlDC that the release date for the book is currently summer 2014. Even though the book, unlike her first one, isn’t about politics and journalism, she said it isn’t “devoid” of either. “It’s hard to totally leave what you know,” she said.

Also unlike her debut novel, which was loosely based on her former colleagues at Politico, Lot 24 will be steamier. “There’s also lots more sex!” Tanabe said. Read more

On Thursday afternoon, guests packed into Politics & Prose Bookstore to hear Mika Brzezinksi discuss her unhealthy relationship with food and her book, Obsessed. In the mix were kids and dogs and babies. As anyone who watches MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” knows, Mika has a thing for babies. She loves them to pieces and pulls them onto her lap any chance she gets. It’s cute and all, but it’s not all that it seems.

Even before Mika spotted the baby at the bookstore, she heard its cries. Her eyes zipped right over to the bundle and up she popped to get the baby. Joe Scarborough sat there startled but amused as he watched his co-host interrupt her own book discussion to make a beeline for the baby.

Upon picking up the dumpling, it began to wail. “That went well,” Scarborough joked.

More seriously… Read more

The scene was standing room only inside Politics & Prose Bookstore Thursday afternoon as the swarm of patrons awaited MSNBC “Morning Joe” Co-hosts Mika Brzezinksi and Joe Scarborough. People stuffed themselves between the bookshelves. They were spread all over the store and in rows and rows of folding chairs, all filled. As uncomfortable as the setup was, no one budged. They were there to hear Mika discuss her new book, Obsessed, about diet and her lifetime struggle with food.

In recent days Mika has been going on TV and publicly revealing details about her weight. It’s awkward, as asking a woman her weight usually comes off with a big, fat thud. The way Mika responds to the question Joe asks is telling. As part of writing the book with one of her best friends, she agreed to gain weight while her friend had to lose 75 pounds. She has allegedly gained 20 pounds and gone up two dress sizes to a size 6, a fact that still makes her visibly uncomfortable. She knows she has to answer Joe’s question. But the answer is always vague. “I working on it, but I think 133 to 135,” she tells him at Politics & Prose, which quickly becomes a Ricki Lake-like talk show as female audience members approach the microphones and reveal their own tormenting issues with food.

A woman talks about how she eats pie, even frozen. Another admits she smoked and quit and wants to know how not to plow through a bag of potato chips. And still another, a woman who was once a Rockette and on Broadway, divulges that she, too, had eating disorders that included binging and purging.

It’s intense. But this is a safe place.

And the worship factor is sky high. This is a room jammed with people who are devoted to the show and wake up with them every morning. To these people Joe and Mika are like old friends.

Joe soon launches into shocking stories of Mika’s food issues. “If you were around Mika you’d think all she ate was leaves and nuts,” he said. But then there was the time at CBS “Face the Nation” host Bob Schieffer‘s symposium when they were traveling by car and Mika was in the back seat devouring tins of Mexican enchiladas suitable for a family of five. “I think there’s a raccoon,” Joe says, mimicking the noises Mika was making as she slopped up the meal. When he looks, “Mika has enchiladas on her face and was licking up the foil. We caught the raccoon.”

It was funnier than it sounds. The audience erupted into laughter as Joe made the difficult subject matter easier, complete with imitations of Mika’s parents. The point they made over and over — Mika had a wonderfully colorful, fortunate, loving upbringing, but it wasn’t easy. “Mika is very undisciplined!” Joe shrieked in a high-pitched Czech accent, mimicking Mika’s mother. And later, he told the story of Mika’s father, Zbigniew, coming on the show and insulting him, saying, “You are stunningly superficial.” Joe remarked, “Son of a bitch!”

The audience ate it up (pun intended) and burst into laughter. Read more

CNN Starting point calls it “The Fifty Shades of Grey of political novels,” which is definitely a stretch as it lacks any graphic sex scenes whatsoever unless you count sizing up the candidate’s package as graphic. Still, Domestic Affairs, by Bridget Siegel, a political consultant who has worked on local, state and national campaigns, is hard to put down as FishbowlDC quickly learned after finishing it in a few days.

In Siegel’s 2012 book, which releases in paperback on May 14, she mentions journalists by name including HuffPost‘s Sam Stein, WaPo‘s Chris Cillizza,  then-Politico‘s Ben Smith and “Tara” from Page Six — i.e. Tara Palmeri, formerly of the Washington Examiner and currently of the New York Post. Also mentioned: Brianna, possibly CNN’s Brianna Keilar.

Smith wasn’t aware of his presence in the book. “I was not!” he wrote. “But glad my immortality is assured.” When told that he was mentioned in a semi-racy novel, Stein asked, “Did my story on Ms. Greenley make the front page of Huffpost?”

Sadly, no. Smith was identified as the reporter who broke the fictitious news of the novel’s main character, Olivia Greenley, going to work as Georgia Gov. and Presidential hopeful Landon Taylor. Interestingly, Greenley has an affair with the very married candidate, as does the star in ABC’s “Scandal” — also named Olivia as in Olivia Pope. Politico also gets a shout-out: “Sure, her mom didn’t know what Politico was, but her colleagues did. Ben Smith was reporting on her. Sam Stein and Chris Cillizza, too.”

Later in the book… Read more

Set your alarm clocks. On May 7 beginning at 9 a.m., readers of first lady Michelle Obama‘s new book, American Grown: The Story of the White House Garden and Gardens Across America, may show up to Politics & Prose book store in upper northwest Washington to have their books signed. The event with the first lady begins at 11:15 a.m., but for security purposes, patrons must fill out security forms and can start doing so at 9 a.m. Please note, no other books or memorabilia may be brought to the signing. So no, Michelle will not be signing your torso.

From the store:

Please note this is a book signing only.

One copy of American Grown may be signed per customer. No other books or memorabilia may be brought to the signing. A limited number of wristbands for entry to this event will be reserved on a first-come, first-served basis with purchase of American Grown at this event location beginning at 9 a.m. on Thursday, May 2. Limit one wristband per customer. Customers must complete a security screening form in person. Customers may not provide security information for other participants. Please call the store, 202-364-1919, with any questions you may have.

If nothing else, Politico, along with its Executive Editor Jim VandeHei and Chief White House Correspondent Mike Allen, come off completely self-aware in the latest installment of their “Behind the Curtain” series. That is, VandeHei and Allen know they’re in no small way a part of D.C.’s often narcissistic, cynical culture.

In the piece, Allen refers to himself as one of Washington’s “top journalists” and he and VandeHei speculate that Allen is the focus of “at least a chapter” in NYT Chief National Correspondent Mark Leibovich‘s forthcoming book This Town.

“We won’t love the book, either,” Allen and VandeHei write. “It is clear that POLITICO and [Allen's] Playbook are portrayed as enablers of the culture Leibovich lampoons.”

Aside from Politico‘s “Behind the Curtain” the story being largely about… Read more

How did an 18-year-old college student in Maryland gain the trust of and get access to TV executives and anchors in New York? “By posting 10 or 15 posts a day meant that the industry knew it was a reliable consistent source,” says Brian Stelter, creator of this site and now a media reporter for the New York Times and author of the just released “Top of the Morning.”

As he neared graduation, Stelter had to make a choice: work in TV news, or cover it.

• Part I: Stelter on Being Matt Lauer’s “nemesis”

Brian Stelter, who launched TVNewser almost 10 years ago, is now a published author. “Top of the Morning,” out today, lays bare a tumultuous year for network morning news shows which saw one anchor pack her bags, another face a serious health issue, a ratings leader fall — and lose a quarter of its audience — and an entirely new show launch.

In his first interview for the book, Stelter tells us about the secrecy behind “Top of the Morning,” the access he got, and what he thinks about being called Matt Lauer‘s nemesis.

• Part II, tomorrow: What happens when Brian Stelter Tweets something he shouldn’t?

For more videos, check out our YouTube channel and follow us on Twitter: @mediabistroTV

Deep State: Inside the Government Secrecy Industry seems all but made for the Syfy channel. “The authors explain how the increased exposure of secrets affects everything from budgets to Area 51 (and what really goes on there) to Congress to Seal Team Six, Delta Force, the FBI, CIA, NSA, and organizations that remain official secrets,” reads the book’s jacket.

One of the authors sharing all these secrets is Marc Ambinder, a columnist for The Week who once took a photo of himself in the mirror while wearing a mask. Naturally we had questions.

FishbowlDC: It sounds like it’s sort of a government conspiracy book. Is that a fair assessment without having read it?

Ambinder: Gosh. I hope so. That would persuade a lot of the conspiracy folks to buy the book, and I’m all for upping the sales. Alex Jones! I’ll go on your show. Coast-to-Coast a.m? I’m there! Actually, the book looks at how secrecy often leads to conspiracy theories, and so we generally tend to take issue with the whole lot of them.

FBDC: Should people be scared that there’s a whole government world going on with all these sensitive secrets being passed around? Read more