Books

The Guardian‘s Ana Marie Cox may be keeping herself relatively low-key in Texas, but her ex-husband Chris Lehman let some details slip about how he’s coping after the divorce. Lehman, who recently left Yahoo! News and is a longtime editor at Bookforum and contributor to In These Times, gave an interview to the literary culture blog Full Stop this week about his book, Rich People Things. In the interview, he opens up slightly to Michael Schapira about his recent breakup. Schapira refers to the book as an “act of public therapy.”

Take a look…

You’re in a band called The Charm Offensive. Is this another side of your work as a social critic? “I was very much influenced by punk rock and politically-minded bands like the Minutemen. My lead guitarist used to be in Ian MacKaye’s first band, Teen Idol. I like Fugazi, but I’m not of the D.C. hardcore scene, by any means. My stuff is more poppy. It is the only coherent ambition I ever formed in my young adulthood that has stayed with me. Though becoming a rock star never panned out, I keep going at it. But I write a lot of break-up songs, so it’s not economic.”

Read the full interview here.

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Tonight Big Journalism’s Andrew Breitbart is in town to promote American values-themed digital books for children. He’ll host a “meet and greet” for authors Allen Covert and Dan Kessler of Cherry Tree Media, a Hollywood-based digital publishing company, at his abode on Capitol Hill. At the gathering, Covert and Kessler will launch “American Stories for America’s Kids.”

Cherry Tree promises to deliver “patriotic and morally instructive children’s entertainment.” They use family-friendly characters to tell stories oozing with values. Take Tex the T. Rex. He was born in a red, white and blue egg on the Fourth of July. That’s realistic enough — a green animal resembling a cross between a bunny and a dinosaur is hatched from a tri-colored egg. Rex travels the country with his dog, the originally-named Spot, to learn why the United States is so special. In Special Hops, Commander Jack Rabbit, Lieutenant Cashmere and Cadet Cottontail (a brave and loyal trio, especially Lt. Cashmere, our personal favorite) protect the farm and keep the animals living in freedom.

Covert says value-themed books are sorely needed. As an actor, writer, producer, and frequent collaborator in films with Adam Sandler, he stated, “Unfortunately, many talented people in Hollywood find their values and politics do not reflect the content they create, and many movie themes are in direct contrast with over half of today’s American families.  This is especially reflected in children’s entertainment where no brand currently promotes a strong patriotic, pro-family or American values message.”

Kessler agrees with Covert wholeheartedly…

Read more

Simon Doonan, the Creative Director at Barney’s New York, will appear at the W Hotel for a book party Wednesday night. This will be his only Washington appearance for his newly published Gay Men Don’t Get Fat.

Clearly he hasn’t met Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.).

The author covers his bases, including Ke$sha, Washington power players and decorating the White House for the holidays in 2009. Born in England, Doonan, a contributor to Slate, also wrote Beautiful People, which was adapted for TV in the UK. He lives in Manhattan with his husband, Jonathan Adler.

He will sign copies of his book between 7 – 9 p.m. The book will be on hand to purchase for $24.95. Hors d’oeuvres will be served alongside a cash bar. RSVP: whappenings@brandlinkdcrsvp.com.

(A Sprinkling of Things we Think you Ought to Know…)

Happy Birthday to FLOTUS – A Thursday afternoon email from Barack Obama is asking citizens to sign a virtual birthday card for his wife, Michelle. FLOTUS turns 48 years old on Tuesday. The email says, “This fall, Michelle and I will have been married 20 years. The next 10 months will be harder than any we’ve experienced together, and I couldn’t do it without her. I knwo she’d love to hear from you today.” Ok, fine, we signed the card..And then we were immediately directed to a donation page for the Obama re-election campaign. Really? Can’t I just re-gift the smoothie maker I got for Christmas?

Perhaps He Should Be on the Steer-ing Committee – Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) loves his beef. In a recent NYT profile, he admitted that when he travels to Washington, D.C. from his home state, he packs his luggage with “roasts, ribs, round steak and rib steak.” In Tester’s eyes, there’s no beef in D.C. quite like the beef he gets back home in Montana. Tester continues, “Taking meat with us is just something that we do,” Senator Tester, 55, said over a meal of beef stroganoff cooked by his wife, Sharla, in their Capitol Hill town house. “We like our own meat.” What’s the best way to eat meat of such high quality? According to the Tester’s, their favorite recipe is “smothered in canned cream-of-mushroom soup and a squirt of ketchup, cooked down in a slow cooker.”

Soledad Versus Jodi Kantor – Soledad O’Brien pulled no punches with NYT’s Jodi Kantor Friday morning on CNN. HuffPost reports that Kantor, out promoting her book, The Obamas, had to defend the portrait she painted of FLOTUS in the book. Michelle Obama has spoken out about how this isn’t the first time someone has tried to make her out to be the “angry black woman.” Check out the video of the two journos scrapping.

The NYT is taking cues from Politico when it comes to constant self-promotion. FishbowlDC was alerted to a live chat with Jodi Kantor through the Facebook page for the NYT. Kantor is promoting her new book, The Obamas, in which she gets behind-the-scenes tales within the Obama White House. Earlier, we reported on Kantor’s boastful tone regarding the book and the negative reception she’s facing from the Washington Press Corps.

Facebook fans of the NYT were not thrilled about being subjected to a live chat and let Kantor know it. One fan, Kevin Kretz, began the conversation by bluntly saying, “Would sure like the NYT FB posts to be about breaking or significant news instead of daily plugs for a book by a Times writer.” This was the first of many nastygrams. Another commenter, Miriam Rubinoff wondered, “Why do I imagine a lot of hate comments being blocked?” To their credit, the NYT responded directly to Rubinoff in the comment section.

“Following up on your question, here’s a reminder of our moderation policy on Facebook. We aim to create a space on Facebook.com/NYTimes where readers can exchange intelligent and informed commentary that enhances the quality of our news and information. We value thoughtful comments representing a range of views that make their point politely. A few things we won’t tolerate on our Facebook wall: personal attacks, obscenity, vulgarity, profanity (including expletives and letters followed by dashes) and commercial promotion. While most comments will remain posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderating decisions are subjective. We will make them as carefully and consistently as we can.”

So, they won’t tolerate ANY commercial promotion. You know.  Stuff like this:

“In a few minutes, New York Times political reporter Jodi Kantor will be chatting here live about her new book, The Obamas.”

Just to be clear: The NYT is OPPOSED to any and all commercial promotion…  Unless, of course, it’s their own products.

Disastrously obnoxious. Disgusting. Shameless.

These are the reactions being tossed about today amongst Washington’s Press Corps. with the release of NYT‘s Jodi Kantor‘s new book, The Obamas, that comes out next week. Reporters are having strong, negative reactions to remarks she made to Chicago Magazine about her relationship to the Obamas that also appeared in this morning’s Politico Playbook. With her boastful tone about interacting with the Obamas, could Kantor be stumbling upon that not so quaint hamlet known as Humblebrag? It’s a place where, not surprisingly, residents toot their own horn. It must be noted that as hard as Kantor tried to get a subsequent interview with the Obamas since her 2009 NYT magazine piece, she never landed it. She did, however, interview 33 White House staffers for the book.

“They know exactly who I am. We have an intense relationship. They really care about the Times, they read the Times. I’ve seen them at the [White House] Christmas party every year. After [Kantor's] big marriage piece was published in the New York Times Magazine, I brought my husband to the Christmas party. I walked up the Obamas, and I said, ‘Well, now you can check out who I’m married to,’ and they thought that was very funny; they pretended to inspect [him].”

 

Iowa isn’t known for its salads. It’s reputation when it comes to food is somewhere between “fried butter on a stick” and “beef sundaes” (which Michele Bachmann served at the Iowa State Fair last August).

During his speech last night Rick Santorum said, “This has been an incredible journey…99 counties, 381 town hall meeitngs, 36 pizza ranches, and you’ll notice I’m not buttoning my coat for a reason. Okay, I love Iowa, but the fair can be a little bit thickening.”

That goes for journos, too.

On Tuesday RedState‘s Erick Erickson tweeted from Iowa that he was eating a fried pork tenderloin sandwich per the recommendation of Politico‘s Jonathan Martin.

PBS NewsHour producer Mary Jo Brooks was also in the state. She tweeted a photo of a plate full of frosting-covered cookies.

Chris Moody, of Yahoo! News, told FBDC in an email that he feels all but forced to eat junky food. “They have a deal at the West Des Moines McDonalds where if you buy one McMuffin, you get the second one for the temperature it was at noon the day before. It was 22 degrees on Monday, so my second sandwich cost me only two dimes and a few pennies,” he informed us. “How can you resist?!”

Moody also said there’s a restaurant directly across from his hotel that offers free pie on Wednesdays. Another must-have. But possibly worse was Reuters‘ Sam Youngman, who tweeted Tuesday that he’s “eaten three whole cows and two pigs” since he’s been in Iowa.

Slate‘s Dave Weigel doesn’t seem like he’s doing too bad, though he said he takes “full and disgusting advantage” of his hotel’s “hot breakfast.” Otherwise, he says he’s eating a lot of fruit and Zone bars, save Monday when he had shrimp and sausage for dinner.

This isn’t good for reporters who made New Years resolutions to be less fat. But fortunately the editors of Health magazine are here to help with “The Carb Lovers Diet Cook Book.”

Get thin with the three Ps: pasta, pizza and potatoes.  The advertisement promises you can lose 12lbs in one month. And it’s only $29.95.

The best part, and no doubt a sign from above, is that the publisher, Oxmoor House, is based in — where else? — Des Moines, IA.

Note to readers: The beef sundae is pictured above.

Late last week NJ‘s Marc Ambinder, formerly with The Atlantic, announced his departure. In a cryptic note, he said simply that he was moving on, but provided no major details. Or minor ones for that matter, except for a phone and email where he could be reached.

We tracked him down late Friday by phone to learn more. Thankfully he was in a chatty mood. “I don’t have a job lined up,” the soft-spoken Ambinder told FBDC, explaining that he has an eBook coming out in January and is in the midst of a book proposal for another. He won’t reveal details, even the eBook title, saying he’s not permitted to say just yet.

Ambinder, a longtime Washington journalist, said he’s not leaving journalism. “It isn’t accurate to say I’m checking out,” he said. I don’t plan to grow long fingernails or disappear into the woods.” Well, that’s a relief. But seriously, how does he feel about leaving the intensity of daily journalism? “It’s never a bad thing,” he surmised. “It’s not always easy to step away from doing something you’ve done for 10 years, and something you seem to be somewhat good at.”

He turns philosophical. “Sometimes it’s good to just take a pause and figure out what other opportunities are available,” he said. “I know it sounds like the politician’s big excuse after some sex scandal, which would be interesting and might enhance my reputation. But I just want some time off to focus on some of these larger projects and now is the time to do that.”

What will leaving the daily blogosophere feel like? Though he isn’t necessarily worried about it, he knows mood swings might be in his immediate future. “I think I’m going to experience a bit of withdrawal,” he said. “Part of it will be the enormously reduced volume of emails I am not going to get. I am going to have to figure out how to deal with that reality.” Another reality is how left out he may feel during the upcoming presidential election coverage. “I’m sure on the night of the Iowa caucuses I’ll feel more than a twinge of ‘uh, should I really have done that?’ he said. “In the end it will turn out to have been the right thing to do.”

Ambinder said his employer has been enormously understanding. “They spent a lot of time trying to convince me not to leave,” he said. “They were persuasive at different points. It’s been tooling around in my head for a couple of months. I decided the best thing now is probably a clean break.” But he added, “I can’t rule out the possibility of winding up at the same company.”

For now, a road trip might be in order. Asked if he’s due for a vacation, he replied, “I will go, but I’m not sure where I’m going to go yet. I was initially thinking of driving across country but that’s not something to do in the winter.”

 

 

 

NYT Investigative Reporter Don Van Natta and author of Her Way: The Hopes and Ambitions of Hillary Clinton is none too pleased with FNC’s Chief White House Correspondent Ed Henry at the moment. (And it doesn’t look like they’re going to be best buds anytime soon.)

Earlier in the week, Henry created bad blood with the reporter by cracking on Van Natta’s 2007 book published by Hachette Digital, Inc. He wrote, “@edhenryTV You called my book ‘lame.’ Did you read it or just take Philippe’s word for it? And let’s cheer flacks’ great lines! Pathetic.” (Philippe Reines is the longtime flack of Sec. of State Clinton).

Henry had a classic non-apology apology for the reporter: “@DVNJr Sorry it was your book, but it was a good line. No reason for him to reward me — doubt he’s even on Twitter.”

Henry’s line that set off the sparks: “Christine O’Donnell endorsement of Mitt Romney reminds me of classic Philippe takedown of a lame Clinton book: ‘Can you quote me yawning?’”

Van Natta fired back, addressing the incestuous nature of reporting that Washington D.C. can sometimes be: “That ‘lame’ Clinton book was my book, sir.” And this: “Life as a DC hack: Cheer a flack’s ‘classic’ put-down of a fellow hack’s book because the flack can reward you. Right, @edhenryTV?”

Ouch.

John Harris, co-founder of Politico went on CNN’s Reliable Sources with Howard Kurtz this weekend to talk about the coming election season. Although it was a roundtable with Matt Lewis from The Daily Caller and Margaret Carlson from Bloomberg, Kurtz dismissed them and settled in for a one-on-one with Harris about (SHOCKER, please sit down for this one…) Politico’s new E-Book, The Right Fights Back. Guess they realized the constant barrage of book promotion to it’s readers on “Playbook” had reached it’s saturation point and they needed to waterboard a new audience.

Harris takes a moment to talk about “classic new media reporter,” Mike Allen during the interview. On his relationship with Allen, Harris went on a seriously mushy mission and says, “I’ve always had a degree of frustration that he knows so much. There’s so much information rattling around his head and in his notebook.” Wow, John… This Mike Allen sounds like a real dreamboat! Tell me more! Now this is awkward… Kurtz next asks if Harris is disappointed that the E-Book didn’t make more news and “generate more headlines.” Harris says that Allen “did a lot of publicity in the first week and we’re quite pleased with that.” So the strategy worked? Well, not exactly. Harris admits that when it’s all said and done, they “might make a little money on this.” So, there you have it. Even after constant promotion, direct emails to its readers and non-stop mentions, they’ll make “a little money.”  Is all that worth pissing off the people that read your work?

Harris is banking on the fact that we won’t mind drowning in future E-Books. In fact, he says they’re planning “3 or 4 more” before the election.

Check out “Reliable Sources” by clicking here.