This is one way to land a book deal, we suppose. After asserting in an acceptance speech that her mother was "was everything I didn't want to be, and to this day I wake up every morning grateful not to be her," Ruth Reichl has signed a contract with Penguin Press to write a "tome about the meaning of motherhood past and present and the lack of opportunities available to prior generations."

Penguin Press was apparently "inspired" by the speech — giving a whole new meaning to the publishing term "verbal pitch" — and plans to publish in time for Mother's Day 2009. For her part, Reichl says her intent wasn't to criticize her mother but to "express how women of her mother's generation weren't encouraged to have career goals."