I am enraged over an online column entitled "Who Needs Librarians, Get Some Trained Monkeys." This viciousness is from Uncle Frank's Diary #10, which you may read in its moronic entirety at http://www.newpages.com/unclefrank/Number10.htm

Luckily, I also have a forum for expressing opinion. I wrote the author of that piece, and I'm posting a copy of my rebuttal here:

Dear Mr. Burns,

As a Library Associate, AKA clerk, AKA trained monkey, I must take umbrage with your column, "Who Needs Librarians, Get Some Trained Monkeys - Uncle Frank's Diary #10." It is attitudes like yours that continually besmirch extremely knowledgeable and skillful paraprofessionals, simply because they haven't earned that magical piece of paper with "MLS" stamped on it. Having a degree does not ensure superior customer service, and conversely being non-degreed does not indicate inferior service.

I am the only person in my entire library system, with or without an MLS, to write reviews for the Library Journal. My branch had no Reader's Advisory service until I asked for, and established it. That process included creating a training manual, generating genre lists, and training other "monkeys" and volunteers to work with the patrons. The reference librarians, a lovely group of MLS-clad professionals, were using outdated, outmoded genre lists until I supplied them with mine. They are understaffed and overworked, and consequently are appreciative of the assistance that clerks provide.

Furthermore, when a patron comes into my library with one or two words of a title, no author, a vague memory of plot or perhaps the color of the cover, I am the one who supplies that title. That recall doesn't come with any degree, but rather with being well read and caring enough to pursue it, which as I'm sure you are aware, is merely a personal choice, not an educational or job requirement.

As for collection development, part of my job is to research and recommend titles for leasing for my branch. I also contribute titles to the selection committee on an ongoing basis for the permanent collection, mainly because new authors are often overlooked without this bit of prodding. Cataloguing? I have found errors in our catalogue with regards to translated authors and children's books classified as adult and vice versa. Would I be doing a better job with a degree? Maybe. But I'm certainly not incapable of doing it without it, and that is the point that you don't seem to understand.

Perhaps you are simply unaware that there is a shortage of degreed librarians. My library system has recently created a new position called "Librarian Trainee" because they have had problems filling vacant librarian positions. They are being a little more conservative than the Orange County Library you cited in your piece in that clerks are only able to apply for this new position if they are currently enrolled in an MLS program and have completed at least six classes, and they do not even offer the position until they have exhausted a search for a degreed librarian. Many libraries are migrating towards unconventional methods of filling librarian positions not only to save money, but also because they have needs that cannot be met through conventional means.

Your ignorance about the capabilities of clerks is baseless yet all encompassing. What you obviously perceive as intellectual elitism is actually just a prejudicial smear against those who haven't had a formal education through the graduate level. The virulence you spew not only hurts paraprofessionals, but also contributes to the negative stereotyping of professional librarians as being conservative, resistant to change, superior and smug.

Do you even see the delicious irony here? The patrons that use the library, the very ones you feel are too ignorant to know they are receiving this inept service, lump all of us together. To the overwhelming majority of the public, everyone who works in a library is a librarian.

I have no tolerance for prejudice or bigotry of any type. Personally, I feel sickened to be included in any group of which you are a member.

"PERFORMANCE ANXIETY
BY JOY PRESS
Literary Stars Fight the Second–Novel Syndrome

Everyone nurses a soft spot for the wunderkind—the Jonathan Safran Foer, Alicia Keys, or Harmony Korine who swoops fully formed out of oblivion and into Entertainment Weekly. The publishing industry has become as besotted with these instant prodigies as the music or fashion worlds. Where publishers once allowed a writer's voice to develop over long, wiry careers, now they're impatient for that instant payoff, the debut blockbuster.

All this mad love for the first novel could have long-term repercussions, though, dumping unrealistic expectations on the follow-up. The Second-Novel Syndrome has long been an occupational hazard in the world of letters, as authors struggle with writer's block, intense scrutiny, and the self-consciousness induced by sudden celebrity. Take Ralph Ellison, who spent more than 40 years after Invisible Man laboring over his unfinished novel Juneteenth (which Ellison's executor finally "completed" and published a few years ago). Or Harper Lee, whose output ended abruptly after she wrote To Kill a Mockingbird, and who eventually became the literary equivalent of a hermit (she hasn't given an interview since 1964)... "

~~From the Village Voice Literary Supplement, Fall 2002

To read the complete article:
http://www.villagevoice.com/vls/178/press.shtml

Thanks to Morvarn for this link.

HOW TO BE A BOCA MOM
by Anonymous

There are many different kinds of moms in the world. Some are warm and nurturing, some strict and disciplined. Then there is the Boca mom.

It takes work and energy to become a member of this fabled group. Training begins long before marriage. It is advantageous to be born the daughter of a Boca mom, lessons learned by example make a strong impression. For those not so blessed, the task requires determination.

The right look is imperative. Hair should be lightened, or at least highlighted. The hours spent in a beauticians chair are good training for later play group gab fests. Weekly manicures and pedicures are mandatory. Nail enamel choices include a French for the extroverted and bright red for the smouldering, moody types. Should your genes have denied you long, strong fingernails, the miracle of acrylics can make up for the deficiency.

Breast argumentation is another popular procedure for increasing one's desirability. A wardrobe of tight tee shirts and sequined tube tops are required follow up to the operation. The metamorphosis can be completed with designer bags and shoes and the obligatory cell phone. A diamond encrusted model that plays the latest Broadway tunes is guaranteed to move you to the top of the trend setter list.

Dressed to kill and made up within an inch of perfection, our Boca woman is ready to become a Boca mom. All she needs now is a man. And since it is as easy to fall in love with a rich man as a poor one, the choice is clear. The astute Boca babe will check out a mans financial statement before agreeing to the first date. This is not as callous as it may sound. The Boca man seeking the
perfect woman has already decided trophies are of greater value than intellectual discussions. Matches of this sort satisfy the wants of both parties, even if they fail to meet their emotional needs.

With a huge diamond and a band of gold securely on the left hand, the final phase begins. Working around her salon appointments and her husbands business schedule, she manages to conceive. This is when all her training is called into play.

As soon as the delivery date is known, she must set an appointment for her epidural, followed by the post birth massage and hairdressing. With that settled, she can begin to think about her child to be.

With a scant nine months before the arrival, she must organize well to accomplish all the needed tasks. First its off to the mall to register for all the high ticket baby items at the best stores. Then to the auto dealership to trade in that cramped Mercedes for a huge SUV. And in her spare time she has to interview potential nannies (no Scandinavians..they might want to sunbathe nude!), cooks, housekeepers and social secretaries. Its enough to make a woman hire a temp!

When the blessed event finally occurs and the video of the birth has been sent to everyone they know, the Boca mom can finally begin to enjoy all she has worked so hard to attain. There are story times available at bookstores and libraries. It is important to attend as many as possible so you can keep up on all the gossip. Proper attire requires you bring your cell phone to story time so everyone can gauge your importance by the number of calls you have to answer. Although the hosts believe this time is for the children, every Boca mom knows it is the perfect time to share adult conversation and compare the latest fashions. If the children miss a word or two of the
story, they can stay for the next one and hear it again. Besides, its good training for those little girls who want to grow up just like mommy!

A Book Club for the Ages
Virginia Women Have Read Along Together for Six Decades

Sept. 28, 2002 -- In 1941, a group of women in Northern Virginia formed a book club. Their husbands were just starting their careers and nearly all the wives were in their 20s. They would meet in the afternoons, bringing their babies along. During World War II, many took jobs, so meetings were switched to evenings.

Years passed. Then decades. Today, 61 years on, the group -- which they simply call "Book Club" -- is down to six members, age 86 through 92. They still meet regularly. Two of them still drive, one is a Senior Olympics champion, and one is an avid canoeist. They all know each other intimately.

As the members tell Howard Berkes for All Things Considered, every few meetings, they have a "book selection." Each member brings three titles she'd be willing to buy. The group votes on which one the member should buy, and at the next meeting, the books are passed on. If the group likes a suggested title that doesn't make the rotation, the woman who suggested it is asked to read it and present a "book report" to the group.

They meet every three weeks, with some longer breaks in the summer. Their favorite authors over the years have been Wallace Stegner, Barbara Kingsolver and Jill Kerr Conway.

In the early days they avoided the bestseller list, sticking to the weightier stuff of classic literature and non-fiction.

That's changed. The women don't pooh-pooh the bestseller list anymore, but they certainly don't follow it slavishly. Their reading remains as varied as ever, from academic tomes to light novels. They haven't kept count, but they have read an estimated 1,000 books each -- just for the group. That doesn't include books they've read on their own.

How much longer will they go? "The book club would never consider disbanding," says member Mary Lathram. "I think that's a terrible word for Book Club. I feel that when we get too frail, maybe we'll just… fade away."

The group's current reading list is:

John Adams by David McCullough
The Bonesetter's Daughter by Amy Tan
Girl With a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier
Travels with Myself and Another by Martha Gellhorn
Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres
The Last Time We Met by Anita Shreve

From NPR.
For an audio report: http://www.npr.org/programs/atc/features/2002/sept/bookclub/index.html

The Bookmobile Reinvented
Va. Start-Up Booksfree.com Delivers Dime Novels, Adjusted for Inflation

By a Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 2, 2002; Page E05

Roxanne Volkmann, who describes herself as addicted to mysteries, reads an average of six books a month. At $5.95 per paperback, the cost of that addiction can add up.

But Volkmann has found a particularly frugal way of feeding her habit: She orders books online from Booksfree.com, receives them by mail, and drops them in an envelope and sends them back when she's done. All in all, her membership costs $9 a month.

"I love it, I love it, I love it," said Volkmann, a Chicago resident, who has helped four other "freak book junkie" friends sign up.

Booksfree.com has 4,000 members, 93 percent of them women, who pay $6.99 to $14.99 a month to rent from the start-up's online library, which is stocked with 34,000 paperback titles. Its most popular titles are mysteries, romances and action novels.

Booksfree, which makes its home in a 3,000-square-foot Vienna warehouse next to a pizza-delivery joint and several industrial outfits, is run by unlikely entrepreneurs in a hostile economy. Its founders, W. Douglas Ross and Andrew E. Bilinski, at 60 and 54, respectively, are a generation older than the twentysomethings who rode the Internet boom to its peak three years ago. Booksfree, which came late to the online commerce scene, is one of the few remaining survivors.

"Our timing wasn't exactly good," concedes Ross, president and chief executive of Booksfree, who spent 23 years owning and operating a computer systems integration business just two doors away. Bilinski previously worked for EDS Corp., the Air Force and BDM International Inc.

"Doug had the idea for an entertainment services company, and at first I said, 'Nah, we are too old for the Internet,' " said Bilinski, who describes himself as a "full-time volunteer" who hasn't taken a salary since Booksfree started.

The company started in September 2001 with $1 million in capital raised from friends and former business associates. Since then, it has raised just short of $1 million more and has operated with four full-time employees, plus six or eight part-timers who take inventory and package the books.

Membership has grown steadily, from word of mouth and online advertising. One recent afternoon, part-time worker Carlos Luna, who is working toward a PhD in computer science at George Mason University, pushed a tray cart around the warehouse, filling orders placed online by customers from Maine to Texas.

The business model is similar to that of Netflix Inc., which rents DVDs by mail and raised $82.5 million when it went public this spring. Booksfree customers can take out as many as six books at a time, depending on their membership level. The company trades mostly in mainstream books that it orders from distributors Ingram Book Group and Baker & Taylor Inc., but it also boasts a limited number of out-of-print books by romance novelist Nora Roberts, for example, that Ross or Bilinski brought back from book shows. Its most popular book, with several hundred copies circulating, is Carly Phillips's "The Bachelor."

Bilinski and Ross say their biggest competitors are other online book sites, which sell rather than rent books, and local libraries, which don't deliver. Consumer retail books are a $13 billion business, according to the American Booksellers Association, so there's plenty of room for growth.

The company is not yet making a profit, although it only needs to sign up 3,000 more subscribers to break even, Bilinski said, and its goal is to reach 100,000 subscribers. With enough money to last through next year, the company's modest goal is "to grow and be profitable as soon as we can," Ross said.

In the meantime, Booksfree operates without delusions of grandeur. Everyone doubles as a book bagger, especially on days when 300 orders have to ship. Maryanne Fadul, Booksfree's comptroller, doubles as the company's customer service department. Ross is often recruited to take the afternoon shipment to the post office before it closes at 6 p.m.

From Publishers Weekly Daily Online
09.25.02

Kiriyama Prize Finalists: Fostering Pacific Rim Understanding

Finalists for the 2001 Kiriyama Prize, which honors titles that
"encourage greater understanding among the peoples and nations of the
Pacific Rim," have been announced. The two winners, who will be
revealed October 29, will receive $15,000 each.

The fiction finalists (with the prize committee's notations):

Red Poppies by Alai, translated by Howard Goldblatt and Sylvia Li-chun
Lin (Houghton Mifflin). This witty first novel by an ethnic Tibetan
living in Sichuan, China, is a complex political parable. Like the
"idiot" son who is the novel's narrator and unlikely hero, Alai's
story echoes a legendary Tibetan wise man who "preferred wisdom masked
by stupidity."

Melal: A Novel of the Pacific by Robert Barclay (The University of
Hawai'i Press). This debut novel by a doctoral student is a gripping
story and powerful social commentary. Set in a marginalized indigenous
community in the Marshall Islands, which the U.S. military used as a
nuclear testing ground, Barclay traces the horrific and tragic results
suffered by native islanders. The author is a former resident of
Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands.

Family Matters by Rohinton Mistry (Knopf). In this beautifully paced
and elegantly crafted novel, the acclaimed Indian-Canadian author
tells a story of familial love and obligation, political and personal
corruption, and religious complexity. In focusing on a Parsi family
living in Bombay, Mistry illustrates the universal in the particular.
Mistry was born in Bombay and immigrated to Canada in 1975.

The Girl From the Coast by Pramoedya Ananta Toer, translated by Willem
Samuels (Hyperion East). Widely considered Indonesia's greatest living
novelist, Ananta Toer's words were so feared by the Indonesian
government that he was held as a political prisoner for over 17 years.
This translation marks the first time The Girl From the Coast--the
story of a poor village girl who is forced into a loveless marriage
with a wealthy politician in late 19th century Java--has been
available in English.

Dirt Music by Tim Winton (Scribner). A lucid portrayal of three very
different characters as they journey to the Australian wilderness to
escape and atone for their pasts. In his seventh novel, Winton, one of
Australia's preeminent writers, has created a vivid and powerful
evocation of climate and landscape, along with a garrulous chorus of
supporting characters.

Shortlist Announced
24 September 2002

Yann Martel, Rohinton Mistry, Carol Shields, William Trevor, Sarah Waters and Tim Winton are the six authors shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2002, the UK's best known literary award. The shortlist was announced by chair of judges, Professor Lisa Jardine, at a press conference in London today (24 September, 2002).

The six shortlisted books for the Man Booker Prize 2002 are:

Yann Martel - Life of Pi (Canongate)

Rohinton Mistry - Family Matters (Faber and Faber )

Carol Shields - Unless (4th Estate)

William Trevor - The Story of Lucy Gault (Viking)

Sarah Waters - Fingersmith (Virago)

Tim Winton - Dirt Music (Picador)

Bold Type proudly presents the 2002 O. Henry Awards, judged this year by Joyce Carol Oates, Dave Eggers and Colson Whitehead. Read Kevin Brockmeier's First Prize story "The Ceiling" along with "March 15, 1997", an exclusive story that previews Brockmeier's
first novel, as well as "Charity" by Richard Ford. Listen to Anthony Doerr, Deborah Eisenberg and David Gates read from their superb stories with grace and humor. Also included in this feature is a full list of winners since 1919 and an index of literary magazines that publish original fiction.
http://www.boldtype.com/ohenry/0902/

Adam Haslett
A stranger no more
Adam Haslett balances law school with explosive literary success
David Wiegand, Chronicle Staff Writer
Saturday, September 21, 2002
©2002 San Francisco Chronicle.

URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2002/09/21/DD222445.DTL&type=books



There probably aren't too many Elis running around New Haven these days who think of Yale Law School as a kind of career halfway house, but that's what Adam Haslett is doing in his final year of classes there. For three days of the week, he's focusing on criminal and appellate law at Yale. The rest of his time is spent back in his New York apartment, working on his first novel and, in essence, preparing for next year, when he will devote full time to an out-of-nowhere literary career that's made him one of the most talked about young writers of the year.

Tall and lanky, with a retreating hairline over a wide forehead, brown eyes and a sharply angular nose, Haslett, 31, is still a bit stunned at the reception his debut book of stories, "You Are Not a Stranger Here" (Nan A. Talese/Doubleday), has received since its publication this summer. Not only has the book drawn critical raves, it was also recently chosen by author Jonathan Franzen ("The Corrections") as the second selection in the NBC "Today" show's fledgling on-air book club. So far, there are 100,000 copies in print, a fairly amazing number for a first book of stories by a virtual unknown.

The nine stories in the book represent an unusual breadth of human experience, much of it at least initially disturbing: A man travels to England with his wife with the idea of committing suicide and meets an old woman who

is tending to a dying youth in a room that reeks of the ointment she spreads on the boy's ravaged body to ease his pain; a psychiatrist believes that he can help a woman whose now-dead son severed the fingers of one of her hands during a crystal meth binge; a teenage boy invites repeated physical and sexual brutalization by a school bully in order to unleash his repressed grief over his mother's suicide.

While some might simplistically call the stories sad or depressing, Haslett isn't defensive when he disagrees.

"I don't find them sad at all because for me the saddest thing is compulsory happiness, the notion that a happy ending is something we have to have," he says, sitting in the window seat of a Noe Valley Starbucks earlier this week. "I don't think stories have to have happy endings in order to be stories that contain a kind of redemptive quality."

While Haslett's stories may not fit the Aristotelian definition of comedy, their characters all undergo some kind of transformation, usually through contact with others who, often unwittingly, enable a kind of benedictive catharsis. The teenage boy is finally able to grieve; the suicidal man, whose wife is constantly afraid of leaving him alone for fear of what he'll do, finds solace in the company of the dying boy whose time is also growing short; the shrink reaches a new understanding of his own pain once he accepts the lonely mother's resolve to live with the loss of her son because it is now and forever a part of who she is.

"Depression is really like a total lack of emotion in a way, and I feel that if anything it's the opposite of depression or numbness that is the definition of true sadness," he says. "These people are flooded with feeling."

Haslett, the youngest of three children, was born in Kingston, Mass., to a businessman and a schoolteacher. His brother is a music journalist living in Cambridge, Mass., and his sister, with whom he stayed during his Bay Area book tour, is a documentary filmmaker at Stanford. During the equivalent of his junior high years, Haslett and his family lived in England, where his father was born.

"I was just a kid, then," he says. "At first I didn't want to go, and once I got there, I didn't want to leave. I did the whole British prep school thing,

with the shorts and the tie."

He still returns to the Scottish Highlands, where his stepfather lives, and several of his stories are convincingly set in England.

Haslett began writing fiction as an undergraduate at Swarthmore College, where he happened to take one seminar with Franzen. After college, he found himself trying to choose between writing and what he calls "a reliable life" in a solid profession, such as law. He was able to defer Yale while he studied at the Iowa Writers and the Provincetown Fine Arts Workshops. Today, he says, "it's still an open question" as to whether he'll ever practice law, now that he's making a name for himself as a writer.

Following its English sojourn, Haslett's family returned to upscale Wellesley, Mass., where his widowed mother still lives.

And now her handsome, single, gay son is the literary toast of the town and finishing his law studies at Yale. On the surface, Haslett's is an enviable life. One might even go so far as saying his has been a life of privilege and opportunity.

But a suggestion of something else begins, haltingly, to emerge when he is asked about his late father, who suffered from manic depression.

"It definitely impacted the family. It was a formative experience," he says,

adding that "there were times when he got to a point where he couldn't work."

He struggles for the right words for a second, admitting that he's never really talked much about his father's illness before.

"He was in psychiatric care. He wasn't necessarily always wanting to be in the care."

Although mental illness figures in some of Haslett's work, "there's nothing really literal [from his past] in the stories."

"I feel more liberated as a writer when I find things that are 45 degrees off to the side [of his own life], so that some of my experiences flow into them and shape them.

"I feel lucky to be able to write. It's the only thing I've ever done that sort of integrates the past with what happens in the present, and what could happen in the future. There aren't many activities in life that can do all of those things, and writing is one of them. So when it goes well it feels like a privilege."

If so, it's a privilege Adam Haslett has clearly earned.

E-mail David Wiegand at dwiegand@sfchronicle.com.

©2002 San Francisco Chronicl

Most Americans Think They Have a Book in Them
Monday September 23, 5:20 am ET


TRAVERSE CITY, Mich., Sept. 23 /PRNewswire/ -- Eighty-one percent of Americans feel they should write a book, according to a survey of 1,006 adult Americans commissioned by Jenkins Group, Inc., a Michigan publishing services firm, which sponsors the annual Independent Publisher Book Awards and issues the monthly online magazine Independent Publisher.
"Of course, most people will never get around to committing their thoughts to paper -- let alone get them published -- but it's astonishing how many people feel they have a story to tell," said Jenkins Group Chairman and CEO Jerrold Jenkins.

Jenkins estimates that 6 million Americans have actually written a manuscript -- just over 2% of the population -- while, based on ISBN numbers assigned, approximately 80,000 books get published each year. Jenkins added that the number of books annually making it into print is growing, thanks to a boom in independent and self-publishing.

Jenkins noted that while some respondents feel they could write more than one type of book, only about a quarter of Americans (27%) say they would write a work of fiction. "The bulk of prospective authors see themselves writing some form of non-fiction, be it a biography, self-help, do-it-yourself or cookbook."

Which of the Following Types of Books Do You Think You Have In You? (Some
respondents chose more than one option)
* Self-help/do-it-yourself -- 28%
* General non-fiction (history, biography, etc.) -- 27%
* Fiction -- 27%
* Some other type (cookbook, picture book, etc.) -- 20%


The proliferation of personal web sites and Blogs as well as the ease of writing and editing with word processing have caused more people to regard themselves as potential authors, believes Jenkins. "We're in an information-oriented society and technology today allows people to share their ideas easily and quickly with a wider audience than anyone could have imagined a decade ago.

"Still it's a big leap, going from personal musings on the Web or stories composed on a computer, to writing a book that merits publication," cautioned Jenkins. "Even among the growing number of self-publishers today, we see a level of quality and professionalism that sets them apart from the average American. Talent, originality, effort and determination tend to separate those who contemplate writing a book from those who actually do it."

The EXCEL Telephone Omnibus Survey of 1,006 adult Americans has a margin of error of +/-3.1%. It was conducted for Jenkins Group, Inc. by International Communications Research, Media, PA.

Jenkins Group, Inc. was founded in 1988 as a provider of services to independent, university and small press book publishers. Based in Traverse City, Mich., the company serves individual and corporate clients internationally with a full range of custom book publishing and packaging services, consulting services and marketing services to the specialty, non-traditional book market. For more information go to http://www.bookpublishing.com .

Women rage on the page about sex, work, marriage

By Deirdre Donahue, USA TODAY

As those push-up bras melted in the flames of feminist fury of the '70s, it is probable that the movement's leaders did not expect women in 2002 to be publishing books such as The Bitch in the House: 26 Women Tell the Truth About Sex, Solitude, Work, Motherhood, and Marriage, edited by Cathi Hanauer (Morrow, $23.95).

Before any feminists stab themselves in the heart with a stiffened underwire, Hanauer, 39, makes it clear that this is not a variation on The Surrendered Wife or a man-trapping manual like The Rules. Rather, the writer, editor and mother of two in Northampton, Mass., wanted to explore the reality of modern women, some of whom are trying to juggle kids, careers, housework and husbands. Others are trying to find love amid society's conflicting messages about money, sex and matrimony.

The Bitch in the House is one of a number of upcoming books that tap into contemporary women's exhaustion and exasperation. There is one connecting element: the kind of rage and guilt that turns a woman into, well, a bitch. "All my friends will admit, 'I feel like such a bitch,' " Hanauer says.

The title is a variation on Virginia Woolf's famous phrase, "the Angel in the House." Hanauer describes her own self-sacrificing mother as an "angel." The wife of a doctor, she raised four children and headed the PTA. But her daughter "needed something more."

Hanauer assembled 26 writers, ages 24 to 66. Among them:

Chitra Divakaruni, the award-winning author of the novel The Mistress of Spices. Living in San Francisco, she receives visits from hordes of relatives from India who expect the guilt-stricken writer to turn into the all-giving hostess, despite having a career and no servants. Guilt rules.
Hope Edelman, author of the non-fiction best seller Motherless Daughters. Edelman writes about the near-collapse of her marriage after her husband decides to start his own company and shared parenting goes out the window. Fury enters.
Veronica Chambers, author of the memoir Mama's Girl. Chambers describes how a struggling artist ex-boyfriend encroached on her life, her apartment and, most of all, her wallet. Yet because he was so different from her violent father, she put up with it — including paying for their vacations and food. Resentment boils.
Ellen Gilchrist, Pulitzer Prize winner Natalie Angier and novelist Kate Christensen also contribute stories. Elissa Schappell describes how she screams at her children when they misbehave.

This is not the first time a book has used the word in the title: Elizabeth Wurtzel, for example, released a book called Bitch in 1998. Hanauer recognizes that certain booksellers and others will be disturbed by it. She compares the title to Randall Kennedy's best seller, Nigger. Women can use the word "bitch," but hearing men use it is different. But the rage so many women suppress should be explored.

"It needed to be said," Hanauer says. "It makes women feel less angry to know other women feel the same."

09.15.02

Nanny Diarists, Maids No More, Dismiss Agents
by Rebecca Traister


When the novel The Nanny Diaries became a surprise hit last spring, its authors, former nannies Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus, were catapulted from haute servitude on the Upper East Side to the best-seller lists, the talk-show circuit and a Miramax movie deal. But has their triumph only opened up the doors of discontent for the pair?" The authors are now on their thirdliterary agent, andsources familiar with their business dealings saidMs.Kraus and Ms. McLaughlin are unhappy about the details of the movie deal they signed before their book hit it big.

Last week,Ms. McLaughlin, 28, and Ms. Kraus, 27, informed their literary agent, Molly Friedrich of the Aaron M. Priest Literary Agency, that they would be signing with William Morris agent Suzanne Gluck. The move comes less than two years after the pair, who have sold 800,000 copies of their book, fired their first agent, Christy Fletcher of Carlisle & Company, for Ms. Friedrich.

It was Ms. Fletcher who originally sold The Nanny Diaries to St. Martin’s Press in the summer of 2000, after suggesting to Ms. Kraus and Ms. McLaughlin, who had met as N.Y.U. students, that their idea for a joint memoir of their days as nannies to prominent New York families would be better—and legally safer—as a novel. Ms. Fletcher shopped a partial manuscript to publishers. She was turned away by many who deemed the novel too New York–y, until Jennifer Weis at St. Martin’s bought the book for an advance of $25,000. Ms. Fletcher later sold British rights for around $125,000, audio rights for $25,000 (with Julia Roberts doing the reading), and film rights—which Miramax bought in May 2001—for $500,000, plus best-seller bonuses that will ultimately total over $1 million.

During the process of completing the manuscript for St. Martin’s, Ms. Kraus and Ms. McLaughlin became dissatisfied with the way the book was being handled. One publishing-industry source said that the women heard negative things on the New York party circuit about St. Martin’s, a respectable press—and one often willing to take a chance on unconventional first books by unknown authors—but a publisher that lacks the cachet of a Knopf or Penguin Putnam. Another source said that, anxious to meet their initial publication date, the authors became frustrated with Jennifer Weis’ slow editorial pace. Ms. McLaughlin, reached by phone, said that she couldn’t comment on the situation, and Ms. Kraus could not be reached for this story.

"These are very ambitious girls, and they were worried about the house and their editor. They were afraid that the book was going to get lost, and they just panicked," said one source familiar with the situation. Ms. Weis, who did not return phone calls for comment, took a maternity leave during the publishing process. Ms. Fletcher got married and took several weeks off for her honeymoon. When she returned in April 2001, she received a letter informing her of Ms. Kraus and Ms. McLaughlin’s intention to make Molly Friedrich their new agent.

Even after she lost Ms. McLaughlin and Ms. Kraus as clients, however, Ms. Fletcher retained her rights to 15 percent of all future grosses of The Nanny Diaries, as well as her stake in the film, audio and foreign editions of the book. Ms. Freidrich’s position is not quite as fortunate: The authors’ second agent—who helped them navigate the final stages of publication, including book design and final edits—may be left high and dry by the departure of Ms. Kraus and Ms. McLaughlin. One source close to Ms. Friedrich confirmed that since Ms. Friedrich didn’t sell The Nanny Diaries or the pair’s (still unsold) second book—and since she prefers handshake deals to binding contracts—she probably won’t receive any future sale or royalties money from either book.

Ms. Friedrich, who represents authors like Frank McCourt, Sue Grafton and Terry McMillan, wouldn’t comment, but through an associate, Lucy Childs, issued this statement: "Refer to the acknowledgements at the back of Nanny Diaries and we have no further comment." The acknowledgments open by thanking "Molly Friedrich and Lucy Childs … for their unflagging support—should Nanny ever have to go head-to-head with Mrs. X, these are the women we’d want behind her!"

Reached by phone, Ms. Fletcher seemed to have no hard feelings about her former clients. "Suzanne Gluck is the perfect agent for Emma and Nicky," she said. "Given their interests in the entertainment industry, it makes perfect sense for them to be at William Morris."

Ms. Friedrich put a great deal of time into developing the pair’s second book, which is about a girl named "Girl" who begins a job at a dot-com. Any deals for that book will now be cut by Ms. Gluck.

Ms. Gluck refused to comment for this story.

Ms. Kraus and Ms. McLaughlin’s disillusionment with the film contract they signed appears to be substantial. Sources involved in the negotiations said that Ms. Kraus and Ms. McLaughlin were distressed to learn that in signing initial binding short-form agreements with Miramax, they had signed away rights to their characters, not just to the novel. They were also upset that Miramax would have the right to turn the story into a television property. But The Nanny Diaries had already hit the best-seller list, and Miramax was sitting on a potential gold mine.

Asked whether Ms. Kraus and Ms. McLaughlin suffered from a nagging sense that they could’ve gotten a better film deal, a source familiar with the deal said that a loss of creative cinematic control, not money, was the root of the authors’ concerns.

According to sources involved in the film’s development, the authors also requested that they be let out of the standard confidentiality clause that would prevent them from talking about their experiences with Miramax. Sources said that the authors were hoping to turn the story into a Spalding Gray–type show about Miramax. Some of the long-form contracts are still unsigned by the authors, although this will have no impact on Miramax’s plans to make the film. Jennifer Wachtell, Miramax’s vice president for creative affairs, said that "it’s not unusual to take some time to finalize a deal."

Ms. Wachtell said, "The project is in development and we’re having nothing but a great experience," adding that "it’s very difficult for anyone, especially two young women, to be thrust into this kind of spotlight very quickly. The scrutiny is difficult for anyone. But we’ve been having fun."

One publishing-industry source said that Ms. Kraus and Ms. McLaughlin’s new creative ambitions are one of the byproducts of the critical success of The Nanny Diaries, and that the women now consider themselves literary writers. Since the book’s publication, the pair have been writing short stories for women’s magazines. Susan Kittenplan, the executive editor of Allure, said that she had nothing but warm feelings for the pair, who published a short story in the magazine’s August issue: "I had a great experience with them. Particularly for best-seller writers, they were incredibly professional and enthusiastic." But another editor who knows them said that "they obviously were thinking of themselves as doing pieces for The New Yorker more than they were thinking of themselves as writing for Cosmopolitan."

While it’s not unusual for authors who have hit it big to "trade up" their agents, editors or publishing houses, the way Ms. Kraus and Ms. McLaughlin have replaced agents bears some resemblance to the way that their book’s antagonist, the spoiled and unhappy Mrs. X, tears through child-care help. Several sources speculated that though The Nanny Diaries is acid-tongued about chilly Upper East Side wealth, Ms. Kraus and Ms. McLaughlin could reasonably expect to become a part of the very world they’ve skewered. Both are from comfortable backgrounds: Ms. McLaughlin grew up in Rochester, N.Y., the daughter of a college professor and landscape designer while Ms. Kraus, whose parents own a bookstore on the Upper East Side, grew up in Manhattan and went to Chapin. The authors have contractual deals for hair and makeup at every public appearance, and they have developed a fondness for writing little notes—à la Mrs. X—on their own Nanny Diaries stationery.

One person who met the women said, "They both used the word ‘lovely’ about a million times. It was like having Gwyneth robots trying to kill you." The fundamental irony about the authors and their book may be that in the guise of a cautionary morality tale about the wretched excess of New York’s social elite, they wound up writing a paean to that world and the women who inhabit it.

"It’s a little like Toby Young skewering [Vanity Fair editor] Graydon Carter, when you know that he thinks Graydon walks on water," said one source. "There’s a reason that they were able to write the book that they did. A Dominican nanny would not have been able to do it. By writing it, they’re establishing that they are a part of that world. They are not the nannies, but the mother in this book.



This column ran on page 1 in the 9/23/2002 edition of The New York Observer.

SHINE ON , NEW YORK!

BY NAOMI RAGEN


AS THE MEMORIAL FOR THE VICTIMS OF THE TERRORIST
ATTACK ON NEW YORK FILL
THE AIRWAVES OF ISRAEL, THOUSANDS OF MILES AWAY
FROM THE CITY OF MY
BIRTH, I HAVE COME TO UNDERSTAND WHY THE
TERRORISTS CHOSE THE CITY OF
NEW YORK FOR THE SICKENING EXPRESSION OF THEIR
DEGENERATE AGENDA
AGAINST ALL FREE PEOPLE. IT IS BECAUSE THE
SPIRIT OF NEW YORK CITY
REPRESENTS EVERYTHING THAT THEY, AND THE RUTHLESS
DICTATORS OF SLAVE
STATES IN THE MIDDLE EAST WHO SUPPORT THEM, ARE
TRYING TO DESTROY.

NEW YORK CITY IS A PLACE WHERE EVERYONE CAN HAVE
AN EDUCATION, AND CAN
CHOOSE ANY PROFESSION. FOR FIFTY DOLLARS A
SEMESTER, I, AND MILLIONS OF
OTHERS WHO COULD NEVER AFFORD A COLLEGE
EDUCATION, WENT THROUGH THE
CORRIDORS OF THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK,
LEARNING ABOUT MUSIC AND
ART AND HISTORY AND CULTURE AND LITERATURE AND
BIOLOGY AND CHEMISTRY...

NEW YORK CITY IS A PLACE WHERE IT DOESN’T MATTER
WHO YOUR PARENTS ARE,
HOW MUCH MONEY THEY HAVE, WHAT FAITH THEY
PROFESS, WHAT COLOR THEY WERE
BORN. YOU CAN STILL BE A FAMOUS ARTIST, A
WRITER, A DANCER, A SCHOLAR..
YOU CAN ASPIRE TO BE ANYTHING YOU CAN DREAM.

NEW YORK CITY IS A PLACE WHERE THE ARTS FLOURISH.
WHERE ANY IDEA IS
TOLERATED AND EXPLORED. WHERE MEN AND WOMEN ARE
FREE TO WATCH AND READ
AND BELIEVE OR REJECT ANY PHILOSOPHY, ANY IDEA
ANY BOOK, ANY MAGAZINE.

NEW YORK CITY IS A PLACE WHERE WOMEN ARE IN
CONTROL OF THEIR BODIES AND
THEIR FUTURES AND THEIR HEALTH AND THEIR CHOICES.
A PLACE WHERE NO MAN
CAN MURDER HIS DAUGHTER, ABUSE HIS WIFE,
SLAUGHTER HIS SISTER BECAUSE
SHE DOES NOT CONFORM TO HIS IDEAS OF HOW TO ACT,
OR THINK, OR DRESS.

NEW YORK CITY IS A PLACE OF ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY,
WHERE SMALL WORKSHOPS
AND TINY FACTORIES, AND LITTLE FRINGE THEATRE
GROUPS, AND CORNERSHOP
BAKERIES FLOURISH. WHERE EVERY MAN AND WOMAN CAN
PURSUE A DREAM, AND
CANNOT BE DESTROYED BY NEPOTISM AND CORRUPT
POLITICIANS AND WAR LORDS
AND DICTATORS.

NEW YORK CITY IS A PLACE WHERE ELECTIONS TAKE
PLACE AND MEN AND WOMEN GO
TO MEETINGS, MARCH IN THE STREET, PRINT
BROCHURES, KNOCK ON DOORS, AND
SAY OUT LOUD ANYTHING THEY WANT. THEY CAN VOTE
IN ABSOLUTE SECRECY FOR
LEADERS, AND THESE LEADERS CAN BE VOTED OUT IF
THEY DISPLEASE THE PEOPLE
WHO VOTED FOR THEM. IT’S A PLACE WHERE VOTES
ARE COUNTED FAIRLY,AND
BALLOT BOXES ARE NOT STUFFED AND CANDIDATES ARE
NOT MURDERED, AND EVERY
MAN OR WOMAN WHO WISHES TO OFFER HIMSELF AS A
LEADER WILL BE HEARD.

NEW YORK CITY IS OPEN TO THE PEOPLE OF THE WORLD
OF EVERY NATIONALITY,
RELIGION AND COLOR. BOATS AND PLANES FILLED
WITH IMMIGRANTS SEEKING
REFUGE ARE WELCOMED. VERY FEW NEW YORKERS CAN
SAY THAT THEY AND THEIR
PARENTS LIVED THERE FOR TWO HUNDRED YEARS. IT IS
A CITY OF NEWCOMERS,
ALL WELCOME, ALL TREATED EQUALLY.

NEW YORK CITY REPRESENTS THE BEST OF WHAT AMERICA
HAS TO OFFER, THE BEST
IN A WORLD OVERRUN BY HATE-MONGERS, DICTATORS,
NEPOTISTS, THEIVES AND
STRONG MEN, WHO DEPRIVE MEN AND WOMEN OF THEIR
RIGHT TO LIFE, TO LIBERTY
AND TO THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS.

YOU, WHO HAVE BRUISED OUR CITY, AND TAKEN A PIECE
OF ITS HEART AND
TRAMPLED IT, KNOW THAT YOU WILL NEVER DEFEAT IT ,
BECAUSE THAT WOULD
MEAN DEFEATING ALL THAT IS GOOD IN THE WORLD.
YOU HAVE SUCCEEDED IN
PUTTING OUT THOUSANDS OF LIGHTS . BUT MILLIONS
MORE WILL CONTINUE TO
SHINE THROUGH THE HORRIBLE BLACK HELL YOU CREATED
WITH YOUR SICK IDEAS
AND BRUTAL ACTS OF BARBARISM.

SHINE ON NEW YORK.

SHINE ON, THE LIGHTS OF BROADWAY AND LINCOLN
CENTER AND THE METROPOLITAN
OPERA HOUSE AND CARNEGIE HALL AND THE EMPIRE
STATE BUILDING AND MACY’S
AND THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART, AND THE
METROPOLITAN MUSEUM AND THE
FORTY-SECOND STREET LIBRARY, THE SKYLINE, THE
BRIDGES, THE GREAT HOTELS
OFF CENTRAL PARK, THE SKATERS OF ROCKEFELLER
CENTER.

NEVER FORGET YOUR LIGHT WARMS THE LIVES OF GOOD
PEOPLE ALL OVER THE
WORLD WHO STRIVE TO LIVE PEACEFUL, CREATIVE,
PRODUCTIVE LIVES, FREE OF
HATRED. NEVER FORGET THAT YOUR ENEMIES HATE YOU
FOR ALL THE REASONS
THAT YOU BECAME, AND REMAIN, THE GREATEST CITY IN
THE WORLD.

WITH ALL MY LOVE,

NAOMI RAGEN
(BORN IN THE BROOKLYN JEWISH HOSPITAL, EDUCATED
IN BROOKLYN COLLEGE,
THEATER-GOER, MUSIC LOVER, NATIVE DAUGHTER

This is the best book review I've read in a long time...

Blaming of the Shrew
By Richard Cohen
Thursday, August 15, 2002; Page A25
The Washington Post

May I say something about Ann Coulter? She is a half-wit, a termagant, a dimwit, a blowhard, a worthless silicone nothing, physically ugly and could be likened to Eva Braun, who was Hitler's mistress. As it happens, these are all descriptions or characterizations Coulter uses for others in her book, "Slander." It ought to be called "Mirror."

Read the review in its entirety:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A19833-2002Aug14.html

Announced today - The Man Booker Prize 2002 long list:


Dannie Abse - The Strange Case of Dr Simmonds & Dr Glass (Robson Books)

John Banville - Shroud (Picador)

Joan Barfoot - Critical Injuries (Women's Press)

William Boyd - Any Human Heart (Hamish Hamilton)

Anita Brookner - The Next Big Thing (Viking)

Robert Edric - Peacetime (Doubleday)

Michael Frayn - Spies (Faber and Faber)

Linda Grant - Still Here (Bloomsbury)

Philip Hensher - The Mulberry Empire (UHP)

Howard Jacobson - Who's Sorry Now? (Jonathan Cape)

Yann Martel - Life of Pi (Canongate)

Jon McGregor - If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things (Bloomsbury)

Rohinton Mistry - Family Matters (Faber and Faber)

Will Self - Dorian (Viking)

Carol Shields - Unless (4th Estate)

Zadie Smith - The Autograph Man (Hamish Hamilton)

Colin Thubron - To The Last City (Chatto & Windus)

William Trevor - The Story of Lucy Gault (Viking)

Sarah Waters - Fingersmith (Virago)

Tim Winton - Dirt Music (Picador)