'Realish' Sedaris Book Skirts Memoir Scrutiny

It's fizzy, too—and comes complete with recipes and regrets

(NEWSER) - Recipes for "Morning After Pumpkin Bread" and "Ineffectual Eggplant Parmigiana" should clue readers in that Giulia Melucci's I Loved, I Lost, I Made Spaghetti is no how-to on gaining a man's heart through his stomach, Joyce Wadler writes for the New York Times. Melucci—"a former publishing publicist who is hilarious, good-looking, and as restrained as Joan Rivers on crack"—recounts her checkered love life in a style Wadler dubs "Sex and the City with recipes." More»

New writers' book jackets reveal the top 10 lazy comparisons

(NEWSER) - Blurbs for hot new writers' books unfailingly liken them to a handful of known quantities, Chris Rovzar observes in New York. Here are some of the most-abused blurb comparisons:

• F. Scott Fitzgerald or Edith Wharton. Writing about crumbling, decadent high society? "If you're a boy, you're Scott; if you're a girl, you're Edith."
• Candace Bushnell. If your "concept is so good and sexy that you don't have to worry about execution."

Refunds offered for picture book based on hoax love story

(NEWSER) - Publishers are now pulling a picture book inspired by a Holocaust love story revealed to be a fake, Publishers Weekly reports. Lerner Publishing has announced it will cancel reprints of Angel Girl and offer refunds for returned copies. Herman Rosenblat's memoir Angel on the Fence was canceled by another publisher after he admitted inventing the story of a girl who gave him food through the fence at the Buchenwald concentration camp. More»

Author of Blindness deals with death in new novel

(NEWSER) - The premise of Jose Saramago’s Death With Interruptions seems a bit cutesy at first, with a Buffy-esque Grim Reaper deciding to take some time off her job, writes Shannon McBeen in Radar. But as Saramago explores the ramifications of universal immortality, he manages to transform “the admittedly weak premise into a wry, smart, absurd, original novel” by dint of sheer “effing good writing.” More»

Author of Rebecca was more than pop-lit hack

(NEWSER) - Novelist Daphne du Maurier’s works have been read by millions, adapted into films, and kept in print for decades—yet she has been unable to shake her reputation as a pop-lit hack. Cynthia Crossen looks at her career in the Wall Street Journal and argues that the author of Rebecca and The Birds deserves serious literary recognition, or at least a more flattering legacy. More»