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WALK OF FAME

Name: WALK OF FAME
Author: Sharon Krum
ISBN: 0-312-27310-X

by Sharon Krum ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2001

While little more than a scamper through the media’s succeeding levels of green duplicity, brute envy, and ruthless...

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A sassy, entertaining confection, a sweet zing at the Culture of Celebrity that follows a dour financial writer’s self-created launch into the ranks of the beautiful people—and the amusing, if predictable, consequences.

As the story opens, Tom Webster, columnist for a dry Wall Street magazine, suffers the departure of his wife, Elizabeth, in favor of his best friend, Jake. Tom wallows for a while in his masculine and connubial failure; then The Vulture, a hip, post-ironic celeb glossy, offers him a hundred grand to insinuate himself (somehow) into celebrity culture, take notes, and write an article that will expose the sham and opacity of that world. He reluctantly takes the job, writes blond starlet Alexandra West an earnest letter outlining the plan, and invites her participation in the scheme. West, known for her flesh-hawking B movies, is just undertaking a New York adventure to re-vamp her image as a “serious” actress and thinks it couldn’t hurt to be associated with Tom’s stodgy smarts. They date, and both lives are catapulted into relatively new levels of renown. Tom enjoys the jealousy of his co-workers and the envious rage of his ex, considers book deals, and gets a TV gig courtesy of his new status as “financial guru.” European art directors offer Alexandra movie scripts, and “serious” magazines propose profiles. When Alexandra and her publicists decide enough is enough, Tom’s reputation is mauled through the tabloids, and the couple separate. After publishing his Vulture piece, Tom fears the anger of those he has tricked—who instead hail him as a genius and a visionary. As a final touch, he signs on with Alexandra’s publicity agency as a client.

While little more than a scamper through the media’s succeeding levels of green duplicity, brute envy, and ruthless adoration, Krum’s debut novel unfolds with inspired enthusiasm thanks to Tom Webster’s befuddled, studious, and eminently familiar narrative voice.

Pub Date: May 1, 2001

ISBN: 0-312-27310-X

Page Count: 320

Publisher: St. Martin's

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2001

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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BETWEEN SISTERS

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2003

Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...

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Sisters in and out of love.

Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?

Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.

Pub Date: May 1, 2003

ISBN: 0-345-45073-6

Page Count: 400

Publisher: Ballantine

Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

by Harper Lee ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 1960

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A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.