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By Elise Knutsen 1/10 6:17pm

Machers

Michael Gross

Michael Gross Is Not Writing The Same Book Twice

When we heard Michael Gross was working on yet another book about an uber-rich New York residential building, our eyes rolled ever so slightly. The Observer had read and loved his opus on 740 Park ("The World's Richest Apartment Building"), but with one in the works about 15CPW, titled The House of Outrageous Fortune,  what more could he possibly have to say about the nesting habits of the extraordinarily wealthy? Beyond what he had already written on the subject for us, of course.

A lot, it turns out. Read More

By Emily Witt 12/28/11 12:01pm

Memoirs

Denise-Richards-The-Real-Girl-Next-Door

Publishing Insider Admits What We Already Know: Most Celebrity Memoirs Are Terrible

Ever wonder how all those celebrity memoirs get published? Writing at The Daily Beast, former Simon & Schuster editor in chief Michael Korda describes how book publishers get seduced by Hollywood glitter: "Stranded in Beverly Hills, where movie stars and studio heads and successful directors outranked them, where you can’t walk to anywhere, and where people who matter arrive at the porte cochère of the hotel or the restaurant in a glittering car or limousine, sometimes to be greeted by a storm of photoflashes, they were fair game, thirsting for tea or drinks with even the most passé of movie stars and prepared to find them glamorous and fascinating." Suckers! Read More

1 By Emily Witt 12/13/11 8:59am

Hires

Peede.

Jon Parrish Peede Will Be New Publisher of Virginia Quarterly Review

Literary magazine Virginia Quarterly Review has announced it has a new publisher, Jon Parrish Peede, the former director of literature for the National Endowment of the Arts. VQR editor Ted Genoways also named Donovan Webster as the magazine's new deputy editor, following the suicide of former deputy editor Kevin Morrissey last year. Mr. Webster is a former senior editor for Outside, who has also written for National Geographic, Smithsonian, Vanity Fair, and the New York Times Magazine.

Morrissey's death left the magazine in disarray and Mr. Genoways faced an audit from the University of Virginia over the management of the publication. The audit temporarily closed its offices and suspended publication. (In response, The Observer published a defense of Mr. Genoways by Tom Bissell, if you're interested.)

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