nomadreader

(The final cover art has not yet been released, and the Web site for this series has not yet gone live.)  The Daughters , the first novel from Joanna Philbin (daughter of Regis), follows fourteen-year-old Lizzie Summers and her two best friends. Lizzie is the only daughter of Katia Summers, the most beautiful woman in the world. Lizzie takes after her a father, a Pulitzer Prize winning writer for The New York Times . Her two best friends, Carina Jurgensen, whose father is a multimedia magnate and philanthropist, and Hudson Jones, daughter of pop icon Holla Jones, are famous by proxy. The novel starts rather awkwardly. There is a lot of pseudo name dropping, and I found myself thinking of these characters and their parents as real people. I tried to figure out what real celebrities they were based on. Philbin's writing was also awkward at first as she quickly introduces a slew of characters. Lizzie uses the cringe-worthy metaphor that her friends her like a Brita filter. ...

I am a longtime devotee of Go Fug Yourself , and I maintain it is some of the best pop culture writing. Jessica posted my favorite fug so far this week. I, too, cannot wait for Gossip Girl the television show. I have become borderline obsessed with the books this summer. I do manage to alternate Gossip Girl /not- Gossip Girl books, but I still will finish the series before the tv show premieres. These books are teen soap opera gold. With One Tree Hill not back until January, the world of television needs some quality teen drama. I've got my champagne flute ready...

After the stress of packing and moving across the country, I was in the mood for a lighthearted read. I opted to finally get around to reading Cecily von Ziegesar's famous Gossip Girl series. I still enjoy children's and young adult literature, and I am already ridiculously excited about Josh Schwartz's upcoming television version of the series. As much as I love to read, I admit the trashy teen genre is best served on the screen. I adored the first Gossip Girl novel. It's definitely on the Cruel Intentions level of risky teen behavior, and the puritan part of me wishes that the characters were not grounded in any one's actual high school behavior. Responsible adolescence aside, the book was endlessly entertaining, and the characters are well-developed. I reserved the next few books in the series already. I imagine with Josh Schwartz's able hands, he can use these fantastic characters to transcend the success of the books and produce a television serie...