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| Everyone Worth Knowing | 
 enlarge | Author: Lauren Weisberger
Publisher: Downtown Press
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  196 reviews
Sales Rank: 124491
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 384
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8.1 x 5.3 x 1.2
ISBN: 0743262336
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN: 9780743262330
ASIN: 0743262336
Publication Date: May 2, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Amazon.com Review
Lauren Weisberger, whose bestselling debut The Devil Wears Prada outed the vicious antics of the magazine industry elite, is back at it with Everyone Worth Knowing, another cautionary tale of sex, power, and fame. This time around, the PR industry is her target, and Prada fans will recognize similar themes throughout this entertaining, if at times overly dramatic, expose. Bette Robinson is a twentysomething Emory graduate who shunned her parents' hippie ideals in favor of a high-paying yet excruciatingly boring job at a prestigious investment bank. One day, after a particularly condescending exchange with her boss (who sends her daily inspirational e-mails), Bette walks out on her job in a huff. After a few weeks of sleeping late, watching Dr. Phil and entertaining her dog Millington, Bette's uncle scores her a job at an up-and-coming public relations firm, where her entire job seems to revolve around staying out late partying and providing fodder for clandestine gossip columns. What follows is one episode after another of Bette climbing up the social ladder at the expense of her friends, family, and the one guy who actually seems worth pursuing. Weisberger is clever enough to turn seemingly outrageous circumstances into amusing anecdotes, like the tale of a woman who was close to suicide until she found out she was only 18 months away from scoring a highly coveted Birkin bag ("You simply cannot kill yourself when you're that close ... it's just not an option."). This wit, combined a hint of voyeurism that most of us can't deny, is what makes Everyone Worth Knowing a guilty pleasure that's well worth the indulgence. --Gisele Toueg
The Significant Seven with Lauren Weisberger
Lauren graciously agreed to answer the questions we like to ask every author.
Q: What book has had the most significant impact on your life?
A: Very tough question. For the first half of my life, it would definitely have to be Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret by Judy Blume. I worshipped that book. Recently, I'd say that it was Empire Falls by Richard Russo. Even though there's not a tremendous amount of action, the characters are brilliant. It's a hauntingly realistic depiction of small-town America. And the place descriptions are so compelling that the book is compulsively page-turning.
Q: You are stranded on a desert island with only one book, one CD, and one DVD--what are they?
A: This is not the time for self-improvement, that's for sure--they'd all have to be 100% entertainment. For book it would have to be The Last of the California Girls, a random novel that I've read 2,000 times; for CD I would say Monster Ballads, the album of cheesy 80's love songs that I ordered from an 800-number, and for DVD, it would be Dirty Dancing, of course.
Q: What is the worst lie you've ever told?
A: That one's easy. It goes something like this: "Hi, (insert editor's name here)! Yes, of course, it's already finished. I'm just tweaking a few sentences, and I'll have the whole draft to you by Monday, latest."
Q: Describe the perfect writing environment.
A: For me, the best writing environments are all about deprivation and the removal of temptation. Therefore, anywhere on earth where there's no TV, no phone, no internet access, no friends, and no fridge is pretty much perfect.
Q: If you could write your own epitaph, what would it say?
A: I really don't want to think about this one, but if I HAVE to, I hope it would include a few keywords like "brilliant," "supremely talented," and "drop-dead gorgeous."
Q: Who is the one person living or dead that you would like to have dinner with?
A: I'm supposed to say Hemingway or Moses or Madonna, right? It'd probably just be my sister, Dana. We already have a lot of dinners together, so I know it's a guaranteed good laugh.
Q: If you could have one superpower, what would it be?
A: The ability to be invisible! It would make all my current spying/stalking/staring SO much easier.
Lauren Weisberger's List of Books You Should Read See more recommendations from Lauren Weisberger Product DescriptionWHAT HAPPENS WHEN A GIRL ON THE FRINGE ENTERS THE REALM OF NEW YORK'S CHIC, PARTY-HOPPING ELITE?Soon after Bette Robinson quits her horrendous Manhattan banking job like the impulsive girl she's never been, the novelty of walking her four-pound dog around her unglamorous Murray Hill neighborhood wears as thin as the "What are you going to do with your life?" phone calls from her parents. Then Bette meets Kelly, head of Manhattan's hottest PR firm, and suddenly she has a brand-new job where the primary requirement is to see and be seen inside the VIP rooms of the city's most exclusive nightclubs. But when Bette begins appearing in a vicious new gossip column, she realizes that the line between her personal and professional life is...invisible. |
| Customer Reviews: Read 191 more reviews...
 Disappointing October 24, 2005
51 out of 65 found this review helpful
This book diappointed me. It had the same, predictable plot as The Devil Wears Prada, and the same poor-me-I've-got-a-terrible-boss theme. It gets old very, very quickly.
Bettina (or "Bette") Robinson is a young twenty-something living in New York. She grew up in Pughkeepsie with liberal, hippie parents and attended Emory before moving to New York to pursue a career in investment banking. She walks out on the job; and through her uncle Will, manages to find a job working as a party planner.
Throw in a handsome, debonair man-about-town who everyone thinks Bette is dating; some co-workers who I think were meant to be funny but just end up looking pathetic; and a love interest, and you've basically got the gist of this poorly-written, over-advertised novel. This is definitely one "not worth knowing."
Uninspired, tedious, chick-lit pretender October 8, 2005
43 out of 62 found this review helpful
Why do we care that Bettina Robinson is unhappy with her job at the bank? She is given a chance at a new job as a party planner thanks to her favorite Uncle Will. Bette quickly leaves her old life behind as she joins the partying club scene in New York City. She ends up in Phillip Weston's bed, and her new life is never the same. Bette is not used to be trashed by the social columnists. Her boss Kelly loves it because her company gets the headlines. Did Bette make a hasty decision? Her hippie parents think so. True love does come for Bette when she encounters Sammy. Weaved throughout the story is how Bette loved to read romances. The ending is too long, too improbable, and too cloying.
 pointless October 6, 2005
22 out of 28 found this review helpful
I got an advance copy of this book and, simply put, it is awful. When I see these reviews that say it is a "guilty pleasure" or "fans won't be disappointed" I do not have the faintest idea how they come to those conclusions. And I have no reason to dis this woman. If anything, I sympathize with her because a lot of people will knock this book just because...I say, Her first book did well and good for her. But that book had a great character, Anna Wintour aka Miranda Priestly. She WAS the first book. This one reads like the DWP without Miranda! I culd only get through half because there is absolutely no characterization in this book. It is "she was mean", "she was pretty", "he is a snob" type writing. It reads like a college paper written the night before it was due. First rule of writing:show, don't tell. How about you paint a picture? How about you let me see through their actions just what kind of person they are? What galls me most about books of this sort is that the "it people" of New York are presented as people "regular folk" should give a damn about. Bette gets a job working with a coven of PR girls, in whose machinations she so naively gets entangled, but they aren't even women you can love to hate. They are just flat, vapid characters that you wish she'd push into the Hudson River weighted down with cement boots. As with the main character of DWP, Bette is another young woman who annoyingly expects to have everything she wants just because she wants it --without doing the work. Just like Ms. Weisberger.
Buy Lipstick Jungle instead or the very funny "The Secret Lives of Fortunate Wives".
The Devil Wears BlackBerry October 29, 2005
22 out of 24 found this review helpful
I have a feeling there was a conversation that went something like this:
Editor: We want another 'Devil Wears Prada.'
Lauren Weisberger: I don't want to write the same book again, that's boring.
Editor: We'll pay you.
Lauren Weisberger: I don't know. How much?
Editor: A lot.
Laruen Weisberger: Such as...?
Editor: A million dollars.
Lauren Weisberger: Know what? Funny you should bring this up, but I actually have this idea that's pretty much The Devil Wears Prada, but in the PR industry...
For the intellectually-challenged....or just the vapid October 5, 2005
19 out of 28 found this review helpful
More name-dropping crap from a very lucky office assistant who was able to cash in on(backstab)her famous employer to get her foot in the cheap, badly written chick-lit market. I weep for literature today. If you are just DYING to know what shallow B-list celebs do in their off-time, if this is of extreme importance to you, and if teenage textmessage-level writing doesn't deter you, then this is the book for you!
I'm so glad I didn't pay any money for my advance copy. Thank you local bookstore! I have lost two hours of my life in tedious, distasteful skimming, though.
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