Product Description

WHAT 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.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #462608 in Books
• Published on: 2006-05-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 384 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780743262330
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

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, exposé.

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

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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.

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From Publishers Weekly
A 27-year-old New York banker quits her job and finds work at a posh PR agency, trading her navy pantsuits for low-slung jeans and skimpy tops so she can hang out with the beautiful people at "in" places like Bungalow 8 (though first she has to find out what Bungalow 8 is). Weisberger's bestselling The Devil Wears Prada hinged on a similar fish-out-of-water scenario, and while it may have worked then, this time around it feels like a rehash. Bette Robinson begins as a likable enough character, but it isn't long before Weisberger's caricature of her becomes frustrating: Bette is surprisingly successful at her new job, even as she's constantly complaining about "the ridiculousness of what we were doing"—i.e., orchestrating Manhattan social events in such a way that the agency's clients look good in gossip columns. Bette's personal life gets equally ridiculous treatment, as she enters into a "just for looks" and very public relationship with a British heartthrob who's really gay, as her friends and family (and the guy she really likes) look on in horror. The book occasionally entertains—as when it makes jabs at the very critics who panned DWP—but not nearly often enough.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Weisberger, the infamous former Vogue employee and best-selling author of The Devil Wears Prada (2003), returns to the chick-lit arena with her latest novel. Here, Weisberger introduces Bette Robinson, a twentysomething Manhattan investment banker who is tiring of the 80-hour weeks required to maintain her career. Impulsively, Bette quits her job and then languishes for a few months with no real interests or ideas (or apparently worries about income). By chance, she meets the head of Manhattan's hottest PR firm and quickly snags a flashy job as a manager for celebrity and socialite parties and events. Bette easily adjusts to this lifestyle and soon finds that she is palling around with celebs, dating a rascally playboy, and garnering mentions in various gossip columns. Not surprisingly, she'll have to come back down to earth to realize that she nearly blew it with the one decent guy in her life. Packed with celebrity mentions and insider takes on exclusive Manhattan nightspots, this novel will captivate Weisberger's fans, who are sure to enjoy the dishy, if expansive, details. Kathleen Hughes
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Customer Reviews

The Devil Wears BlackBerry
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...

Disappointing
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."

Not worth knowing
"Going out is part of your job now, just remember that!" squeals one of the characters in Lauren Weisberger's second novel, "Everyone Worth Knowing." As with her much-hyped first novel, this is a boo-hoo-poor-li'l-me slice of chick-lit, bemoaning how very tough it is to be live the exalted life. Oh, stop whining.

Bette Robinson quits her tedious job when her boss (think Lumbergh from "Office Space") annoys her one time too many. At first, she's confused about what to do next, and being a gossip columnist with her gay uncle is not exactly her idea of a great job. But then she falls in with a different kind of "journalism" -- at a PR and party planning firm.

At first, Bette is intoxicated by the wild nightlife of A-listers and clubs, and is rescued by a hot-yet-arrogant British "Nightlife Adonis." Soon SHE is in the gossip columns. Unfortunately, her new job threatens to derail life with those she loves -- her hippie parents, who want something better for her, and the hot bouncer she's falling in love with.

Someone needs to tell Wisberger that a guilty pleasure is no fun if the author gets sanctimonious about it. Sure, cater to people's love of the high life, wild parties and even throw in a moral or two about the shallowness of fame. But if the author has actually lived it, then moaning how very terrible it is to be famous, pretty and well-paid will only be annoying.

Much of the middle of this book exists just to tie the end and beginning together; Weisberger tries to cover up the lack of a real plot with lots of topless costume parties, celebrity name-dropping, drugs and a contrived subplot about a pal marrying her trust-fund loser. It takes some special writing to redeem a plot full of cliches and tabloid fodder, and this is not special writing.

And Bette is not the heroine to redeem it either -- she hardly even has opinions of her own, let alone a personality. Her self-righteous hippie parents at least have a quirky appeal, even if her boyfriends and pals are cardboard cutouts. And someone needs to tell Weisberger that it is not cute, clever or funny to name a gay pal (even an uncle) "Will."

"Everyone Worth Knowing" comes across as an attempt at self-justification by someone who has been there, yet doesn't want to admit that it was fun. Like a drunken one-night stand -- sloppily done and unmemorable. Once it's done, you'll wonder what you were thinking.