Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Valerie Frankel

Valerie Frankel is the author of Thin Is the New Happy and such chick lit favorites as The Accidental Virgin, The Girlfriend Curse and Hex and the Single Girl. The former articles editor at Mademoiselle, Frankel has contributed to the New York Times, O, Glamour, Allure, Self, Good Housekeeping, among many other publications.

Her new memoir is It's Hard Not to Hate You.

Recently I asked Frankel what she was reading. Her reply:
Just finished The Magicians by Lev Grossman. Not to minimize the wonderful use of language (including a few words I had to look up), the story is, basically, Harry Potter goes to college, gets drunk, gets laid and meets a gay person. The MC is Quentin Coldwater, a geeky smart boy in perpetual longing for something he can't quite name. Hogwarts is reimagined as Brakebills, a super selective college in upstate New York with classes on practical magic and theory. During his undergrad years, Quentin undergoes the personal discovery process and learns as much about himself as he does in the classroom. He drinks and sleeps around as a post-grad in NYC, and deepens his understanding about life, magic and how they intersect, in much the same way most of us did in our twenties whether we're magicians or not. With Quentin and his crew, the reader takes Narnian flight to other worlds, not always in human form. Evil is vanquished, friends won and lost. It's a thoroughly satisfying adventure, with rare insight and special nostalgia for the magic of youthful friendship.
Visit Valerie Frankel's website and Facebook page.

My Book, The Movie: It's Hard Not to Hate You.

--Marshal Zeringue