Book News
Chelsea TV, times two.
Chelsea Handler has scored yet another TV show. NBC has picked up a pilot based on the late-night comedienne’s books.
The project, tentatively titled “Are You There, Vodka?, It’s Me, Chelsea” after one of Handler’s books, will focus on a 20-something woman named Chelsea, who won’t have Handler’s profession but will be a lot like her. Handler will not star in the series.
(Handler’s other best sellers include “Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang” and “My Horizontal Life: A Collection of One Night Stands.”)
Handler also recently landed a follow-up series to her E! show, “Chelsea Lately.” The title of the new show will be “After Lately.” It will be semi-improvised and will focus on the behind-the- scenes action of Handler’s talk show.
First Lines
Bliss, Remembered, by Frank Deford
The summer after my mother found out that she was dying of cancer, she asked me to come visit and watch the Olympic swimming on television. It was 2004, when the Games were in Athens. Mom had been on the United States swimming team in the Berlin Olympics in 1936, when she was eighteen. While she never talked about that experience — she was, in fact, mysteriously silent on the subject — she would say, “That’s the only thing of any real consequence I ever did in my life.” That wasn’t true, but it was very much like her to speak so modestly. To put this into perspective: my mother was one of these people who gave much into the world, brightened the lives of those around her and left us all better for her having been here among us.
You can be sure I understand if you think I am prejudiced, and I am, but nonetheless, that all happens to be God’s truth.
Of course, she also could be herself, which was a handful.
She was an awful lot of fun; she had a way about her. Unlike most old people who seem to withdraw unto themselves, she became more expressive and confident of herself (and her opinions) as she grew older. She had developed an uncommon facility about the past, wherein she discussed herself back then with a certain out-of-body quality, as if that girl was someone else altogether. And while she certainly maintained the courtesy and graciousness that had always marked her, she felt less compunction to suffer fools. In particular: woe to the poor person who called her a “senior.” Mom, I think you could say, went out — well, if not with a bang, then certainly with a lot of sizzle.
Amazon editors pick
2010’s Top 10
1. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot
2. Faithful Place: A Novel, by Tana French
3. Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War, by Karl Marlantes
4. Unbroken, by Laura Hillenbrand
5. The Warmth of Other Suns, by Isabel Wilkerson
6. Freedom, by Jonathan Franzen
7. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest, by Stieg Larsson
8. To the End of the Land, by David Grossman
9. Just Kids, by Patti Smith
10. The Big Short, by Michael Lewis
