Model Turned Writer Jessica White

Like Veronica Webb and Naomi Campbell before her, Sports Illustrated favorite Jessica White has written a book. She spoke candidly about it this week while celebrating her birthday this Monday at The Gates. White confirmed that the yet untitled work is a coming of age story about a girl who has been sexually abused and that the story is semi-autobiographical.  No word on if White has found a publisher or if she plans to self-publish but the model has plans to turn the work into a screenplay. 

S: The NY Daily News

Off Topic: Denise Matthews aka Vanity Writes a Book

The last time I saw Vanity....I mean Denise Matthews, was late at night one one of the Bible channels. She was sitting in an armchair being "interviewed" by a couple a Jim and Tammy Faye clones. Actually, I take that back. The guy was a Jim Bakker clone but the big haired woman beside him probably wasn't worthy enough to carry Tammy Faye's mascara wand. Anyway, I put interviewed in quotes because Vanity/Denise was maybe asked one question the entire segment before she started rambling, sometimes incoherently, about Jesus, her love for Jesus, more Jesus, the light and another heavy coating of Jesus. She didn't sound like a normal person talking about her faith, she sounded like a junkie. Even the hosts looked a little scared. It made me wonder if she was one of those people who trade one addiction. It made me worry about her.

When I was a kid, I loved Vanity. The woman was just beautiful and she got to wear underwear wherever she went which seemed like a big time saver. Could she sing? Not really. When I listen to her old albums now it seems obvious that she could have benefittted from Pro tools during her career. That didn't really matter to me. For one, she appeared on the best episode ever of "Friday the 13th: The Series" as a rock star with an obsessive fan and was in "The Last Dragon" with the man I thought I would marry, Taimak (I had big dreams back then.)

The fact that Vanity has a autobiography coming out this month should be cause for celebration but after going to the book's website and reading the description, the book doesn't sound like it will be much of a fun read. I like my biographies juicy, one of the benefits of getting older is that tell-all books from people I'm actually interested in are starting to trickle into bookstores. Believe me, when "Blanket Jackson: My View from the Balcony" comes out, I will be pre-ordering that shit on Amazon.

Here is my fantasy chapter listing for Vanity's book "Blame it On Vanity"

Introduction: Foreword by Taimak
Chapter 1: My Messed Up Childhood
Chapter 2: Meeting Prince
Chapter 3: But I Can't Sing!
Chapter 4: Shopping for Lingerie
Chapter 5: What Was Up with the Blonde Chick in Vanity 6 Anyway?
Chapter 6: Appolonia Who? Why Wasn't I Invited to Rehearsal?
Chapter 7: Life After Prince
Chapter 8: Sex, Drugs and Motley Crue
Chapter 9: Rock Bottom
Chapter 10: Meeting Jesus
Chapter 11: Why I Married That Dude After Knowing Him 1 Month
Chapter 12: Farewell My Kidneys
Chapter 13: Doing Just Fine, Thank You
Bonus Chapter: What Is Up With Prince?

Wouldn't you want to read that too?


No chapter list on the book website but there is this unfortunately written description:

All I had become was thus painted on my face-vanity-and what i had thus spoken from my vile tongue spewed forth from my juvenile breast of disdain.But this was just the beginning of my surrealistic journey, my make believe “i am the new hoopla” squeezed appropriately, sufficiently, distended in your black box, televising all my oddities up close and effectual. With each new, methodical, despicable movement of my being, i closed my fists around a wretched lie which sought to eradicate my life at an impromptu time and i had built no stomach for the fight. With each new bitterness dispelled formulated by this cruel cold world of which i had become its strange kind, i shut my eyes and with deep complaint muttered words of death and despair, while the hot flames seeped, boiled and burned ablaze under my bottle. I was molding to the likes of mediocrity, vulnerability, having had all the experience of a trained seal, being pushed to the brink of hopelessness,and helpless to perpetuate a flawless, ruinous end.

I know, right? Not quite the beach read I had in mind. To add insult to injury, she's charging $45 per copy AND $12 shipping and handling. Has she not heard of "media mail?"

I should add that I don't care what religion Denise/Vanity is practicing as long as she's not on that hate juice. If she's found peace and happiness with her Christianity more power to her, it's just that I was hoping for a lot more from her autobiography than this stream of consciousness dreck.

Sigh. I wonder if the women from Klymaxx are planning a tell-all anytime soon...

Have you read anything good lately?

Pics: scriptgirl, Couturierdiva, Blameitonvanity.com

The Fashion Spot Interviews EBAY Style Director Constance White

The interview is not what one would call in-depth but might be worth a look if you are a fan of Constance's EBAY blog or have a dusty copy of her book Stylenoir on your bookshelf.  In the interview, Constance talks very briefly about her favorite collections and models this season. 

I was paging through Stylenoir the other day. It's not heavy on color photographs and definitely seems a little outdated but I would love if Constance would publish another style book for black women. It seems there is a new one coming out each week from the likes of Rachel Zoe and Nina Garcia (both of whom published books that I really liked) so why not White too?

Ten Years of TRACE Magazine

I haven't paged through this in person yet, so I am praying that when I finally have it in my hands, it will contain all the photos from their annual "Black Girls Rule!" issues.

Project Runway's Nina Garcia on Style

My family and I just moved back to the US from a two year stint in Luxembourg. Because of that, I am not current on the goings-ons on most television shows.

One show that I really missed watching when I was away was Project Runway. The UK counterpart (called Project Catwalk was a bit dull by comparison and when they replaced Elizabeth Hurley with Kelly Osbourne in the second season, it became even less watchable, if you can imagine that.)

All this to say that I really don't know how people feel in general about ELLE magazine fashion director Nina Garcia. I vaguely remember her being a bit of a cold fish on the show but not nearly as bitchy as Michael Kors.

Well like most everyone with a pulse on a hit reality show, Nina has a book on style hitting the shelves soon. Now, I have a not-so-secret addiction to these books so I'm already poised to add this one to my holds list at the public library. I ran across this excerpt at Gawker that I thought I'd share. There's no new information here but it looks to be a fun read, I just hope that it has loads of photographs.

Anything that sounds like it won't make sense usually looks amazing. The uptown with the downtown. The soft with the hard. The casual with the elegant. Trust me, it works. Unpredictable is far more interesting than predictable. It is what is going to make you look different and interesting, which is the hallmark of a stylish woman. Mixing it up is not about looking staged. It is supposed to be personal. Keep those items that are uniquely you....Style is about these imperfect mixes and these unusual juxtapositions, it takes time and trial to perfect the mix. It can't look staged, it has to look effortless.

Pre-Order Alert!

Alek: From Sudanese Refugee to International Supermodel



Book Description

Since the day she was scouted by a modeling agent while shopping at a London street fair when she was just nineteen, Alek Wek's life has been nothing short of a fantasy. When she's not the featured model in print campaigns for hip companies, or gracing the cover of Elle, she is working the runways of Paris, New York, and Milan to model for the world's leading designers, including Karl Lagerfeld for Chanel. But nothing in her early years prepared her for the life of a model.

Born in Wau, in the southern Sudan, Alek knew only a few years of peace with her family before they were caught up in a ruthless civil war that pitted outlaw militias, the Muslim-dominated government, and southern rebels against each other in a brutal conflict that killed nearly two million people. Here is her daring story of fleeing the war on foot and her escape to London, where her rise from young model to supermodel was all the more notable because of Alek's non-European looks.

A probe into the Sudanese conflict and an inside look into the life of a most unique supermodel, Alek is a book that will inspire as well as inform.

I, for one, cannot wait to read this. I've always admired Alek's beauty, grace and charm but I know next to nothing about her life.

Pre-order from Amazon.com TODAY!!

My Friend Writes a Chic Lit Book

I'm mourning the ending of my A.M. Holmes book, lost and wandering without anything to read but Star's crossword puzzle and Suduko, when I get an email from a long silent friend that her new book is now available in stores and on Amazon! I think she's been holed up for a while editing it!

Right Before Your Eyes, by Ellen Shanman, stars Liza, a spunky and spirited Yale graduate who intends with all certainty to become a famous playwrite. High rent and other costs of living in this insanely expensive city drive her to being a temp in an office. Liza has a goofy friend, two roommates, and a wicked tongue. She's smart, educated, and doesn't suffer fools gladly. Her world begins to shift when in the short span of a few days she meets a Wall Street baron who, when she falls and twists her ankle, he stays with her in the ER until she kicks him out. That's not all of the love interest your going to get. She asks out the ER doctor, a person lacking in passion but good husband material, and then is contacted by a struggling young director who wants to produce her play.

Dream come true? This will be a read for summer.

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This Book Will Save Your Life

It's 10:30pm and I am in PJs, face washed, contacts out, waiting to relax. I'm drinking Tension Tamer tea while sitting on my velour couch, looking around me, no bright light of the computer staring up at me (but there is now), no online crusades to concur, just life to live in my living room before going to bed in a relaxed state, as I think may be suggested by the book, This Book Will Save Your Life, by A.M. Holmes.

But I'm lonely because I finished the book! This is why I don't finish books. Because they end and there is no more of them, unless you read it again, but the fresh feeling of turning unknown pages is gone. But let me say this: it was a most unexpected action-packed self-help fiction book. And I actually laughed out loud. Twice. Holmes is quite funny. Almost in a Steve Martin sort of way in Shop Girl.

This Book Will Save Your Life was a surprise read that I bought purely because the title was so declarative. I was really checking out A.M. Holmes because I had vaguely heard about her, and this book was available. I don't think my life needs to be saved at the moment, but it did revive my desire to read fiction vs fantasy (Narnia, Potter) or non-fiction (Fast Food Nation, Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire). It also made me very hungry for donuts and for healthy meals prepared by a nutritionist.

It made me want to see Malabo and listen to LA people say weird things like "I'm no-carb." In fact, it has revived my desire to move, and not just to a calm, "affordable" place, but to take the adventure and maybe live back in Charleston, SC on the beach. Lots of other people do it, and it's in the right time zone.

So if you're looking for a good fiction, read This Book Will Save Your Life. It made my life more pleasant, that's for sure. And I think it allowed me to buy myself some Jasmine Rose perfume from Fresh that I've been longing for for a year after they sent me a sample. I promised myself that "when I launch katie-james.com," I would treat myself. Then it became "when I have my first sale from katie-james.com." Then it became "Why spend the money? Put it back into the business! Oil of Olay is just fine."

Let's put it this way: it made the guilt-free allowance of spending money for happiness a lot easier. And not in a shop-a-holic kind of way. The main character of the story was a man. But you know, it's cool, because now I can add another book to my list of "Favorite Books" in different online profiles that I'm always so self-conscious about filling out.

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Beach Read: The Booster

Wriggle into a bench on your favorite subway train or relax in your favorite sun chair with The Booster, by Jennifer Solow, but prepare to curl your toes and sweat a bit more than you would have as Jillian Seigal folds a Hermes scarf into her hand and exits a sensorless boutique while talking to the salesgirl. Oh yes, Jillian is a professional shoplifter. Sort of.

Hitting the bottom of the barrel of her high powered Manhattan ad agency job, Jillian doesn't do shopping therapy. She does shoplifting therapy. She's so good at it, you may actually steal something yourself just to see if it works. Jillian is one wacked out Manhattanite with a sexy photographer boyfriend, Alex, who can do nothing but love her while she squirms in her own confusion.

Solow does a heck of a job writing a torrent love affair with designer anything, like Louboutin boots, worshipping "deliberate colors like tobacco and pale lavender." And her obsessions don't stop there. Can we say "chin hairs" and a potty mouth? She’s a great writer, and a delight to read, especially for this genera, which I haven't read in a while. We also get a glimpse of carefully groomed shoplifting rings and meet interesting (and likable/nonlikable vs cardboard cutouts) characters along the way. If you want to take a designer jaunt around the city while Jillian figures out what to do with her life, read The Booster. It's a quick read, I promise.

But most importantly, Solow is a debut author, and she hit a bestseller list - in San Francisco - in June. Yay!!

Buy now from Amazon. It seems to be 35% off...

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