 |
snapped!: a novel (mira books, january 2010)
sara is having a meltdown. she's teetering on the edge of forty and struggling to maintain her persona as montreal's premier trend-spotter. she's spent the last fifteen years snapping photos of the city's fashion victims, basking in free stuff and leading expensive trend tours for corporate executives she finds loathsome. but this life is no longer satisfying. and to make matters worse, her friends are abandoning urban life for suburban comfort, having kids and dabbling in plastic surgery — all things sara wants no part of. she's not looking for a husband, she doesn't want kids, but she's terrified of growing old, and refuses to heed the advice of her friends to give up her bad habits and grow up.
her behaviour becomes even more reckless when her young, ambitious competition starts to close in and publicly bruises her ego. sara is afraid she's losing her touch and is sent reeling into a spiral of self-doubt, fearing her success has been nothing but a fluke. she's plagued with guilt over the three-thousand, five-hundred and sixty people she's mocked in print by branding them fashion DON'Ts, and becomes obsessed with making amends. but what does a narcissistic, aging hipster have to do for absolution?
snapped! careens through sara's wolrd as she drinks, smokes, stirs up social melodrama, and becomes increasingly unhinged as she wonders if there's more to life than DOs and DON'Ts. she trips from one ridiculous situation to the next, along the way having unexpected encounters with a scheming assistant, a chatty life coach, an attractive bar owner, a kind-hearted old lady, and a rockabilly paper boy in this darkly funny story about a woman who thinks she's losing her cool.
spree: a cultural history of shopping (arsenal pulp press, 2003)
from the back of the book:
shopping is much more than the simple purchase of goods. as buying has become an essential part of life, shopping is irrevocably tied to our cultural identity, and we are a culture obsessed and beguiled by the desire for consumer goods.
in spree, journalist, cultural columnist, and shopping addict pamela klaffke reveals the ritual that is now daily routine. her book is an entertaining and provocative study of shopping's rich and enduring history, from parisian arcades to american shopping malls, from the inventions of cash registers and shopping carts to the varied shopping customs around the world, from games shows to internet shopping and ebay.
full of informative sidebars and fascinating photographs, spree documents how shopping has evolved from a need, to a want, to a sport.
rights inquiries: contact carolyn swayze or kris rothstein at reception@swayzeagency.com
|
