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CNN Saturday Morning News
Interview with Anne Fulenwider
Aired May 24, 2003 - 08:44 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN ANCHOR: Looking for a hot book for the beach or the pool? You just saw the top best sellers this week. But what are some of the expected hot reads still to come?
Let's check in with book worm -- I hope that's not your official title -- Anne Fulenwider. She is with "Vanity Fair" magazine.
Good morning, Anne.
ANNE FULENWIDER, "VANITY FAIR": Good morning, Andrea.
KOPPEL: So, tell us about some of the books -- I think you picked five out for us -- that you think folks should pick up this summer.
FULENWIDER: Well, one of the best books of the summer so far I think is David Halberstam's book "The Teammates," which is a lighter book than his usual Pulitzer Prize winning journalism, but it's still fantastic. It came out of some research he did for his book a couple of years ago called "Summer of '49" about the Boston Red Sox/Yankees pennant race.
He became really good friends with Ted Williams during the research for that book and this is a book about Ted Williams and three of his Boston Red Sox teammates -- Dominic DiMaggio, Johnny Pesky and Bobby Doerr. And it's a book -- he found out that a couple of them had gone down to Florida to visit Ted Williams towards the end of his life and this is a book that sort of follows that road trip and their reminiscences about their good old days on the Boston Red Sox in the 1940s.
KOPPEL: Sounds like it could be a good Father's Day book, as well.
FULENWIDER: It's a great Father's Day book. I think women will like it, as well. It's a very romantic book. It's sort of the nostalgia of the old days mixed with just some really great guys.
KOPPEL: Well, I know one book that a lot of gossip minded people are going to want to pick up. This is "Mr. S." by his former butler, is that right?
FULENWIDER: Yes, his former valet for almost 20 years, George Jacobs, who really thought more of Frank Sinatra than, I think, anyone else. This is unlike any other book about Frank Sinatra and everyone is talking about this book. It's actually -- it won't be out till next week, but I think you can already order it online and I think you should get in line now because there's so much gossip. There's Ava Gardner, Mia Farrow, I mean every other page has someone you'll want to know about. It also, though, is a very imitate and personal look at Frank Sinatra, unlike any other book about Frank Sinatra that any of us have ever read.
KOPPEL: And a lot about Robert Kennedy and his relationship with...
FULENWIDER: All the Kennedys, oh, yes, absolutely.
KOPPEL: ... Sinatra and with Marilyn Monroe. I never realized that she wasn't a neat freak, that she's just the opposite, that she was supposedly kind of a slob.
FULENWIDER: There's a lot about everyone in here you've never heard before, absolutely. There's a great scene with Marlene Dietrich and Greta Garbo. There's just, there's really nothing George Jacobs didn't see. And he's refused to tell his story until now. He's been offered, you know, all sorts of deals to tell it and he's just telling it now.
KOPPEL: So, and now we've got, what, "The Quality of Life Report." What's that about?
FULENWIDER: This is a fun one. This is a first novel, Megan Daum. She's a humorist and a satirist and she wrote a book of essays a couple of years ago. This is her first novel. It's something that I can certainly relate to -- maybe you can, too. She's a career woman in New York City who, actually she's a television reporter and sort of around the age of 30 she decides to give it all up and move to the country.
She moves to the Midwest and has all sorts of fantasies about the simpler life, moving into a farmhouse and falling in love with a cowboy, something like Sam Sheppard. And she gets there and I think things are a little bit unlike what she expected.
KOPPEL: Yes, I usually have those feelings about 10:30 at night after I've been in since six in the morning. But quickly, what are...
FULENWIDER: Absolutely.
KOPPEL: What are our remaining books?
FULENWIDER: This is every working woman's fantasy. And it's got a surprise ending, too, so there's a, it's a lot to look forward to, that one.
KOPPEL: And I think we've got two more just to tick through real quick.
FULENWIDER: Yes, there's another book that everyone in Hollywood's talking about right now. Advance copies have been passed around like hotcakes. It's called "Action" by Robert Court. And it's a novel, but lots of real characters walk in and out. There's Elizabeth Taylor, Michael Ovitz. And this is about Robert Court, the movie producer, and this is based on his experience in Hollywood. It spans three decades, three generations of Hollywood. And it really shows you the inner workings as well as some gossip and everyone's taking about this one already.
And the last one is oh, one of my favorite writers, Jane Smiley, has a novel coming out. She's written, you know, a number of books, a number of best sellers. This is a return for her to the good old- fashioned novel. She's tried crime, comedy, all sorts of things, and this is just, this is about a guy in his 40s who gets into some real estate dealings in the '80s. It's got sort of the glamour of the '80s real estate money and his sort of mischievous love life. He gets into some trouble.
She's a great, she's a master craftsman and this is a wonderful book.
KOPPEL: Well, those sound like five wonderful books and going to...
FULENWIDER: They are.
KOPPEL: ... certainly take up a couple of weeks of our summer reading time.
FULENWIDER: Oh, yes, absolutely.
KOPPEL: Thanks.
Anne Fulenwider, thank you so much.
FULENWIDER: Thank you, Andrea.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired May 24, 2003 - 08:44 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN ANCHOR: Looking for a hot book for the beach or the pool? You just saw the top best sellers this week. But what are some of the expected hot reads still to come?
Let's check in with book worm -- I hope that's not your official title -- Anne Fulenwider. She is with "Vanity Fair" magazine.
Good morning, Anne.
ANNE FULENWIDER, "VANITY FAIR": Good morning, Andrea.
KOPPEL: So, tell us about some of the books -- I think you picked five out for us -- that you think folks should pick up this summer.
FULENWIDER: Well, one of the best books of the summer so far I think is David Halberstam's book "The Teammates," which is a lighter book than his usual Pulitzer Prize winning journalism, but it's still fantastic. It came out of some research he did for his book a couple of years ago called "Summer of '49" about the Boston Red Sox/Yankees pennant race.
He became really good friends with Ted Williams during the research for that book and this is a book about Ted Williams and three of his Boston Red Sox teammates -- Dominic DiMaggio, Johnny Pesky and Bobby Doerr. And it's a book -- he found out that a couple of them had gone down to Florida to visit Ted Williams towards the end of his life and this is a book that sort of follows that road trip and their reminiscences about their good old days on the Boston Red Sox in the 1940s.
KOPPEL: Sounds like it could be a good Father's Day book, as well.
FULENWIDER: It's a great Father's Day book. I think women will like it, as well. It's a very romantic book. It's sort of the nostalgia of the old days mixed with just some really great guys.
KOPPEL: Well, I know one book that a lot of gossip minded people are going to want to pick up. This is "Mr. S." by his former butler, is that right?
FULENWIDER: Yes, his former valet for almost 20 years, George Jacobs, who really thought more of Frank Sinatra than, I think, anyone else. This is unlike any other book about Frank Sinatra and everyone is talking about this book. It's actually -- it won't be out till next week, but I think you can already order it online and I think you should get in line now because there's so much gossip. There's Ava Gardner, Mia Farrow, I mean every other page has someone you'll want to know about. It also, though, is a very imitate and personal look at Frank Sinatra, unlike any other book about Frank Sinatra that any of us have ever read.
KOPPEL: And a lot about Robert Kennedy and his relationship with...
FULENWIDER: All the Kennedys, oh, yes, absolutely.
KOPPEL: ... Sinatra and with Marilyn Monroe. I never realized that she wasn't a neat freak, that she's just the opposite, that she was supposedly kind of a slob.
FULENWIDER: There's a lot about everyone in here you've never heard before, absolutely. There's a great scene with Marlene Dietrich and Greta Garbo. There's just, there's really nothing George Jacobs didn't see. And he's refused to tell his story until now. He's been offered, you know, all sorts of deals to tell it and he's just telling it now.
KOPPEL: So, and now we've got, what, "The Quality of Life Report." What's that about?
FULENWIDER: This is a fun one. This is a first novel, Megan Daum. She's a humorist and a satirist and she wrote a book of essays a couple of years ago. This is her first novel. It's something that I can certainly relate to -- maybe you can, too. She's a career woman in New York City who, actually she's a television reporter and sort of around the age of 30 she decides to give it all up and move to the country.
She moves to the Midwest and has all sorts of fantasies about the simpler life, moving into a farmhouse and falling in love with a cowboy, something like Sam Sheppard. And she gets there and I think things are a little bit unlike what she expected.
KOPPEL: Yes, I usually have those feelings about 10:30 at night after I've been in since six in the morning. But quickly, what are...
FULENWIDER: Absolutely.
KOPPEL: What are our remaining books?
FULENWIDER: This is every working woman's fantasy. And it's got a surprise ending, too, so there's a, it's a lot to look forward to, that one.
KOPPEL: And I think we've got two more just to tick through real quick.
FULENWIDER: Yes, there's another book that everyone in Hollywood's talking about right now. Advance copies have been passed around like hotcakes. It's called "Action" by Robert Court. And it's a novel, but lots of real characters walk in and out. There's Elizabeth Taylor, Michael Ovitz. And this is about Robert Court, the movie producer, and this is based on his experience in Hollywood. It spans three decades, three generations of Hollywood. And it really shows you the inner workings as well as some gossip and everyone's taking about this one already.
And the last one is oh, one of my favorite writers, Jane Smiley, has a novel coming out. She's written, you know, a number of books, a number of best sellers. This is a return for her to the good old- fashioned novel. She's tried crime, comedy, all sorts of things, and this is just, this is about a guy in his 40s who gets into some real estate dealings in the '80s. It's got sort of the glamour of the '80s real estate money and his sort of mischievous love life. He gets into some trouble.
She's a great, she's a master craftsman and this is a wonderful book.
KOPPEL: Well, those sound like five wonderful books and going to...
FULENWIDER: They are.
KOPPEL: ... certainly take up a couple of weeks of our summer reading time.
FULENWIDER: Oh, yes, absolutely.
KOPPEL: Thanks.
Anne Fulenwider, thank you so much.
FULENWIDER: Thank you, Andrea.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com