Results tagged “meganmccafferty”

from two of author Megan McCafferty's books. But boy, what a week it's been, and everyone (for better or worse) is still talking about it.

The publishing world is in a tizzy over rising novelist's Kaavya Viswanathan's admission that she unintentionally copied passages from books by Megan McCafferty in order to write, How Opal Got Kissed, Got Wild and Got a Life, about an ambitious NJ teen who wants to get into Harvard. Viswanathan, just featured earlier in a rather glowing NY Times article about being a Harvard student with a $500,000 two-book deal at Little, Brown, was exposed by the Harvard Crimson over the weekend, and has now had to 'fess up. (Hats off to Harvard Crimson writer David Zhou for reading all three books over the weekend - check out examples of the similar passages, but really, hats off to the reader's tip-off started this.) McCafferty, a Columbia alum, whose two books about a smart NJ teen named Jessica Darling "inspired" Viswanathan to "internalize" prose, Sloppy Firsts and Second Helpings, Gothamist has read and enjoyed, just hopes that that an agreement can be reached; no word on whether Viswanathan's admission and the fact that Little, Brown will not only remove/edit the similar passages but also acknowledge McCafferty is good enough (we're thinking there may have to be a payday). The Columbia Spectator weighs in and while it doesn't break any news, it has definitely found a great quote:

“I have read the McCafferty books and they are in that vein of unavoidable, awesomely bad, Y.A. chick lit that one usually ends up burning through on an idle Sunday evening or ten. They are good. But they are not worth plagiarizing,” Jennifer Bernstein, CC ’09, said. “Thank you, Harvard sophomore Kaavya Viswanathan, for this moment of pure schadenfreude.”

Exactly - everyone needs a bit of schadenfreude to get through the day, but if we find out that Dr. Seuss didn't write and illustrate his books, we're going to be very, very angry.

Gothamist Reads The Parker Grey Show
Gothamist takes a much-need break from mindless chick lit for an "anti-it girl" book .

How telling is it that although I'm currently trying to read Stendhal's The Red and the Black, I've read two less-than-Stendhal books to keep the mind going? (Good in Bed, The Club Dumas) And I am excited that Second Helpings by Megan McCafferty went on sale this week? Second Helpings is the sequel to Sloppy Firsts, about this brainy New Jersey high schooler, Jessica Darling. The writing's a little precious and sometimes tries too hard to be trendy and sometimes it seems like a book for the model teenager (A-student, athlete, etc), but it becomes subverted as Jessica goes through the usual teen trials (boys, catty girls). Jessica doesn't take herself too seriously even though she's miserable at times, and Megan McCafferty injects such a great tone and spirit into the book. I totally identified with the idea that smart girls do get dizzy over the usual things, and for that, I don't feel silly that it's a book aimed at teenage girls.