I wasn’t sure about venturing out in last night’s rain, but Hachette Book Group made it easier for me by scheduling two book parties just blocks apart on the Lower East Side. First, at Happy Ending, Warner Books threw a bash for Kiki T. (top row, center), the author of The Celestial Sexpot’s Handbook, a astrological guide to the lovemaking (and since Kiki’s worked that advice vein for both Jane and Playgirl, I assume she knows what she’s talking about!).
While I was there, I ran into Karen Holt (bottom row, right), the editorial director for the new Publishers Weekly website and the author of “The Morning After,” its new book-parties-and-publishers-luncheons blog. After she assured me that, pace Sarah’s comments on the relaunch, the blog will include plenty of photo coverage, I dragged her down Broome Street to Lolita to meet Joshua Ferris, who was celebrating his debut novel, Then We Came to the End. In addition to several members of the Little, Brown team (who were thrilled about the front-page placement for the book in tomorrow’s NYTBR), the party drew a lot of other writers: I spotted Virginia Vitzthum, Gabriel Cohen, Kyle Smith, Elizabeth Kadetsky, David Goodwillie, Jami Attenberg, and Farrin Jacobs—and I finally got to meet Emily Gould of Gawker, who also has a book coming out later this year.