6 Dec 2013

Here are five books written by Hollywood celebrities that you don’t need to feel embarrassed about buying.

When it Happens to You by Molly Ringwald

Tales of love, loss, and betrayal are at the heart of When It Happens to You, the debut novel in stories from actress and author Molly Ringwald.

A Hollywood icon, Ringwald defined the teenage experience in the eighties in such classic films as Pretty in Pink, The Breakfast Club and Sixteen Candles. Ringwald brings the compelling candour she displayed in her film roles to the unforgettable characters she has created in this series of intertwined and linked stories about the particular challenges, joys and disappointments of adult relationships.

Her characters grapple with infertility and infidelity, fame and familial discord in a magnificent debut that will resonate broadly, particularly with fans of Melissa Banks, Meg Wolitzer and Lorrie Moore.

Actors Anonymous by James Franco

Inspired by Alcoholics Anonymous' 12 Steps and 12 Traditions, obnoxious celebrity James Franco’s first novel is a dark, genre-bending work that mixes memoir and pure invention in an audacious examination of celebrity, acting and the making of fiction.

Our reviewer writes:

“Though the title suggests a juicy tell-all, in the style of Kenneth Anger’s Hollywood Babylon, Actors Anonymous is the opposite of an expose. Entering the literary world as a madcap exercise in self-obfuscation, it is much closer in spirit to Joaquin Phoenix and Casey Affleck’s hoax film project I’m Still Here (2010): a reality-inspired fiction told by an unreliable narrator. … The result is a book as narcissistic as it is self-loathing.”

Mindy Kaling has lived many lives: comedienne, actress, obedient child of immigrant professionals and, now, writer.

With a blend of witty confessions and unscientific observations, Mindy writes about everything from being a timid young chubster afraid of her own bike to living the Hollywood life, dating, friendships and planning her own funeral - all executed with several conveniently placed stopping points for you to run errands and make phone calls.

Demon Dentist ($19.99) by David Walliams

David Walliams of Little Britain fame is currently the fastest selling children’s author in the UK!

Darkness had come to the town. Strange things were happening in the dead of night. Children would put a tooth under their pillow for the tooth fairy, but in the morning they would wake up to find a dead slug, a live spider, hundreds of earwigs creeping and crawling beneath their pillow. Evil was at work. But who or what was behind it?

Someday, Someday, Maybe by Lauren Graham

(This title is due for general release on January 2!)

From Lauren Graham, the star of Gilmore Girls and Parenthood, comes a witty, charming, and hilarious novel about a struggling young actress trying to get ahead, and keep it together, in New York City.

Franny Banks has just six months left of the three-year deadline she set for herself when she came to New York, dreaming of Broadway and doing ‘important’ work. But all she has to show for her efforts so far is an ad for ugly Christmas sweaters, and a gig waiting tables at a comedy club. Everyone tells her she needs a backup plan, but she’s not ready to give up on her dream, not just yet. And she most certainly isn’t ready to let herself be distracted by notorious flirt James Franklin!