All the Lives I Want: Essays About My Best Friends Who Happen to Be Famous Strangers

Massey, a columnist for New York magazine’s “The Cut,” analyzes a number of topics—including female anger, destructive romances, weight and body issues, and society’s treatment of creative intelligent women—through pop culture in her debut, a collection of essays. Though Massey discusses celebrities she doesn’t personally know, she writes about them with intimacy, drawing connections between their lives and her own: Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen attended NYU at the same time Massey was adjusting to the college’s frenetic environment, and the media’s sexist portrayals of Courtney Love reflect Massey’s experience with misogyny. The chapter on writer Sylvia Plath seems out of place in a book focused on rock and roll and reality television celebrity, and more space could have been devoted to women rappers’ artistry as well as their beefs, but this book reminds readers how celebrities’ seemingly dazzling lives can provide insight into their own. [em]Agent: Adriann Ranta, Wolf Literary Services. (Feb.) [/em]