Gimme some sugar (Hilary Liftin on love and Junior Mints)

I've been on a quest to find other writers doing the celebrity memoir thing. Networking, and all that. But also just curious. Currently kicking butt on the NYT bestseller list is the new Tori Spelling book, co-authored by Hilary Liftin, who got started the same way I did -- writing her own memoir. Hilary's Candy and Me was called "lovely and lyrical" by Vanity Fair. USA Today said "delightful; a hilarious, counterintuitive romp through stacks of Necco Wafers, Smarties, Snickers and Jelly Bellies."

"Hilary Liftin’s lifelong love affair with candy shapes all her relationships," saith the PR, "from her family and friends to her ultimate choice of a mate. Through life’s ups and downs, candy is a constant that sustains her. In Candy and Me, her life unfolds in a series of bittersweet revelations and restorative meditations—from a forgettable fling with Skittles to a mature, committed relationship with Bottle Caps."

Here's a bit of Hilary's homage to Junior Mints:

The summer before I went to college, my former camp counselor Finn called drunk from a bar, announced that he had broken up with his fiancee, and wondered if he could see me. I was staying with my parents in New York City, working a miserable administrative job for a law firm in the World Trade Center. They put me in a windowless file room, sorting, papers on a pro bono case. Every day I would buy a box of Junior Mints for lunch-dessert and eat them all as I read Love in the Time of Cholera. Sometimes I would lock the door of the file room and read into the afternoon. If any of the lawyers came down to look for a file or to check on me, I would tell them that I was afraid to be alone in that deserted part of the office. Their faces said that the room reeked of sugar and deceit.

The night that Finn visited conveniently happened to be the only night of the summer that my parents were out of town. It was also the night before my last day of work.

Gobble down the rest of "Junior Mints" here on Hilary's web site while you wait for the book to come in on order at your local bookstore.