Little Pink Slips

LITTLE PINK SLIPS is the ultimate insider's story. For years, author Sally Koslow had been the Editor-in-Chief of the venerable "McCall's" magazine. Suddenly, the powers-that-be in the head office decided to turn the publication over to Rosie O'Donnell--who had had no magazine experience--putting Koslow in an inferior position on the masthead. As it would turn out, even that inferior position did not last too long; eventually, of course, neither did Rosie. LITTLE PINK SLIPS is Koslow's fictionalized version of this segment of her professional life. While LITTLE PINK SLIPS easily could have disintegrated into a revenge novel, the author does not let that happen. She never is mean in telling this story, much as she may have been tempted to take her swipes. In fact, her Rosie surrogate often seems likeable, even when she's out of control. Yet this novel is not about media stars, fictional or real. It is about Magnolia Gold, the original editor of the ficticious "Lady" Magazine: about her efforts to keep the magazine's standards high, her attempt to stand up to the loud mouth boss who is brought in above her and, finally, it is about her struggle to resurrect her professional life after she is excessed. In telling this story, Koslow offers some wonderful glimpses into what it takes to put out a first-class magazine, giving readers a true fly-on-the-wall perspective. Her descriptions of Magnolia's co-workers are hilarious and one cannot help wondering on whom she based some of these characters. She tells the story with objectivity and thoroughness and with a commendable amount of humor. This humor, while often laugh-out-loud, is especially admirable in light of the fact that the plot mirrors a dark (and very conspicuous) episode in Koslow's own life. Equally good are the author's insights into upper-class New York life in these early years of the new millennium. She covers so much of the city's rhythms, from the best nursery schools to the best restaurants to the best cooperative apartment buildings to the best sample sales to the best hairdressers....Well, on every level, LITTLE PINK SLIPS is the best of the best.

I devoured this book as if it were a cupcake from Magnolia Bakery. For me, it was a master class in writing hip, funny, smart prose---and absolutely delectable from the first word to the last. The protagonaist and her posse are just the type of women you want to have as your friends, and even the she-villian has moments of true-likability. Warning: potions of this book are "snort-diet-coke-through-your-nose" funny.

Ladies, you will rue the moment you are forced to put this gem down, as I did when I had to go pick up my kids from school! I was completely enthralled from the first page behind-the-scenes look at a NYC Chanel sample sale, devoured the details about life in the magazine world, and more tellingly fell immediately in love with the quirky, slightly neurotic, totally likeable, done-wrong-by Magnolia. LPS is so much more than a voyeristic look into the shambles of a once strong magazine (think McCall's) after a loud-mouth celebrity (you know who) and the magazine's publishers decided to re-vamp the beloved mag in the image of said celeb. Sure, it's fun to wonder about which details in the book came from Koslow's experience as the wrongly ousted editor in the McCall's/Rosie debacle; but what's more fun is becoming completely enraptured in this story's characters and their confidently shaky walks through the world of magazine publishing and relationships, of the friend and spouse kind, that will leave you with a new favortie author to add to your list. Koslow's writing style is like chick lit having gone to an esteemed Ivy league school - her wit is charming, her prose simply perfect, all making for a biting, totally engrossing read. This one will be on the best-seller lists and will leave you wanting to know when Koslow's next novel will hit the stands!

At eight months pregnant, I can't drink, I can't smoke, I can't eat sushi, ambien is a no-no and I have to be nice to my husband because he's the one who is going to drive me to the hospital when I go into labor. In short - I have no vices - until now...Little Pink Slips is so deliciously decadent, entertaining, lol funny -- and most importantly wonderfully written - that it's the most I've had since making this baby. I simply can't put it down. I am pulled into every scene - one of my favorites is Chapter six where Magnolia meets BeBe and her go-to "B" for the first time. I felt like I was there at breakfast!!!!!! Warning this is not chick-lit -- more like "Lady Lit"

Little Pink Slips is delicious fun. Warning: you will stay up all night reading this novel. Sally Koslow obviously knows the magazine industry from the inside-out. You will cheer on her heroine, Magnolia Gold, as she battles a nut job of a celebrity (who might remind you of a famous TV star), back-stabbing colleagues and the occasional sample sale. This book is notches above chick-lit. If Edith Wharton dropped in on a women's magazine in 2007, she'd offer the same whip-smart look at the social habits of shrewd, well-paid women who believe in the holy trinity of good hair, good shoes and good bags. Witty, juicy and delicious. You definitely want to read this book.