5 Things Liz & Lisa Didn't Know About...Beth Harbison

Gotta love summer and all the new releases from  our favorite writers these past few months.  Between great books by Emily GiffinAllison Winn Scotch and Jane Green, our beach bag is getting damn heavy(maybe we can find a hunky lifeguard to carry it for us?). And we'll have to make room for one more NYT bestselling author because the lovely Beth Harbison has a new book out TODAYThin, Rich, Pretty is a must read! (PS: It's also her birthday! What a perfect way to celebrate!) We first fell in love with Beth after reading Shoe Addicts Anonymous and were lucky enough to have her answer 25 Things we wanted to know last year.  Thin, Rich, Pretty is Harbison's fourth novel and it follows three women as they attempt to escape the bitterness of their past. Poignant and funny, Thin, Rich, Pretty is for any woman who remembers that bratty girl who made fun of her but is happy today in spite of it.

And we've got FIVE copies of Thin, Rich, Pretty to give away.  Just leave a comment and we'll choose the winners by random drawing on Thursday evening.  How easy is that?  So don't be shy, leave a comment!

Now let's get to Beth's five things.  If you've never read her books before, we have a feeling you'll be running out to the nearest Barnes & Noble after checking out what she has to say (just the fact that she could pick us up for lunch in a limo OR a Haz-mat truck makes us love her). She had us LOLing. And that's saying a lot because we don't LOL for just anyone...I mean, we might COL(chuckle out loud) occasionally but we're definitely not LOL whores.(Although *someone* (Liz!) has developed a serious snorting out loud problem lately...)

But now, without further adieu-let's give a warm welcome to the ultra-fab Beth Harbison!

5 Things Liz & Lisa didn't know about Beth Harbison!

1. That, when asked to come up with five things people don’t know about me, I really struggled to come up with anything.  Then I realized the no one out there really knows anything about me, so it’s not really five things you don’t know about me that I’m having trouble with but five things about me that might be interesting at all.   So, in conclusion, 1. I’m boring.

2. Except, I’m really not boring, it’s just that all the good stuff about me is secret. I can’t tell you the good stuff without being afraid you’ll blackmail me with it later, or that it will come out the night before the New Hampshire Primaries when I’m running for president and my bid for the White House will be completely ruined because my bossy publicist wanted me to get out here and trumpet myself so people will buy my books.  So 2. I’m running for President.  Someday.

3. I’d be a horrible president.  Really. I don’t understand politics that well and I can’t really keep my own money budgeted, so you don’t want me in charge of yours.  On the other hand, if Katie Couric asked me what magazines and newspapers I read, I could answer.  In fact, I would answer.  Because maybe the People Magazine, InStyle, and Allure people would give me a free lifetime subscription which, believe me, would save me lots of money.  Wait!  Did you catch that?  I was being budget conscious.  So maybe I’d be a pretty good president.  Or at least Governor of California.  Except I don’t know what to do about the oil spill, since Certain People laughed at my “lots and lots of cotton balls” idea.  Incidentally, the White House phone operator didn’t otherwise demonstrate any sense of humor at all, so I don’t think she was laughing with me, so much as at me.  So, yeah, 3. I am not the political expert I appear to be.

4. So clearly if the writing thing doesn’t work out, I’m kind of screwed as far as a career in politics is concerned too. It’s too late to join the military, though drab green is my color, and even if the Peace Corps would have me, I think the fact that I’m afraid to walk around my suburban neighborhood at night -- because of all the frogs and rabbits and shushing noises in the trees -- might indicate I’m a bad candidate for jungle living.  I actually have a commercial driver’s license and can legally drive a limo, or bus or non-Hazmat truck, but I also have a driving phobia so the CDL is really just for show now.  Really, my greatest asset seems to be that I’ve eaten at virtually every restaurant in Disney World.  And a bunch of good ones in Manhattan as well.  And D.C.  But what job consists of basically eating in fancy restaurants and going to events?  I know!  4. Would make excellent hired escort Vice­-President.

5. I don’t want to be vice-president! For one thing, I kind of like the idea of living in Florida, at least in the winter, and you just know the media would be all over me for leaving Mass Avenue and going on down to Key West for a few months every year.  President Schwarzenegger might also not be too pleased with me for that, because then he’d get a bunch of heat for begging me to be his running mate.  As he should, actually, because you totally know he’d have strong armed me into doing it because he so desperately needed someone with my charm, intelligence, and lack of easily-imitated-by-Tina-Fey annoying accent to boost his ticket.  When you come right down to it, you just know he begged me, using emotional blackmail like “the children of America look up to you and need your guidance” and “only you can pass a bill allowing dogs to vote”.  And frankly I don’t like being manipulated that way, Arnold.  So, I guess, 5. is: I’m going to just keep being a writer as long as I have readers.  But you probably already knew that.

In which case: I am very grateful to have the opportunity to do what I love every day and get paid for it.  Being a working hired escort writer.

To read more about Beth, check out her Facebook fan page or follow her on Twitter.

xoxo, Liz & Lisa