Are Katy Perry and Russell Brand getting married? According to Usmagazine.com, sources close to the couple have confirmed they are engaged. One friend said that Brand, 34, proposed to Perry, 25, with a ring while they were vacationing in India. Another friend said that the trip to India was Brand’s Christmas gift to Perry. The couple has been dating since September 2009.
E! News has reported that Johnson & Johnson heiress Casey Johnson has died. Johnson’s body was reportedly discovered at her LA home earlier today, and the cause of death is undetermined. Johnson, 30, has been recently making headlines after announcing her engagement to reality star Tila Tequila on December 9th. Johnson has a three year old adopted daughter, Ava.
Vince Vaughn is no longer living the single life. The comedic actor married Kyla Weber in a small private ceremony before family and friends on Saturday outside of his hometown of Chicago, his rep confirmed to People.com. No further details have been released.
It doesn’t take long for the cookie to crumble. Forty year old Deidre McIntosh has found that out the hard way. After a successful five year run as the host of Seattle’s television show Live Simple, Deidre has found herself with no job, no income after her investments go bad, no roommate and now no place to live. Her best (and gay) friend of twenty plus years has moved on and moved out with his boyfriend, leaving her alone and broke. Enter the gorgeous Kevin Johnson. After a couple of chance meetings leading to a one-night stand, Kevin offers Deidre his vacation house in the desolate country side of Jacob’s Point. Not having many other options, Deidre sells off her designer labels and packs up her few belongings to begin roughing it far from the city. After her horrendous first night in the rustic cabin, Deidre just doesn’t think Jacob’s Point is the best place for her. A visit to the local diner and making some unlikely friends and possible business opportunities changes her mind, and slowly Deidre begins to build her life back up. Good Things, the debut novel from Mia King is a must read for all chick lit fans. Each chapter left me wondering what was next from the head-strong and stubborn heroine, which way the plot was going to twist next with interesting character relationships, and the delicious recipes at the end of the book were an added bonus. A fresh and engaging take on a chick lit storyline.
Shari Diamond has two main goals for herself: finishing her dissertation on the lost language Volapuk, and fulfilling her needs of all things English- including the men. Does it matter that she is living in the East Village of New York and dating a nice Jewish boy that makes her own Jewish family extremely happy? It just isn’t enough for Shari, but on a conference to Chicago, everything changes. Shari quickly falls for (and cheats on her nice Jewish boyfriend) with the handsome, albeit not-so gorgeous, Englishman Kit Brown. Shari is shocked to discover the next day that Kit is actually a speaker at the conference- he is also studying Volapuk- and has found the last living speaker of the language that Shari has been searching for years to find. She is watching her dissertation go downhill with each convincing word Kit is speaking. What should her next move be? Why not invite Kit back to New York, meet her whole family, then travel across the Pond with him and finally see England for the first time. The Anglophile by Laurie Gwen Shapiro is not the best. It took me until Chapter 5 to figure out what exactly the book was about and where the plot was headed. It failed to keep my attention until the last few chapters, but then it went right back to confusing with strange love twists. The whole story line was not engaging and with characters just popping in and out of Shari’s life made it even more difficult to understand what exactly was happening. I hate to say a book is a waste of time, but this is nothing that I would recommend to readers.
Poonam Sharma is not only an author, but also an MBA and real estate developer. Her first two books focused on entrepreneurship and business, with the titles The Harvard Entrepreneurs’ Club Guide to Starting Your Own Business and Chasing Success. Sharma is a graduate from Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire and earned her bachelors degree in economics from Harvard college. After Harvard, she worked at a start-up, a nonprofit venture catalyst and a private equity firm, as well as in investment research and institutional sales in New York. She has also traveled extensively for Chasing Success, traveling around the world in search of entrepreneurs with inspiring stories. She has been featured in the New York Times, USA Today, Inc. magazine and NBC. Sharma wrote her first novel, Girl Most Likely To, after her influences of dealing with cultural conservatism, interracial romance and high finance in Manhattan. The main character in the novel is in investment banking and is dealing with a SEC-scandal while juggling the struggles of life and love. Her second novel, All Eyes on Her, has the main character dealing with the Hollywood lifestyle as a celebrity divorce attorney, all while trying to make her relationship work with the perfect fiancé. Poonam Sharma completed her MBA in May of 2007 at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, where she was also chosen as the student speaker at commencement.
