The Receptionist
An Education at The New Yorker (Digital Edition)

I could sum up this book in one quick blurb: Pretty blonde takes advantage of an informal meeting with literary giant E.B. White to beg for a position at The New Yorker. Being a kind man with a generous soul, he passes her along to the head secretary, who offers her a position as a receptionist, a j......more

Some books are just so delicious. Scattered, anecdotal and wonderfully insider-ish, this is one of them. Reading this book is like being at a cocktail party with author Janet Groth. Actually, a few cocktail parties, for at one she might have had only one glass of wine, so she name drops with discret......more

This is a tough one to rate. While I find the era and location, New York City through the late 50s to the early 80s, fascinating, the author doesn't succeed in bringing that time to life. Yes, she does describe her lunches and dinners with interesting characters in some of the most fashionable estab......more

I came to this with an expectation of more about what it was like to be involved at the New Yorker in the 1960s and beyond, and was somewhat disappointed. Groth has written more about herself and her young life than insider tales of the New Yorker and life in that era. Once I let that go I had a mor......more

When the blond author's live-in boyfriend left her for a brunette, she thought it was for superficial reasons--only after the fact did it occur to her that it might be because she lacked the depth necessary to be a compelling life partner. The same can be said of this book, which provides some amusi......more