This past week was probably not the best time to launch two separate — though not exactly competing — books about Mama Grizzly, what with the understandable will-she-or-won’t-she-run fatigue. That said, The Rogue: Searching for the Real Sarah Palin, by sensationalist writer Joe McGinniss, did get lots of press attention for its (anonymously sourced) claims that Palin had cheated on husband Todd, done cocaine, and fed her children burnt mac and cheese; there was even a deliciously barbed critique from the Times’ Janet Maslin, who called the book “dated, petty,” and full of “unsubstantiated, caustic gossip.” That free press probably did its sales more good than harm — the e-book version currently tops the category of biographies of political “Leaders & Notable People” — though it has yet to crack the site’s top 50 best-sellers list. (At the time of this writing, it was No. 80.)
The second book out this week, Deer in the Headlights: My Life in Sarah Palin’s Crosshairs, by Bristol Palin baby daddy Levi Johnston, will probably be best remembered for this rather disgusting line, pulled by the Observer: “Little did Sarah know that night that Bristol had something other than moose meat in her tummy.” First off, ew. And second, this apparently referred to a time after Bristol gave birth to son Tripp. (Bit of obvious trivia: Levi didn’t write the book. A grandfather-grandmother team working from a boat named Coconut in Key West did.) Deer in the Headlights is currently eighth in the political “Leaders & Notable People” category and No. 738 overall. Not stellar numbers all things said, nor are the books selling particularly well on Barnes & Noble’s website, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Which confirms that people do, in fact, care about something other than Sarah Palin’s stovetop skills and her embittered almost-son-in-law.
