Hey everyone! It’s intern What Makes You BEAUtiful back for my final blog post. I’m so sad to be leaving Beaufort and the lovely people I’ve been working with this summer (shoutout to our editorial director Megan, publicity and editorial associate Emma, and the three other interns!) but soon, it will be time for the fall interns to take up the torch.
The best part of this internship has been reading some amazing Beaufort and Spencer Hill titles (and saving them on my computer for “marketing” purposes, of course). Since it’s my last week, I like to imagine myself in the office in New York, making a mad dash to shove as many books in my bag as possible without arousing suspicion. But since all of us are working remotely reality is way less dramatic—just me staring at a screen and downloading all the epub files my laptop storage can handle.
In honor of the end of my internship, I made a list of a few of the Beaufort books I’m going to download/steal/beg Megan to send to me when they come out.
If I Did It by The Goldman Family
All author royalties from the sale of this book are awarded to the Goldman Family.
In 1994, Ron Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson were brutally murdered at her home in Brentwood, California. O.J. Simpson was tried for the crime in a case that captured the attention of the American people, but he was ultimately acquitted of criminal charges. The victims’ families brought a civil case against Simpson, which found him liable for willfully and wrongfully causing the deaths of Ron and Nicole committing battery with malice and oppression.
Twelve years later, HarperCollins announced the publication of a book in which O.J. Simpson revealed how he would have committed the murders—under the pretense that his confession was “hypothetical.” In response to public outrage that Simpson stood to profit from these crimes, HarperCollins canceled the book. Just one year later, Federal Court Judge A. Jay Cristol awarded the Goldman family the rights to If I Did It. Thus began one of the strangest odysseys in publishing history.
Originally written by O.J. Simpson, the Goldmans published a new edition of the book in the fall of 2007, which included essays written by members of the Goldman family, a member of the Goldman family legal team, and O.J.’s ghostwriter that reveal the fascinating story behind the bankruptcy case, the book’s publication, and the looming court proceedings, which would eventually lead to his conviction. The book, called “one of the most chilling things I have ever read” by Barbara Walters, skyrocketed up bestseller lists across the country in the months following publication as the national media relentlessly covered O.J. Simpson’s dramatic Las Vegas arrest for armed robbery and kidnapping.
The Goldman family views the book as his confession and has worked hard to ensure that the public will read this book and learn the truth. This is O.J. Simpson’s original manuscript with up to 14,000 words of additional key commentary from those whose lives were forever changed by the heinous crime.
The Mad, Mad Murders of Marigold Way by Raymond Benson
For Scott Hatcher, a former television writer turned struggling novelist with a failing marriage to boot, social-distancing and mask-wearing feel like fitting additions to his already surreal life. When his wife Marie and neighbor John Bergman disappear in the middle of the raging COVID-19 pandemic, Scott is naturally mystified and disturbed, but he is also about to learn that his picturesque neighborhood hides more than just the mundane routines of suburban life. When a fire claims the empty house for sale next door, the entire community is shocked when the charred remains of Marie and John are found inside. Stranger still, stockpiles of valuable Personal Protection Equipment, clearly stolen, were destroyed in the blaze alongside them. As the neighborhood reels from the loss, Scott and Bergman’s earthy and enticing widow, Rachel, not only find themselves under investigation for the crime, but also inexorably drawn to one another. As tensions reach a fever pitch, the tale—which is at once familiar and ordinary, yet bizarre and eerie— shows that, just like life in 2020’s uncertain times, dread and danger lurk below the hidden underside of everyday suburbia.
Release date: October 4, 2022
Illusions of Camelot: A Memoir by Peter Boal
Written by a former principal dancer for the New York City Ballet, Peter Boal’s memoir, Illusions of Camelot, starts in the pastoral and privileged town of Bedford, New York: a rare enclave where private schools, country clubs, and families hold their own rules and secrets. Within the town, views of race, morality, and sexuality are unspoken yet evident. Meanwhile, at home, Peter and his family are left to grapple with his father’s alcoholism and untimely death. As a young boy finding his way, Peter soon turns to ballet. Ultimately his passion becomes a beacon, leading him to work at the New York City Ballet as a teenager, living on his own while discovering the pitfalls and pleasures Manhattan has to offer. Throughout Peter’s deeply personal work, you’ll step onto the floor during ballroom dancing lessons in Bedford, into the studios of the School of American Ballet at Lincoln Center, and onto the stage in George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker as Peter performs the title role of the Nutcracker Prince. Peter’s journey takes us to the start of a storied career as a dancer and leaves us with insights into the life of an artist shaped by environment, circumstance, and family.
Conspiracy 101 by Paul Debole
For decades, society has viewed “conspiracy theorists” as people who live in their parents’ basement, wearing baseball caps lined with aluminum to keep the Martian death rays away. But the truth is that conspiracies are not reserved for people with a tenuous grasp of reality; to some extent, we all want to know the unknowable. In Conspiracy 101, political science professor Paul DeBole delves into the why, how, and what of conspiracy theories: why humans are prone to believing—and spreading—misinformation; how the nature of our political institutions fosters distrust, paving the way for conspiracy theories to run rampant; and what we can do to filter out theories that are not based on fact, but rather hearsay, innuendo, or just a “strong feeling.” He then breaks down the most notorious conspiracy theories in American politics, including the Lincoln kidnapping plot and his subsequent assassination, the possible escape and eventual suicide of John Wilkes Booth, the JFK assassination, the RFK assassination, Watergate, the Vast Right-Wing conspiracy, as well as modern-day conspiracies based on misinformation and “fake news.”
Honestly, I would list every one of our titles here if I could—I’ll be treating our catalog as my personal library for as long as it takes me to finish them. I hope you all will join me on this journey and pick up one of these books (and maybe a few more) next time you’re at your local indie bookstore!
For the last time:
With love,
What Makes You BEAUtiful