Martha Stewart: Just Desserts: The Unauthorized Biography

You'll want to wear old clothes: Jerry Oppenheimer's biography of Style Doyenne Martha Stewart is a frenzy of mudslinging. With chapter titles like "A Dysfunctional Family," you know exactly what to expect--but Stewart is such a big, fat target that the book is entertaining anyway. Obviously, the architect of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia is no sweetheart. (Control issues? You don't say). But regardless of the muck, you'll come away with a mixture of respect for Stewart's talent and prodigious drive ("I can will an orgasm whenever I want"), and profound gratitude that she's not your daughter, wife, mother, friend, or business associate. Just Desserts affords brief glimpses of the private Martha. She was called "Marty" in high school. She modeled her way through Barnard. She may have engaged in wife-swapping. But anyone surprised that Martha the domestic goddess is a work of fiction misses the point entirely.