cover image Because She Can

Because She Can

Bridie Clark, , read by Mary Birdsong. . Hachette Audio, $29.98 (0pp) ISBN 978-1-59483-869-9

Mary Birdsong, who plays Deputy Kimball on TV’s Reno 911!, spawns a comically horrific incarnation of boss-from-Hell Vivian Grant, who steamrollers over assistants, editors, agents, authors and even corporate executives at the venerable publisher that houses her highly controversial—but amazingly lucrative—imprint. Grant utters the f-word with a frequency that would leave Tony Soprano blushing and catapults office supplies across conference rooms during her frequent tirades. Newly hired Grant Books editor Claire Truman valiantly strives to hold onto both her cool and her job, as relationships with friends and family—not to mention her planned nuptials to hunky Wall Street broker Randall Cox—lapse onto autopilot. Birdsong’s depictions of the principal male characters are a little too affected, but she maintains a pitch-perfect command of female banter. The book-business jargon may somehow seem both too familiar for industry insiders and too insular for a broader audience, and the romantic triangle wins no prizes for originality. Yet listeners in the mood for some hearty laughs at the expense of a deliciously devilish workplace villain should find themselves thoroughly entertained. Simultaneous release with the Warner hardcover (Reviews, Sept. 11). (Feb.)