Book Party Week at BBBT

B.B. with author Carolyne Roehm

and author John Carr.

We recently attended two book parties in one week here at Bart Boehlert's Beautiful Things. On Tuesday night TD and I headed downtown to Soho for a party for our friend John Carr who has just published a book called Great Expectations: Becoming a Dad: The First Three Years.

John Carr is married to my great friend Abigail Gouveneur Carr. Abby and I met through work in New York City in...wait for it...1983. Holy moly, friends for 27 years. When Abby and I met we were both single in the city, very Will and Grace. Well, Abigail now has three beautiful (and I mean it) children and is married to the good and kind John Carr.

John is a family clinical social worker and psychotherapist with a private practice in New York, and his book is a parenting guide for men. There are many books for mothers, so a book for fathers is a great idea. The book party was held at the Housing Works Bookstore Cafe on Crosby Street. Abby and the kids were there, and lots of friends and family. John spoke to the crowd movingly about his changing relationship with his own father, who was standing next to me, and his desire to be a good father to his children. Guests lingered at the warm, casual event.

On Thursday night, we went in the opposite direction, uptown to East 93rd Street for Carolyne Roehm's book party. You remember that I did a video interview with Carolyne in her amazing apartment in October to discuss her new book A Passion for Interiors.

To celebrate the publication of the book, a party was held at Carlton Hobbs, the renowned antiques dealer who is housed in a former Vanderbilt mansion off Madison Avenue, and specializes in museum-quality 17th-19th century British and European antiques and art. Carolyne sat at a colossal antique desk and signed books.

There were huge, over-sized arrangements of red flowers, and a champagne bar lit by candelabras – very delicious, very Carolyne Roehm. After the party, TD and I toddled around the corner with our friend decorator Mario Buatta to a neighborhood Italian restaurant where we three tucked into some pasta. It was fun to see Mario who recently suffered a medical malady but is now on the mend.

Congratulations to both authors, especially in this economic climate when it is increasingly difficult to get a book published. As Jackie Kennedy Onassis, who worked as a book editor, said to one of her authors, "If you produce one book, you will have done something wonderful in your life."