Lloyd Grove reports on the seemingly one-sided dispute between the authors of the inexplicably popular women's self-help book He's Just Not That Into You and the author and publisher of the rebuttal, Be Honest—You're Not That Into Him Either.

We say it's one-sided because Grove talks to Be Honest author Ian Kerner and his publisher, the ubiquitous Ms. Judith Regan about the alleged complaints hurled at them by the other book's authors, but those authors and their publishing house refuse to talk. We'd call this a naked grab for publicity if we didn't know Judith Regan better.

Anyway, the part that gave us a chuckle was Regan's quote about her rivals' book, which calls to mind an old phrase we used to toss around to impress the adjuncts when we were in college:

"It's so insulting to women—especially women in New York, where women are treated so badly by men in a hooking-up culture where they are used and abused. Both Ian and I found 'He's Just Not That Into You' incredibly stupid and offensive, and we wanted to say something smart about relationships."


Chick lit hatches feud [Lowdown]