What do the Kardashians and the Trumps have in common? Perhaps too much according to

our guest, cultural critic James Wolcott, who will be here to talk about two new books

about both clans. Feeling a bit nostalgic for the fun part of the 80s, Tina Brown will

be here to talk about her new book, The Vanity Fair Diaries. Plus, it's National Book

Award Week. Alexander Alta will give us an update from the literary world and we'll

talk about what we hear at the Book Review are reading. This is Inside the New York Times

Book Review. I'm Pamela Paul.

James Wolcott joins us now. He has a colonist at Vanity Fair and this week he reviews two

books together on our cover, Raising Trump by Ivana Trump and the Kardashians and American

Drama by Jerry Openheimer. Jim, thanks for being here. Thank you.

So this is a fun pairing. I think that you described them the word you use is clanships.

What do they have in common?

Well, they're both extended families that are brands and they're very self-consciously

brands. The Trump brand, of course, was something that he could put on a building, then of

course, then it was extended to steaks and casinos and this and that. The Kardashian brand,

it originated out of the Gabor sisters and the Gabor sisters made their names not by

anything they particularly did but by marrying very rich prominent men. And so Chris, before

she was a Kardashian, she started out very early wanting to do that. The Kardashian

name became a household name during the OJ Simpson trial. Now what's interesting is that

there are a lot of names that became household names then and then faded over time and then

were revived by the various Docu dramas. But that name, first of all, Kardashian has a

real sound to it. One of the things that's very funny about the Openheimer book is Bob

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