In print, the unnamed freelance food writer of Nancy Spiller’s sardonic debut novel, Entertaining Disasters, lives high on the food chain in the heady realm of L.A.’s culinary journalism scene. She waxes poetic about her hip home gatherings, while thinly veiling the identities of her A-list glitterati guests. But in reality, she's been inventing the dinner parties she writes about because social paralysis sets in at the very thought of a real guest in her fabulous - or is it shabby? - hillside home.

Enter the glossy food magazine editor, new in town, who wants an invitation to one of her bashes, and the panic-stricken journey from fantasy hostess to reality bites is on.
Entertaining Disasters at turns whimsical and deeply affecting, chronicles the struggle she faces in the week before she hosts her first real dinner party in a decade. At the same time, her estranged sister threatens to drop by, her husband takes off, and her house implodes.

In the way of Nora Ephron’s Heartburn, Spiller’s book is filled with fascinating culinary lore, (mostly) delicious recipes, generous servings of humor and heartbreak, and infused with longing for a culinary salvation.

What the critics say:

"...offers sharp, startling observations in a unique and very human voice." (Elle Magazine, a Readers' Prize Pick 2009)

Redbook Recommend: "This Zany novel (with recipes)...will make you appreciate your own fallen souffles all that much more."

Los Angeles Magazine: "Nancy Spiller's novel offers memoir's most potent pairing: the child's eye, sensual and vindictive, with the grown-up's aching heart...it's a testament to Spiller's skill as a narrator that tragedy and comedy begin to seem like a natural couple and that feeding a gathering of friends is the ultimate modern ordeal."