Like many of you, I have long been curious about what kind of malarkey and tomfoolery is going on inside the cult Church of Scientology. What’s up with the uniforms? The audits with the weird metal rods? Xenu? And most importantly … is Tom Cruise really an extra-terrestrial? I’ve often found myself tempted to sneak inside a Scientology center with a hidden mic and snoop around like Nancy Drew, but my fear of alien abduction is far too strong. Well, no need to wonder anymore. Marc Headly, a former insider at the church, has written a tell-all book, called Blown for Good, about his 15 years of work with Scientology. And folks … you can’t handle the truth.

• The magazine Publisher’s Weekly compiled its annual list of the year’s best books and it has zero women on it. Zilch! WTF? Tell us the names of incredible books written by women in 2009 that you’ve read in the comments. [New York Times]
• Meet Margarita Vargas, an 18-year-old girl and the one decent human being who thought to call the police when a 15-year-old girl was being gang-raped outside a high school homecoming dance in California while as many as 20 people watched. “I’m like ‘We should call the cops because that’s the right thing to do.’ I didn’t think about it twice,” Vargas said. “I think people are scared, especially in a community like this where ‘snitching’ is a big thing to people.” [CBS]
• A dozen anti-abortion activists were arrested at Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s office in D.C., some for disorderly conduct and others for unlawful entry. Pelosi’s staff said the protesters were upset about the wording regarding abortion in Obama’s health care reform bill. [AP]

Sorry, but I haven’t gotten sick of making fun of “Twilight” yet. With its cheesy dialogue, hoards of screaming “Twihards” and complete and total sell-out status (think: “Twilight” tours, “Team Edward” T-shirts) I have no shortage of material. But I’ve been outdone by Ivy League satire specialists the Harvard Lampoon, who just released Nightlight, a 160-page book about an awkward geek named Edwart Mullen and his klutzy U-Haul-driving lover, Bella Goose. Edwart is a seriously craptastic driver and should the couple’s love continue to grow, Bella faces getting dismembered in a horrendous car accident. It’s a forgone conclusion that they’re going to get together, though, because Edwart likes the grapefruit-y smell of Bella’s blood. Oh yeah, and the front of the book reads, “About three things I was absolutely certain. First, Edwart was most likely my soul mate, maybe. Second, there was a vampire part of him—which I assumed was wildly out of his control—that wanted me dead. And third, I unconditionally, irrevocably, impenetrably, heterogeneously, gynecologically, and disreputably wished he had kissed me.” Wait, what’s that I hear? Pre-teen girls all over the world are screaming in rage. Heh. [LA Times]

As I tore through the pages of Abby Sher’s new book, Amen, Amen, Amen: Memoir of a Girl Who Couldn’t Stop Praying (Among Other Things), I felt like I was in the passenger’s seat accompanying her on the bumpy ride through her lifelong struggle with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. An extended meditation filled with humor and grace, and anxieties, fears, joys and sorrows, Abby’s memoir brought me right to the center of her vulnerable humanity and my own. I now understood OCD in a whole new way—not as something foreign, but as an antidote to the uncertainty of existence that we all can relate to. This book is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand OCD, or themselves, more intimately.

The coffee table book High Glitz would seriously freak out anyone who sat down on my couch. The collection of images shows beauty queen toddlers posing for the child pageant sub-genre called Glitz. These tots get glamour makeup, front teeth veneers, and couture costumes before being photographed. It speaks from an era I hoped didn’t really exist. So, are these beautiful images or child abuse? You’ll have to be the judge. I say somebody needs to take these kids outside to make mud pies. [Lil Sugar]

Here at The Frisky, we spend an awful lot of time reflecting on, pontificating about, and debating the state of things for women of the world today. How would things be different without feminism? Did it even work? Are we better or worse off than our grandmothers? Mothers? But no dialogue can be complete if not placed within the context of history. That’s why I am so excited about journalist Gail Collins’ new book, When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present, which is currently on the bestseller list. Not only was Gail the first woman to be an editor at The New York Times, where she continues today as a columnist, but now she has penned the new must-have text for modern feminists. Her simple message to our generation: We must not take our astounding journey for granted. While we all know the big moments in women’s history—getting the right to vote, appointing the first woman to the Supreme Court, etc.—I’ve wondered what smaller moments Gail thinks had a huge pull on who we are today. After the jump, Gail breaks down for us the five most historically significant moments for women that no one knew were huge at the time. It’s an inspiring herstory lesson.

I barely knew that there was a civil war in Sierra Leone until it was declared over in 2002. I remember seeing an episode of “Oprah” about the horrors women were suffering there: rape, murder, AIDS, extreme poverty. I knew as horrific as it was, I needed to know more. So I will definitely be reading the new memoir Bite of the Mango that tells the excruciating details of Sierra Leone survivor, Mariatu Kamara, who was 11 when her village was raided by rebel forces who took her prisoner. Her story is so unbelievable that you would swear it was fiction.

Hulk Hogan‘s autobiography, My Life Outside the Ring, came out yesterday and, well, it’s pretty depressing. The Hulk says that after his divorce from Linda, he was suicidal and downed a bunch of Xanax with a bottle of rum, while holding a gun in his hand. Of the experience, he wrote, “I could feel the life draining out of me. It had me curling my index finger on the trigger of a loaded handgun and putting it in my mouth. Obviously I didn’t kill myself, but I came damn close.” Sad face. [People]

It’s startling how many celebrities have tried to kill themselves. After the jump, who’s tried and what changed their mind.

In what has to be one of the worst-named books of all time, former star-turned-husband-of-Rebecca Romijn and stay-at-home-dad, Jerry O’Connell, will be penning a parenting memoir called Cry, Feed, (Make Love to Wife), Burp. You may remember the celebrity couple are parents to twin babies, born late last year. Here’s a blurb about the book: “O’Connell will describe life as a very 21st century father in a land of celebrity, the sterile California suburbs, and two-for-one diaper changing—everything from the moment he was told it was time for him to be a father, through the trials and tribulations of conception and childbirth, to the joys and disasters and joys again of staying home to raise two new babies.” Anyone else wonder what it means to be a “very” 21st century father”? Is that code for “he lets the wife wear the pants, while he wears the burp cloths”? [via Media Bistro]

Emily Gould should know about women writers and criticism. In the spring of 2008, the former editor at Gawker published an article in the prestigious New York Times Magazine about nastiness in the blogosphere—to a certain extent, it was her own nastiness towards Gawker’s victims that she was referencing. Plenty of other writers responded in kind, mostly critical, and some of the critics were women annoyed with both Gould’s gossip-blog past as well as her sexily-reclining-on-her-back cover photo, saying: Emily Gould does not represent us.

Recently in an article called “What Are Women Fighting About?” for More Intelligent Life, Gould tackles the issue of how “women are often the cruelest critics of other female writers” for not accurately portraying women’s lives. Gendered critiques of women writers are a problem that’s dragged on for a long time (Anna Clark wrote about their “ambition condition” for Bitch magazine over a year ago). But Gould’s analysis is at least refreshing because, by her essay’s end, she has pledged to be more aware of her overly-critical-towards-women ways.

When Anna Sam, a literature student in France, graduated from college, she couldn’t for the life of her find a job in her field. So she kept the part-time job she had in school—as a supermarket cashier asking if patrons wanted paper or plastic. After years of observing the best and the worst of grocery store anthropology, Anna began blogging about her experiences on a site that quickly drew in 600,000 visitors. It wasn’t long before there was a bidding war between publishers to put a book deal in her hands and designer glass slippers on her feet. Voilà! Her memoir, Checkout: A Life on the Tills, became a best seller in France and has now been translated into 16 languages, including English. Now Anna has handed in her resignation for a life as an author—we hope she’ll live happily ever after. [NPR]

Another day, another celebrity confesses to once being a meth head. Earlier this week, it was Jodie Sweetin of “Full House” who came clean about her drug use. Now tennis legend Andre Agassi is confessing that, back in the late ‘90s, he used meth, too. In his autobiography (out Nov. 9), Agassi explains that he was stressed over not playing well and his rocky relationship with Brooke Shields. He was sitting on the couch with his assistant, who asked Andre if he wanted to get high.

So I just killed two minutes taking Mental Floss’ Judy Blume quiz and scored a respectable 82 percent—although I think I would have scored higher had there not been any questions about the slightly younger skewing books like Blubber and the Fudge series. I was more of a Deenie, Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, and Forever fan, you know, because of the masturbation and scoliosis themes. Anyhoo, how’d you do? [Mental Floss]

Alan Wieder is not embarrassed to talk about his wang. In fact, he’s written an entire memoir about getting to know his … er … penis better. Year of the Cock: The Remarkable True Account of a Man Who Left His Wife and Paid the Price chronicles the year (ironically, the year of the rooster—hee hee) that Alan decided to follow his little head on a destructive journey. He packed up his things and moved out of his home, ready to pursue his fantasy of becoming a hardcore bachelor. During this premature mid-life crisis, he buys a vintage Porsche, bangs lot o’ chicks, and becomes obsessed with the size of his member. I know what you’re thinking. What a jerk! Why would I want to spend 300 pages reading about penile insecurity? Because Alan’s hilarious and, somehow, his year of cockiness is refreshing. Trust me, you’ll laugh too hard to judge him.

You can tell a lot about a book by the first sentence. And the first sentence of Jodie Sweetin’s memoir is pretty telling: “F**k it” (only without the astericks). You probably remember Jodie as Stephanie Tanner on “Full House,” the middle sister with blonde hair who had perfected the art of wearing a scrunchie. So when she popped out of obscurity in 2006 and appeared on “Good Morning America” to reveal that she was a recovering coke and meth addict, it was pretty shocking. Turns out, it was only half true—she was an addict, but she was hardly recovered. She had a serious relapse, even as she began touring the country and warning college students about the dangers of drugs. Next Tuesday, Jodie’s memoir Unsweetined comes out, and finally she’s ready to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. And it’s pretty gritty. Read an excerpt after the jump.

Ever since her husband began campaigning for the presidency, Michelle Obama has been in the spotlight—and so has her closet. Mrs. O documents the first lady’s wardrobe on the campaign trail and in the White House with more than 120 photographs. Close-ups of Jimmy Choo pumps, Erickson Beamon brooches, Maria Pinto dresses, and more show how the pieces come together to create Michelle’s signature style. [$17.15, Amazon.com]

WIN IT! We’re giving away five copies of Mrs. O: The Face of Fashion Democracy, but you have to work if you want one. The five best commenters for this coming week—from today, Friday, Oct. 23 through Thursday, Oct. 29—will be awarded with one. So, be as clever, smart, and original as you can! Click HERE to read the official rules.

So maybe I would go to former sitcom star Suzanne Somers for advice about how to shape up my thighs (remember the Thigh Master?), but certainly not for tips about how to help cure cancer. In her new book, Knockout: Interviews With Doctors Who Are Curing Cancer And How To Prevent It In The First Place (it’s her 19th book … I know ... what the heck is she writing about?), Suzanne is making some outrageous claims that are making people at the American Cancer Society outraged.

“Mad Men” acolytes with eagle eyes might’ve noticed that the book Betty Draper brought into the tub with her on last night’s episode was none other than The Group by Mary McCarthy. Published in 1963 but set in the 1930s, The Group is a subtly scathing portrait of a circle of educated, upwardly mobile New York society women who all went to Vassar College—at the time more of a finishing school than a bastion of liberal education – together. The book follows these eight frenemies as their lives unfold and unravel after graduation, seeing them through abusive marriages, extra-marital affairs, birth control, familial conflict, class war, Communist sympathies, lesbianism, suicide and the ever-elusive female orgasm.

People magazine will release a “New Moon” special to the ravenous, adoring masses tomorrow. The tween girl set will dutifully purchase it, their mothers will surreptitiously steal it, and every dude will hate it. We’ve told you why chicks dig vampires and men don’t, while Esquire says it’s because the vamps are batting for the other team, but this doesn’t begin to cover it. Men, well, straight men have hated vampires since Bram Stoker—they’re hardwired for it.

Whenever I’m going through an existential crisis, reading a great book usually helps. Clearly, 46-year-old Nina Sankovitch of Connecticut understands the profound satisfaction that can be found from sitting down with a good read. She’s close to finishing a mission to read one book every day for a year and blog about it. Yes! Every. Single. Day. Even holidays. She may be my new hero.