Dr. Michael Salzhauer said so many moms brought kids to their appointments that he was motivated to stock up on lollipops in his Bal Harbour, Florida office. In My Beautiful Mommy, he explains mommy's recuperation, changing look and desire for plastic surgery.

"Many parents don't explain to their kids what's going on," said the father of four, with his fifth child on the way. "Children are very perceptive. You can't hide a major surgery from them. When mom goes down for two weeks after a tummy tuck it affects them."

Illustrations show a crook-nosed mom with loose tummy skin under her half shirt picking up her young daughter early from school one day and taking her to a strapping and handsome "Dr. Michael." Mom explains she is going to have operations on her nose and tummy and may have to take it easy for a week or so. The girl asks if the operations will hurt, and mom replies, "Maybe a little," warning she will look different after the bandages come off. The girl asks: "Why are you going to look different?" Mom responds: "Not just different, my dear — prettier!"

• On the Top Chef Emmy nomination: "[It] was a big f***ing deal."
  
  
• On life after her divorce from husband Salman Rushdie: "I'm really f***ing sad."
  
  
• On writing her new cookbook: "Finishing the f***ing book was like being in labor for two years!"
  
  
• On hosting dinner party: "I pulled this out of my ass."
  
  
• Talking to Harvey Weinstein about her charity event: "I'm an ambassador now for Keep a Child Alive and we're doing a campaign and an event and you should buy a f***ing table." Weinstein's smiling response: "I will buy a f***ing table."
  
  
• Responding to Russell Simmons who asked if she had a boyfriend: "No, I don't," Padma said, laughing, "and if I did, I couldn't tell you. My husband would call f***ing Reuters."
  
  
• On tabloid coverage of her romance with Salman Rushdie and her bra size: "[A gossip column] ran an item saying we were together and they ran my bra size," said Padma, laughing. "Except they got it wrong-they said it was 36C. I said, 34C, motherf***er!"
  
  
• On her current living situation: "Now I'm staying in a hotel with all my shit in storage."

• Autographed copy of How to Get Somewhere in the Music Business: From Nowhere to Nothing by Mary Dawson (CQK), the must-have guidebook for every aspiring songwriter.
  
  
• Still Summer by Jacquelyn Mitchard (Warner Books), the exciting and moving story of three women and their unexpected and shocking adventure.
  
  
• Widdershins by Charles deLint (Tor), the captivating bestselling urban fantasy set in and around the mysterious town of Newford.
  
  
• Science Fiction: The Best of the Year 2007, Edited by Rich Horton (Cosmos), the collection of short stories that will thrill sf fans. A Locus Recommended Reading Selection.
  
  

"I'm surprised that on the Oprah show this was being touted as an entirely new technique pioneered by Ms. Seinfeld," Lapine said Saturday. The idea of stealth nutrition is not new, Lapine says. "My grandmother used to do it," she says, but her book is the product of five years of research. "My book is not just a concept. My book is a how-to manual."

Moreover, she adds, "I'm concerned and troubled that Oprah credited and applauded someone else for a technique that was out there six months earlier." Winfrey was not available for comment. Lapine says she and her publicists pitched the Oprah show five times without success. She also points out she submitted her 139-page book proposal with 31 recipes and 11 purees twice to HarperCollins (Seinfeld's publisher), once in February 2006 without an agent and again with an agent in May 2006.

"The one big fact is that they had access to my manuscript early on," Lapine says. Seinfeld's book was signed up in June 2006.

"There are at least 15 of my recipes that ended up in her book," Lapine says. However, she says, recipes are hard to protect: "If you change one ingredient, you're safe." She says that after her publisher contacted HarperCollins, Deceptively's cover was modified from the one featured on a promotional brochure. The word "simple" was inserted in place of "sneaky." "Seinfeld is a big name, and it garners more attention than someone who doesn't have a big name," Lapine says. She and her publisher have no comment on possible legal action.

"There's something incredibly liberating about a holiday that encourages children to take candy from strangers," Almond writes of Halloween in his book. Indeed. For some reason, Almond asked that we make clear that he is a "professional candyfreak, not a therapist."

Three Musketeers: Does well in groups but is somewhat pompous. Prone to fancy costumes and arcane weapons. Wears hats in public that are ill-advised.

Almond Joy: I'm going to put aside my aversion to coconut in praising these folks as happy-go-lucky.

Bit-O-Honey: They have contradictory personalities, hoping to express generosity but also having the passive-aggressive desire to damage the fillings of trick-or-treaters.

Butterfinger: Evasive, slippery, not necessarily to be trusted.

Candy Corn: Purely deluded people. They don't get that candy shouldn't attempt to imitate other food groups, particularly corn.

Good & Plenty: Optimistic, perhaps overly so. A little bit of Weimar energy. Strong advocate of gay rights; acquainted with the bitterness at the center of most lives.

Reese's Peanut Butter Cups: Generous souls. Those who understand the salty in life, as well as the sweet.

Snickers: Just going with the crowd, the safe candy choice, guaranteed to please the masses. Not ambitious, but dependable.

Jessica Seinfeld, the comedian Jerry Seinfeld's wife, has a hot best seller with Deceptively Delicious, a cookbook for parents of picky eaters. Ms. Seinfeld's celebrity and an appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show have helped propel the book to the No. 1 spot on the hardcover Advice, How-To and Miscellaneous list in The New York Times, where it will make its debut a week from Sunday. But a number of readers posting on Amazon.com and Oprah.com and other Web sites have pointed out some similarities between Ms. Seinfeld's book, which was published this month by Collins, an imprint of HarperCollins, and another cookbook published by Running Press, an imprint of the Perseus Books Group, in April.

That book, The Sneaky Chef by Missy Chase Lapine, who is not a celebrity, also suggests that parents puree healthy foods like spinach and sweet potatoes and hide them in childhood favorites like macaroni and cheese or brownies. A week from Sunday it will be No. 9 on the paperback Advice, How-To and Miscellaneous list. It turns out that Ms. Lapine, a former publisher of Eating Well magazine, had submitted her 139-page proposal for The Sneaky Chef," complete with 42 recipes, to HarperCollins twice -- once in February 2006 without an agent and again in May last year, the second time represented by an agent. Both times she was rejected. She landed a deal with Running Press in June 2006, the same month that Collins won an auction to publish Ms. Seinfeld's book.

"Honestly I can't speculate, and I'm not going to accuse anyone of anything," Ms. Lapine said. "I suppose it's possible it's a coincidence." In a telephone interview, Ms. Seinfeld said she had come up with the idea more than two years ago in her kitchen while pureeing butternut squash for her youngest son and cooking macaroni and cheese for her husband and two oldest children. "I've been obsessed with this for the past two years," said Ms. Seinfeld, who worked with a chef and a nutritionist on the book. "I don't need to copy someone's idea. I've got enough going on in my life."

A-LISTERS are renowned for their bizarre eating fads but a new diet book to hit celebsville claims to cut out the "crap" and tell it how it is. Sales of Skinny Bitch soared by 674 per cent on Amazon after Victoria Beckham was spotted with a copy in Los Angeles at the weekend. While it sounds like a guide on how to become a size zero lollipop with the bitching skills of Cheryl Cole, it's actually a vegan diet with a bit of attitude thrown in. Written by ex-model agent Rory Freedman and former model Kim Barnouin - both self-confessed skinny bitches - it is billed as a guide for "girls who want to stop eating crap and start looking fabulous."

*****

But first, TV nutritionist and Sun diet expert Amanda Ursell gives her views. The Skinny Bitch eating plan is basically a vegan diet, according to Amanda. She says: "The authors want us to give up milk and dairy foods like cheese and yogurts as well as eggs, meat and fish. In a nutshell, it is a vegan diet. As with any diet, if you follow it to the letter then you will lose weight but for your average woman it's not particularly easy to follow and you would have to be incredibly dedicated. While much of the no-nonsense advice is good, the diet is quite extreme."

*****

So what can you actually eat?

Unrefined carbohydrates: This means wholegrain foods like oats, brown rice, brown pasta, brown pita bread, couscous, barley, granary and wholemeal bread because they are great for slow-release energy, vitamins, minerals and fibre.

Fruits: Unlike the Atkins diet, the Skinny Bitch diet encourages us to eat fruit because it is so rich in vitamins, minerals and supernutrients. Preferably organic to avoid pesticides.

Vegetables: Again, preferably organic, to give us vitamins, minerals and fibre.

Pulses: Filling pulse vegetables like soya beans, red kidney, butter and cannelloni beans. Great for vegetable protein and fibre.

Soya: Around two servings a day of soya food, including soya milk, for protein.

• Autographed copy of The Silver Moon Elm by MaryJanice Davidson and Anthony Alongi (Berkley Jam), the exciting new adventure in the New York Times bestselling Jennifer Scales urban fantasy adventure series. Jennifer is a normal teen with abnormal problems: she's half-weredragon, half-beaststalker.
  
  
• Inspired Creative Writing: Pokes and Prods for Scribblers of All Stripes by Alexander Gordon Smith (Perigee), the offbeat and accessible guide to help aspiring authors get their imaginations flowing.
  
  
• Unaccompanied Women: Late-Life Adventures in Love, Sex and Real Estate by Jane Juska (Villard), the funny, sexy and frank story of a woman who refuses to give up dating, fun and adventures just because she's passed the big 60.
  
  
• Dead Ex by Harley Jane Kozak (Doubleday), the fabulously fun mystery set in the fascinating world of soap operas.
  
  

• Insufficient Mating Material (LoveSpell), the racy, wildly entertaining futuristic romance by bestselling author Rowena Cherry.
  
  
• Autographed set of Murder on Nob Hill, The Russian Hill Murders and an ARC of The Cliff House Strangler (all from St. Martin's Press), the three books in the delightful and bestselling mystery series by Shirley Tallman. Set in 1880's San Francisco, the series stars a feisty female attorney who solves mysteries: it's Legally Blond for the 19th century!
  
  
• Autographed copy of Jeff Herman's 2007 Guide to Book Publishers, Editors, & Literary Agents (Three Dog Press). It's the must-have guide for all aspiring authors.
  
  
• Floor Sample by Julia Cameron (Tarcher Penguin), the inspring new memoir from the bestselling author of The Artist's Way. Nothing is off limits in her life story: from her career writing for Rolling Stone, her marriage to Martin Scorcese to life in Hollywood, Julia tells it like it is, with her trademark humor and wisdom.
  
  

• Strange Son by Portia Iversen (Riverhead Books), the moving story of two mothers' quest to unlock the hidden world of autism.
  
  
• Set of two books by Gail Godwin: Queen of the Underworld (Ballantine), the New York Times bestselling novel that explores the growth of a young woman beginning her career as a journalist in Miami and The Making of a Writer (Random House), Godwin's fascinating journals from 1961-1963, edited by Rob Neufeld.
  
  
• Telling True Stories: A Nonfiction Writers' Buide From the Neiman Foundation at Harvard University, Edited by Mark Kramer and Wendy Call (Plume), with contributions by Nora Ephron, Gay Talese, David Halberstam, Tom Wolfe and many more distinguished authors.
  
  
• The Scene Book: A Primer for the Fiction Writer by Sandra Scofeld (Penguin), the fundamental guide for crafting more effective scenes in fiction.
  
  

Ebay, which is also fighting similar complaints by Tiffany in New York and Christian Dior Couture in Paris, denies that it is responsible for the auctions its users conduct on its website, and claims that it is impractical for it to vet every sale.

The injunction presents difficulties for eBay, whether it succeeds or fails in policing its users' sales. If the company is able to remove all sales of electronic copies of Harry Potter books then other brands will demand similar treatment when their rights are infringed by sellers. If it fails, it will be in contempt of court.

Akash Chittranshi, who is representing Rowling at the High Court in Delhi, told The Timesthat the injunction could set a precedent. "If they can do it in this case then they can do it a lot more," he said. "This is the first time eBay has been compelled to take measures to prevent e-books being sold."

Ebay did not respond when contacted for comment, but in previous cases it has argued that its website is a platform or marketplace and not an auction site.

"I don't think anyone who has not been in a similar situation can possibly know how this feels: I am alternately elated and overwrought. I both want, and don't want, to finish this book (don't worry, I will.)"