PUBLISHED! Sugar Coated—and FETED! Marion Nestle at 90
Marion Nestle turns 90 today, and on Tuesday I got to celebrate with her at NYU’s Bobst Library, where a launch party for Sugar Coated doubled as a birthday party. It was a standing-room-only crowd, and they sold out of books. I swear I heard someone audibly gasp when the news reached the back of the book-buying line.
There were cereal shooters, Fruity Pebbles marshmallow treats, and a collection of ridiculous cereal boxes, of which my personal favorite was Cinnamon Toast Ultra Fiber Cereal (“Poop Like a Champion”). At the end of the evening, Marion was presented with a crown constructed from cereal boxes and a birthday cake.
Most of Marion’s books have been solo acts, with some memorable collaborations along the way. She wrote Why Calories Count and Feed Your Pet Right with her partner, Mal Nesheim, and Let’s Ask Marion with environmental advocate and writer Kerry Trueman. What makes her collaboration with Lisa Sutherland so interesting is how different their backgrounds are. Marion is the industry gadfly, deeply skeptical that food companies will make healthier products without pressure from outside. Lisa, the former Vice President of Nutrition at Kellogg, was inside the rooms where corporate strategy was set, trying to make change from within.
Watching them onstage together was such a joy. Their rapport was effortless: one would start a story and the other would finish it. You could see how much they enjoyed each other. What shocked me was learning that they hadn't met in person in something like twenty years. Marion credits “the wonders of the internet” for their ability to write a book together.
Marion was my very first client when I opened Sinsheimer Literary. To be honest, I would not have taken that step without her support. Over the last fifteen years or so, she’s become a close friend and one of my very favorite people. She’s also one of Izzy’s, which makes me especially happy.
Happy birthday, Marion, and happy book birthday, Marion and Lisa!
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