Nice Girls Don’t Win: How I Burned It All Down to Claim My Power

Survivor winner Shallow recounts her personal struggles and reality TV successes in this diverting memoir. When Shallow and two of her friends auditioned for The Amazing Race in the mid-2000s, a casting director asked her which friend could actually help her win: “[He] dangled the keys to the kingdom and all I had to do to claim my castle was drop-kick my baby bird bestie out of the nest and watch her land with a thump.” She did just that, shocking her friends but failing to book the show; instead, CBS called her back for season four of Survivor. Much of the book focuses on Shallow’s four stints on that show, where she excelled by adopting the same cutthroat attitude she brought to her Amazing Race audition. Yet the cold and calculating mindset she adopted for Survivor came at a cost, setting in motion “a vicious internal spiral of self-loathing.” Elsewhere, Shallow discusses key episodes in her personal life, including her childhood in a cultlike Florida commune and a series of failed romantic relationships. Throughout, Shallow is a charming, candid narrator, dispensing behind-the-scenes Survivor tidbits and sturdy self-love advice with equal aplomb. This is a treat for reality TV fans. Agent: Monika Verman, Levine Greenberg Rostan. (July)