The cover of the June issue of Vanity Fair features a photo from a new book about Marilyn Monroe (Lawrence Schiller’s Marilyn & Me: A Photographer’s Memories, RH/Doubleday/Nan A. Talese), but buzz is building about the magazine’s excerpt of another bio, David Maraniss’s Barack Obama: The Story.

It features “the untold story” of Obama’s post-grad romance with former girlfriend Genevieve Cook, including quotes from her diary. Does that sound like a bit of extraneous gossip aimed at selling books? US News responds with “Why Barack Obama’s Old Girlfriend Matters.”

Meanwhile, The Huffington Post is more interested in “Obama’s Thoughts On T.S. Eliot” and the NYT “City Room” blog sniffs, “Obama? Just the Forgettable 1980s Boyfriend of a Landlord’s Tenant.”

Barack Obama: The Story David Maraniss Retail Price: $32.50 Hardcover: 672 pages Publisher: Simon & Schuster – (2012-06-19) ISBN / EAN: 1439160406 / 9781439160404

Marilyn & Me: A Photographer’s Memories Lawrence Schiller Retail Price: $20.00 Hardcover: 128 pages Publisher: Nan A. Talese – (2012-05-29) ISBN / EAN: 0385536674 / 9780385536677

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