This piece is co-written with my husband, Bradley Lewis, professor of cultural studies and medical humanities at NYU

The U.S health care crisis isn't just a crisis in finances (how are we going to pay for it). Neither is it merely a crisis in administration (how are we going to...

Book groups are a female phenomenon. Okay, maybe not entirely. There are definitely men out there who join, form, and lead book groups too. By in large, though, it is women who do most of the book grouping these days. This makes sense, of course. Women are the biggest readers...

I'm going to preface this post by saying I know absolutely nothing about marketing. I have a PhD in literature, not an MBA. I'm married to an NYU professor, but I've never been near the business or marketing schools. Furthermore, even though I'm a published author, I don't know much...

Facebook Status. Jennifer Weiner. July 22nd 2009 5.15 pm. "Just got the call from my editor: BEST FRIENDS FOREVER is a number one New York Times best seller! I am astonished, and thrilled, and crying, and SO GRATEFUL TO EVERY SINGLE PERSON WHO BOUGHT A COPY. You all feel like...

Tomorrow, the Romance Writers of America convention will kick off in Washington DC. Known to insiders as the "RWA" or simply "the Nationals," the convention brings together nearly two thousand romance writers, wannabe writers, fans, and industry professionals. Attendees will swoop into DC's Marriott hotel for four days to...

The New York Times' Janet Maslin may well be taking some new novels on her beach vacation this summer. If she does her tan is going to be a little dull and uneven, however, because Maslin will be reading these books whilst hiding under the biggest beach towel she can...

It's been seven years since Nicola Kraus and Emma McLaughlin hit the bestsellers lists with their novel, The Nanny Diaries. Two more books followed for the writing duo (Citizen Girl and Dedication) and now they have turned their attention to the world of reality TV in a novel for young...

I set out for Princeton University last week with one question in mind: Why is romance fiction doing so well during our current recession? I was fascinated by a recent article in The New York Times which reported that "Harlequin Enterprises, the queen of the romance world" saw "fourth-quarter...

Everyone's twittering about Twitter this week. David Pogue's "Twitter? It's What You Make It" was amongst the NYTimes.com most read articles this week. Vanity Fair's Michael Hogan just signed up on Twitter so that VF could live blog - or now "live twitter" - their Oscar Party. This...

John Grisham's new book, The Associate, has set academic robes a-flapping this week. According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Duquesne University is upset that Grisham located his most recent blockbuster - featuring a rape at a frat house - at their college. A spokesperson for Dusquesne said, "we think it's...

Women love books. We always have, probably always will. Of all the books that are currently bought and read, we do most of the buying and the reading. It's a fact: we are the reading sex.

We are the writing sex too. Our foremothers, like Jane Austen and the Brontës,...

Under the title "A Couple in Chicago," this week's New Yorker published excerpts from an interview with Michelle and Barack Obama conducted by Mariana Cook back in 1996. The interview and the wonderful photograph of the fresh-faced, thirtysomething Obamas (which The New Yorker also...

A curious thing happens every year between Christmas and New Year. Ten thousand literature professors and grad students from around the globe gather together in some big U.S. city or other for the Modern Language Association's annual convention.

Like bees to a scholarly honey pot, they swarm to hear...

In this week's Chronicle of Higher Education (weekly rag for academic types), Professor Andrew Martino came out of the closet.

Martino -- a "self-styled literary snob" who teaches world literature -- confessed a new found love of kid's books. After picking up an edition of Holly Black's The...