Other Writing
Recent essays
"Why I'm Saying Goodbye to Toxic Friendships" -- Lenny
Sometimes losing a friendship can be more painful than losing a lover.
"Why It's Okay to Dream of Escaping Your Everyday Life" -- RealSimple
Every close your eyes and imagine another life, free of commitments, aggravations...and maybe your own family?
"My Life as an Unlikable Woman" -- Psychology Today
I write novels with “unlikable” women, in part because I worry too much about being liked myself.
Vogue essays
Look Homeward
An essay about falling in love, breaking up, and buying a house.
Granny Takes a Trip
A personal essay about baking pot brownies for my dying grandmother.
The Men's Club
Remembering how a college romance inspired a sense of style.
Book Reviews
“Commonwealth,” by Ann Patchett
“The Lost Time Accidents,” by John Wray
“The Japanese Lover,” by Isabel Allende
“Books That Made Us: James and the Giant Peach”
“Laura Lamont’s Life in Pictures,” by Emma Straub
“The Astral,” by Kate Christensen
“Shortcut Man,” by P.G. Sturges
Selected Journalism
New York Times
The Chateau Marmont Is Ready for Its Close-Up
For Mickey Kaus, Winning Isn’t the Point
In Los Angeles, Strip Mall Dining Is Way Cool
A Home to Its Owners, A Museum To Its Fans
In Tequila’s Home, A Wine Region Comes of Age
Restaurants On The Fringe, And Thriving
Their Little Secret, But for How Long?
Experiencing Cabo, Without the Tequila Shots
Salon
Brother, can you spare a dime for my Gucci bills?
Cyber-begging fuels the new philanthropy, in which brand, beauty and instant karma matter most in raising funds.
“The winner dies”
A Web-based pro-anorexia movement provides a bizarre support network for starving girls.
Porn provocateur
Lizzy Borden, whose ultraviolent films feature women being beaten, raped and doused in vomit, insists that she is a gender pioneer whose repellent movies are morality tales.
Searching for speed in Silicon Valley
The glory days of geek drag racing may be over, but hotshot hackers are still revving their engines.
Over my dead body
Activists are flocking to the West Bank to serve as human shields, protecting Palestinians and protesting the Israeli occupation. Are they part of the solution or part of the problem?
Why drug tests flunk
If the Supreme Court rules in favor of drug testing in public schools, will students come clean? Kids at schools in Indiana, where drug tests rule, say no way.
Anthologies
ALTARED: Bridezillas, Bewilderment, Big Love, Breakups, and What Women Really Think About Contemporary Weddings.
My essay takes a look at how my husband and I survived the registry process, and why the gift-giving process at weddings reflects back our most idealistic and unrealistic fantasies about married life.