Jenna Schnuer

Flyover America: Cross-Country Route ConfusionNovember 4, 2009

As I mentioned last week, I just gave up my NYC digs. At the moment, I’m happily writing from the family not-an-estate in the highly misunderstood state of New Jersey. OK, some of the criticism is justified. (More on all of that in the coming months.) But, though I have yet to buy a car, I’ve already started dreaming up my first cross-country road trip. I’m 39. It’s about damned time I took that drive.

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World Hum: Interview with Author Bonnie TsuiOctober 7, 2009

There has always been a Chinatown in Bonnie Tsui's life. Though she was raised on New York’s Long Island, Tsui writes in her book, American Chinatown: A People's History of Five Neighborhoods, that it was Manhattan’s Chinatown where her family went “to be Chinese.”

After moving to San Francisco in 2003, Tsui realized that, though the neighborhood’s name was the same, the Chinatown of her new home city had little to do with the one she had left behind. And, with that, she decided it was time to find out what makes a Chinatown.

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American Way: Social MediaOctober 1, 2009

It started with the oversharing. Some of Sarah Schmelling’s friends were offering a little too much information in their Facebook status updates. Late one night, she began to think about the craziest thing she could imagine in a status update, and that’s when the former English major’s brain tumbled to Hamlet’s beloved Ophelia and what she might write as she was losing her mind. Now we can all know the answer, as Schmelling’s new book, Ophelia Joined the Group Maidens Who Don’t Float: Classic Lit Signs on to Facebook (Plume, $15), hits bookshelves. In her debut novel, she brings a slew of classic literary characters and their creators to (online) life.

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American Way: Required ReadingSeptember 15, 2009

So, you’ve heard that the book-publishing industry isn’t at its healthiest? Don’t count the old girl out yet. There’s still plenty of ink (both old-school and electronic) going into service. And though the energy at this year’s BookExpo America, the publishing industry’s annual convention, was somewhat subdued, there was no shortage of new titles being offered up for bookseller and media consideration. Here are some upcoming books we’re especially keen on.

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American Way: Distance Makes the Heart Grow...September 1, 2009

With the soft job market and the challenge of selling a house in this economy, commuter marriages--both welcome and not so welcome--are on the rise. Unfortunately, "the people who are forced into it [often] struggle with it," says Tina B. Tessina, PhD, psychotherapist and author of The Commuter Marriage: Keep Your Relationship Close While You’re Far Apart. "It's been tough, but what I tell people is, 'You do what you have to do.' I don't have the option to break down and say, 'This is too hard to do.'"

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