The authors of the NurtureShock blog at Newsweek asked me to address that question as a guest blogger on their. site. My post is now on their blog and the Newsweek homepage here.

I will follow up here with a related idea here soon. (Hopefully Saturday: I'm giving to presentations at… Read full post »

I saw the punchline coming, though they didn't mean it as a joke. A filmmaker from Estonia was explaining what a young city Helsinki is, and I started chuckling while I asked "How young?"

I knew it was going to be older than our entire country. Twice as old. It was… Read full post »

OK, here's something stupid. I held off writing this post for at least a month because I couldn't decide which of those two to write about, and thought both would dilute it.

So my plane departs in eleven hours, and I'm still conflicted, and going with both. 

Richard Linklater is… Read full post »

Denver got 1-2 feet of snow in the city in the last 36 hours, depending where you live. I got around surprisingly easy last night. It helps to live on a major road.

But I woke this morning to one car after another from the neighboring building spinning their wheels… Read full post »

It started yesterday. Walmart.com announced it would sell the top ten pre-release books for $10 each, plus free shipping--meaning they would lose more than $5 per book.

Amazon matched it and the downward bidding continued.

Today it's down to $9 per book from each, and same-day shipping from Amazon.

T… Read full post »

The list is out. Congratulations to all the finalists.

I have special admiration for the nonfiction finalists, having gone through that little adventure (of creating one):

• David M. Carroll, Following the Water: A Hydromancer's Notebook(Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
• Sean B. Carroll, Remarkable Cre
… Read full post »

It has been a really sad, heavy 24 hours--reading Sue Klebold's painful essay about Dylan's role in Columbine, reflecting on it, and talking about it--so I thought I'd lighten the mood a bit with an odd moment I just had.

It is of no consequence whatsoever, but I had a… Read full post »

The issue of O Magazine is not supposed to be out until Tuesday, but NBC found a copy on sale in LA. They faxed me a copy this evening just before taping an interview for tomorrow's Today Show.

I had to read it fast, but it stopped me cold several times.… Read full post »

. . .  but. I cannot quit watching this Rafa Martin guy. Check out this video:

I get recognized pretty often now--not by face, but name, when I hand over my credit card. Girls and young women have gotten all giggly and can't take their eyes off me. 

A bestselling book can do that, apparently. But not mine. They want to know what it's like to be… Read full post »

Sarah Palin wrote her 400-page book in four months. (Or she got a head start before she announced her resignation. Maybe she was lying and did quit early for the big-book paycheck. 

Pub date has been moved up to Nov. 17.

Yow. I wonder if it will read like… Read full post »

The Best Of . . . lists come earlier every year, and Amazon wanted to very early, apparently, by announcing a series of lists for the first half of the year. 

I'm just happy, because I made the "Best Nonfiction of the Year... So Far" list. It had ten books, including… Read full post »

I'm back on book tour for COLUMBINE starting this morning (Tuesday).

I'll be in Longmont, CO at 11:30 a.m., then LA (Northridge and West Hollywood) Wed/Th, and an editor's conference in Portland Saturday. (Thursday night is at Book Soup in WeHo.)

Oct. 3, I have a homecoming event to… Read full post »

10:33 pm.

"Live" should maybe be in quotes. I'm watching on my tivo, just home from the gym. But so what. Who watches anything while it plays now? This ain't no freaking primary election returns.

I'm posting DOWN the thread, not most recent on top, BTW. (It's too jumpy to read… Read full post »

Newsweek is running a fantastic daily series by NurtureShock authors Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman.

Today's entry:

Can Extracurricular Activities Solve the Self-segregation Problem?

In American high schools today, it’s taken as a given that extracurricular activities bring students of

… Read full post »

Book TV/C-SPAN2 is replaying Peter Seln's interview with me at the LA Times Book Fest again this weekend.

Apparently it just ran (they don't tell me--thank you facebook friends), and it's set again late tonight if you want to set your tivo. The network is  C-SPAN2, and the show is… Read full post »

Laura Bush announced the line-up yesterday. It's quite a list, and according to the Dallas Morning News story, I'm not one of the headliners. They wrote:

Headlining authors include Buzz Aldrin, M rgaret Atwood, Jimmy Santiago Baca, Bryan Burrough, Jeanette Walls, Jonathan Safran Foer and Taylor… Read full post »

Aside from the ongoing use of "ironic" to mean "coincidental," the most offensive words of the moment are 1) "mindful," and 2) "better" as a verb. (To better yourself. Blech. There were better verbs already.)

Who the hell came up with mindful, and why has it grown so popular among pompous… Read full post »

Sony announced the 7-inch touch-screen Daily Edition today.  PC World said, "In portrait mode, about 30 to 35 lines of text will visible, making the experience very similar to that of a printed paperback book."

An ebook the size of a paperback, with the screen content of a paperback--and hopeful… Read full post »

Charlie Rose just repeated an interview he did with Dolly in 2008. It was her first time on the show. About time.

Has anyone not yet figured out what a talent she is? Or what a fascinating person? She was a delight to listen to.

I loved her telling the story… Read full post »

I just got the nicest facebook msg from Ashley Merryman, who wrote NurtureShock with Po Bronson, who has had a string of bestsellers.

I have been interested in the book for months, but the msg made me watch the book trailer, and now I REALLY want to read it.… Read full post »

I did Ashleigh Banfield's show again today. This time, in a CNN studio.

That was fun--despite the content. I've gotten used to staring at a lens, pretending it's the Ashleigh's face. I guess she can see mine, and react to my facial cues, but I have no idea how… Read full post »

I will be on Ashleigh Banfield's truTV (formerly CourtTV show) "Open Court" again tomorrow (Wed), between 9 and 9:30 a.m.

I extended my trip by a day, so I'll do it from the CNN studio in Chicago, and will be on-camera this time, with Ashley, via satellite.

I will again talk about… Read full post »

I will be on Ashleigh Banfield's CourtTV show "Open Court" Monday, 8/17 at 9:15 am EDT.

I will still be on vacation with the family, but phoning it it. (They'll put  my pic on the screen--the one on this page--and a map of where I am, on vacation in a tiny… Read full post »

Crap. I knew I should have replaced the lightbulbs in my kitchen light fixture when the second one went. But I get so sick of getting up on the counter, unscrewing the thing, finding new bulbs and screwing them in. It takes at least two minutes, but it involves balancing and… Read full post »