At age 44, Julie Metz's seemingly perfect life of husband, daughter, work-from-home occupation and house in the suburbs all but disappeared when her husband unexpectedly died. Becoming a widow and a single mother would only be the tip of the iceberg of challenges for Metz, as she later learned of her deceased husband's infidelities. How do you reconcile and forgive when the person who caused you pain is dead? This and other questions serve as the basis for Metz's memoir of "betrayal and renewal," Perfection: A Memoir of Betrayal and Renewal, published in June and currently ranking … Read More

I'd had a long day; fresh from a family funeral in Connecticut, I was back in Manhattan. I'd been helping a friend pack, waiting for my boyfriend of six weeks to get home so I could sleep at his place. Finally, we were in his apartment and did what we normally did: have frantic, hot, wonderful sex. Then he fell asleep.

I had work to do so I went quietly into the living room. I was having trouble getting online with my laptop, so I logged into my email account using his. At least, I tried to. When I went … Read More

From The New York Times
By Allen Salkin
ON a Monday last January, Candace Bushnell was feeling ebullient. The author of “Sex and the City” had just heard that her latest novel, “Lipstick Jungle,” would be made into a television pilot. If all went well, a series with her as an executive producer would be headed to NBC.

Ms. Bushnell was clinking champagne glasses with her husband, Charles Askegard, a ballet dancer, in their apartment on lower Fifth Avenue when it occurred to her that she had not received a congratulatory call from her old friend Darren Star, the producer of “Sex … Read More