Latest Project
OK, so this post isn't about a new book, but about something of which I'm just as proud. Last week I set up a shop on the website www.etsy.com. Etsy lets people set up online shops to hand-made goods; in my case a line of children's clothing inspired by my book Celia Cruz, Queen of Salsa.

My line of clothing is called Florabunda Tots, which is named after my daughter Flora. You can access the store directly by clicking here, or by doing a search on Google for Etsy Florabunda.

Black Genius?
In addition to my blogging over at www.theroot.com, I recently did a run down of new black genius. There's a bit of Erykah Badu, some Dave Chapelle, and others that I think are worthy, as well as some smart reader feedback about people who should be added to the list.

Veronica's Nest
Starting in February I'll be writing a blog about food, home and design for a new website called www.theroot.com (the link may not be active yet). My blog is called The Nest.

My first post will be about Style Statement, a new book coming out in April by Danielle LaPorte and Carrie McCarthy. Check out this gorgeous excerpt and, if you're inspired, you can sign up for Carrie and Danielle's wonderful newsletter, Friday Focus, at www.stylestatement.com.

Glamour Cover Stories
I recently wrote two cover stories for Glamour magazine, the first was a Q&A with Jennifer Lopez and the second was one with Mariska Hargitay. The J. Lo interview is on Glamour's website (here is the printable version, which may stay live longer) and the Hargitay feature has been turned into a narrated slideshow.

The Financial Times on Kickboxing Geishas
The FT's Tokyo bureau chief wrote a nice review of Kickboxing Geishas in the 5/19 weekend section of the paper. Here's the beginning of the review:

What is a Japanese woman? A white-faced geisha? A shrinking office lady, pouring the tea? A coquette, covering her teeth with her hand as she laughs? Or a seemingly downtrodden housewife, who quietly runs the household with a mind of steel?

Women the world over are subject to stereotypes. But few are so carelessly pigeonholed as those from Japan, put into boxes as "exotic", or "submissive" or "inscrutable", but rarely labelled "rounded human being".

Veronica Chambers' Kickboxing Geishas does an admirable job to change that. Based on dozens of interviews with Japanese women, she presents a layered, contradictory picture of a rapidly shifting social landscape in which women play a central and catalytic role.

While many books treat Japan as an onion to be peeled, Chambers goes about things the other way. She gradually adds layers, talking to more people and throwing in new ideas that complicate and confuse but, in the end, illuminate.

The full review is available on the FT's website, but I'm not sure for how long.

Reader Battle
The Random House website has a new reader that lets you preview books. It's similar to Amazon's "Look Inside" feature, except you're able to paste the code into your own website. You can see it action on my Fiction & non-fiction page with Joy of Doing Things Badly. Nothing yet for Having it All? or Miss Black America. Blogger blocks the scripts that make this possible, which is why I'm pointing you to this page. Look for it in the left-hand column. RH also has a reader version of Leslie Steiner's Mommy Wars book. I've linked to that from my anthologies page.

If you go to that page, you'll first see a link to the reader HarperCollins has developed. If you want to read three pages from my Bitch in the House essay, click on it. Unlike the RH reader, this will take you to the HC site.

Modern Love on the Shelf
A selection of stories from the New York Times' Sunday Styles "Modern Love" relationship column is out now. My editor Dan Jones was nice enough to pick my article about failed dating techniques for inclusion in the book.