She is the author of the following books:
* _What Are the Chances?_ (1998)
* _The Honeyed Blade: A Novel of Eleanor of Aquitaine_ (1999)
* _Untold Secrets: Breaking Free In My Forties_ (2004)
* _Restoring Paris: The Birth of the Modern City_ (2018)
* _City of Spies: A Tale of Love in Paris in 1942_ (2020)
She has also written articles for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, and Marie Claire.
She is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, where she studied English literature and history.
She is married to author Daniel Okrent, with whom she has three children.