I haven’t read any of Jonathon Franzen’s novels.  The excerpt from his latest was okay, but excerpts are usually not that engaging to read.  It’s funny that there is all this outcry about Franzen’s new book with Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Weiner tossing lines back and forth over twitter.  Their point is how male authors are treated differently by the media.  But is that the point?  Maybe the point is how novels and writers are marketed?  Instead of just talking about a novel by Franzen, people are also talking about Picoult and Weiner.  In the end, it’s all about publicity and selling books.