Issue Date: October 23, 2005

BOOKS

Making the A-list

With a new book and movie, a best-selling author dishes on life as an oddball.

In junior high, Jennifer Weiner drew up a list of popular kids, and their likes and dislikes, all in an effort to figure out how to become one of them.

"It never happened," sighs Weiner, now 35.

No matter. With her fourth novel, "Goodnight Nobody" (Atria, $26), about an amateur detective mom of three, Weiner is enjoying the kind of success few people, popular or not, find. Her 2002 book, "In Her Shoes," inspired the film of the same name, starring Cameron Diaz. How did she transform into an A-list literary star? She spoke with us:

What led you to become a writer?
Being an outsider makes you very observant. As a reader and plus-size teenager, there was never [any character in a book like that]. If I write a book that can help one young woman feel less lonely, then I'll have done my job.

You have a 2-year-old daughter. Do you think she will face problems like the ones you did?
I don't think human nature changes. There are still popular girls and mean girls and girls who don't fit in and aren't going to come into their own until they're grown-ups. If my daughter sort of grows up the way I did, I can tell her: "It is going to be OK. There is room for you in the world, room for you to be successful and really happy."

What word describes your experience as a movie extra in In Her Shoes?
Bizarre. We shot a scene ... maybe 30 seconds long ... and [it] took from 6 in the morning until 2 in the afternoon. I would never be an actress. I do not have the patience!

-- Andrea Cowsert