Support the fact-based journalism you rely on with a donation to Marketplace today. Give Now!

Steamy, sultry and stigmatized no more: romance novels are having a moment

Feb 13, 2024
They used to sell as a guilty pleasure to be hidden away. Now they're cool and out in the open.
Books Inc. in Mountain View, California went from a couple shelves of romance to a full bay in recent years.
Meghan McCarty Carino/Marketplace

My Economy: Using the jobs you hate for creative fodder

Mar 22, 2019
Halle Butler hated working. Now she writes about it.
Getty Images

New novel imagines tech industry "solving" childbirth

Jun 4, 2018
Are there some things that just shouldn't be made easier?
Ian Waldie/Getty Images

Everybody falls in love: diversity in the romance industry

May 11, 2018
For every 100 books published by leading romance publishers in 2017, only 6.2 were written by people of color.
The Koch sisters say they intend their store to be a feminist, sex-positive space. "I just love seeing romance readers realize that we have built this for them. It is our love letter to them, and to this genre," says Bea Koch.
Paulina Velasco/Marketplace

How the ghost of economies past influenced Dickens' "A Christmas Carol"

Dec 25, 2017
The BBC’s Anu Anand takes a tour of Charles Dickens’ last London home, and chats with a historian who explains how economic hardships influenced the celebrated author’s “A Christmas Carol” classic.  Click the above audio player to hear the full interview.