So what's with this rash of books about older women celebrating their sex life? That's essentially the question Dinitia Smith asks those she talks to in a slightly wide-eyed piece in today's NYT that just wraps its head around the idea that women of a certain age can, and do, enjoy themselves, as personified in recent books by Gail Sheehy and Jane Juska, just to name a few:

The new books are intended for a generation of women who were inculcated early on with the idea that sexual pleasure was their right. And those women are not about to go gentle into that good night, said Katha Pollitt, a poet who writes a column on politics and feminism for The Nation. "Feminism has taught women that your sexuality is something you should take charge of," Ms. Pollitt said. Moreover, she said: "We live in a very highly sexualized culture. Sex is how we understand happiness and why we are here."

But as Nancy Thayer found out when she was trying to shop her HOT FLASH CLUB series to publishers, some people were slow on the uptake:

Thayer, a best-selling author with 13 earlier novels, went to her editor and proposed the concept.

"To say they weren't interested is an understatement," says Thayer. "My editor told me the only books that would sell were about women in their thirties having lots of sex."

Make that "former" editor.

The idea was then shopped to Ballantine, and the rest is bestselling history.