Here is Cheryl, a tightly-wound, vulnerable woman who lives alone, with a perpetual lump in her throat. She is haunted by a baby boy she met when she was six, who sometimes recurs as other people's babies. Cheryl is also obsessed with Phillip, a philandering board member at the women's self-defense non-profit where she works. She believes they've been making love for many lifetimes, though they have yet to consummate in this one. When Cheryl's bosses ask if their twenty-one-year-old daughter Clee can move into her house for a little while, Cheryl's eccentrically-ordered world explodes. And yet it is Clee--the selfish, cruel blond bombshell--who bullies Cheryl into reality and, unexpectedly, provides her the love of a lifetime. Tender, gripping, slyly hilarious, infused with raging sexual fantasies and fierce maternal love, Miranda July's first novel confirms her as a spectacularly original, iconic and important voice today, and a writer for all time. The First Bad Man is dazzling, disorienting, and unforgettable.

    Thirty six year old Annie Schwartz-Jensen is a middle school teacher on maternity leave-a time she imagined as uninterrupted, blissful bonding with her baby. Instead she is dealing with her body leaking from every possible orifice, a baby who won't sleep, a husband who still wants to have sex with her (is he nuts??), single friends who are clueless, and a mother who picked now to take a vacation. The only people who REALLY understand Annie are the wonderful people she spends sleepless nights with on QVC: Keep those velveteen table runners and non-jiggle stretch pants coming!As Annie navigates life with her new baby, she realizes that not all Mommies are created equal. But she is determined to find her way, love her baby, her husband, herself---even if she has to wear nipple protectors for the rest of her child-bearing life.

    Much as Seinfeld famously transcended sitcom conventions by being “a show about nothing,” Pekar’s deadpan chronicles of regular life—peppered with wry and caustic reflections—have transformed comics from escapist fantasy into social commentary with voice balloons. Huntington, West Virginia “On the Fly” is prime Pekar, recounting the irascible everyman’s on-the-road encounters with a cross section of characters—a career criminal turned limo-driving entrepreneur, a toy merchant obsessed with restoring a vintage diner, comic-book archivists, indie filmmakers, and children of the sixties—all of whom have stories to tell. By turns funny, poignant, and insightful, these portraits à la Pekar showcase a one-of-a-kind master at work, channeling the stuff of average life into genuine American art.

    Every minute there reminds her of all the reasons she left and she has no desire to reacquaint herself with her home village. Or with Rory O’Donovan, her lost love.Then, she reads her mother’s will. Her inheritance is a chest full of letters and journals, written by her grandmother and great-aunt, that answer a long held secret. Who murdered her great-uncle in the Irish Civil War.. and why? How did what an uprising for Irish freedom and independence degenerate into a bitter civil war where neighbor turned against neighbor, and family against family– leaving a legacy of lies, secrets, and silences for generations to come?As Jo unearths the bitter, buried history she shares with Rory she finally understands why their love was doomed from the start. But what about now? Can she stay true to both her heart and her heritage? She knows from her own life how the wild energy of rebellion can carry someone away… but what happens after the rising?

    But when she finds herself awake at 1:37 a.m. in a panic over the need to produce a homemade pie for her daughter's school, she has to admit her life has become unrecognizable. With panache, wisdom, and uproarious wit, I Don't Know How She Does It brilliantly dramatizes the dilemma of every working mom.

    

    Henry Tuhoe is the quintessential twenty-first-century man. He has a vague, well-compensated job working for a multinational  conglomerate—but everyone around him is getting laid off as the company outsources everything it can to third-world countries. He has a beautiful wife—his college  sweetheart—and an idyllic new home in the leafy suburbs, complete with pool. But his wife won’t let him touch her, even though she demanded he get a vasectomy; he’s seriously overleveraged on the mortgage; and no matter what chemicals he tries the pool remains a corpselike shade of ghastly green. Then Henry’s boss offers him a choice: go to the tiny, magical, about-to-be-globalized Kingdom of Galado to oversee the launch of a new customer-service call center for a boutique bottled water company the conglomerate has just acquired, or lose the job with no severance. Henry takes the transfer, more out of fecklessness than a sense of adventure. In Galado, a land both spiritual and corrupt, Henry wrestles with first-world moral conundrums, the life he left behind, the attention of a steroid-abusing, megalomaniacal monarch, and a woman intent on redeeming both his soul and her country. The result is a riveting piece of fiction of and for our times, blackly satirical, moving, and profound.

    Walter tells the story of Matt Prior, who’s losing his job, his wife, his house, and his mind—until, all of a sudden, he discovers a way that he might just possibly be able to save it all . . . and have a pretty damn great time doing it.

    When she tries to rent an apartment under an assumed name, she learns it comes with a job -- and a boss she can’t afford to fall for.Tattooed, sexy bar owner Dylon Knightly has a big heart but no head for business. He knows the curvy, redheaded Irish beauty with the dry wit is in some kind of trouble, but he won’t turn her away … and can’t help wanting more.The heat between them burns through their efforts to keep a professional distance. When Lee’s trouble comes looking for her, everything she holds most dear is threatened -- including the life of the charming bartender who captured her heart. But even if they survive, will they be able to overcome the secrets between them?

    All aspects, all directions. On either side of Highway 62, the sand cast up visions of evaporated civilizations, dissolved castles that lay buried under the desert. Any human eye, goggled by a car’s windshield, can graft such fantasies onto the great Mojave. And the girl and the boy in the Dodge Charger were exceptionally farsighted. Mirages rose from the boulders, a flume of dream attached to real rock.And hadn’t their trip unfolded like a fairy tale? the couple later quizzed each other, recalling that strange day, their first in California, hiking among the enormous apricot boulders of Joshua Tree National Park. The girl had got her period a week early and was feeling woozy; the boy kept bending over to remove a pebble from his shoe, a phantom that he repeatedly failed to find. Neither disclosed these private discomforts. Each wanted the other to have the illusion that they might pause, anywhere, at any moment, and make love. And while both thought this was highly unlikely—not in this heat, not at this hour—the possibility kept bubbling up, every place they touched. This was the only true protection they’d brought with them as they walked deeper into the blue-gold Mojave.On the day they arrived in Joshua Tree, it was a hundred and . . .

    With her three children at her side, she can handle anything. Then she finds out her gorgeous first ex-husband Evan Llewellyn is flying in from his glamorous life in New York to attend as well!An unexpected pregnancy ended their relationship and as she stumbles through the ups and downs of life as a working single mum – helping everyone else find a happy ending along the way – Annie refuses to believe their old and incredibly hot spark can still exist.It’s only when she and Evan are forced to face up to the past together that they’ll discover if they can have their own happily-ever-after too!Praise for Darcie Boleyn:‘A beautiful and heartwarming tale, that really tugged at my heart strings…a delightful debut novel from Darcie Boleyn.’ ― Gilbster (Top 1000 Amazon Reviewer)‘The sort of book you want to read on a cold winters night, put on your fluffy pyjamas, grab a hot chocolate and immerse yourself in the delights of Wish upon a Christmas Cake.’ ― The Book Review Café‘What a gorgeously delicious book this is! It just makes me wish I was reading it by a roaring fire, with snow outside on the ground and a plate full of mince pies beside me!’ ― Goodreads Review‘Wish Upon a Christmas Cake is very much a story of loss and true love with a sprinkling of Christmas thrown in for good measure.’ ― By The Letter Book Reviews

    He has forty children, and all of them have different mothers..."Jack Woodson was a thermal design engineer for four years until he was laid off from his job. Now, as a teacher, he faces new challenges. Conference calls have been replaced with parent conferences. Product testing has given way to standardized testing. Instead of business cards, Jack now passes out report cards. The only thing that hasn't changed noticeably is the maturity level of the people surrounding him all day.Learn Me Good is Jack's hilarious retelling of his harrowing rookie year, written as a series of emails to Fred Bommerson, his former engineering coworker. Inspired by real-life experiences of rambunctious and precocious children, lesson plans gone awry, and incredibly outrageous quotes, this laugh a minute page turner will give you a new appreciation for educators. Jack holds a March Mathness tournament, he faces a child's urgent declaration of "My bowels be runnin'!", and he mistakenly asks one girl's mother if she is her brother. With subject lines such as "Irritable Vowel Syndrome," "In math class, no one can hear you scream," and "I love the smell of Lysol in the morning," Jack fills each email with sarcastic (yet loving) humor, insightful observations, and plenty of irreverent wit.If you've ever taught, you will undoubtedly recognize aspects of your own students in Jack's classroom. If you've never set foot in a classroom, you will still appreciate the funny quirks, behaviors, and quotes from the kids and adults alike."I teach, therefore I am...poor!"

    Like an alcoholic taking a sip of whiskey. But no. Nothing. I had a blissful night’s sleep. Didn’t wake up at all. And for once, no bad dream either. This morning I feel balanced. Almost sane, for once.Rhiannon is your average girl next door, settled with her boyfriend and little dog…but she’s got a killer secret.Although her childhood was haunted by a famous crime, Rhiannon’s life is normal now that her celebrity has dwindled. By day, her job as an editorial assistant is demeaning and unsatisfying. By evening, she dutifully listens to her friends’ plans for marriage and babies while secretly making a list.A kill list.From the man at the grocery checkout who always mishandles her apples, to the driver who cuts her off on her way to work, to the people who have it coming, Rhiannon is ready to get her revenge.Because the girl everyone overlooks might be able to get away with murder…

    With these words, Jim Harrison sends his sixty-something protagonist, divorced and robbed of his farm by a late-blooming real estate shark of an ex-wife, on a road trip across America, armed with a childhood puzzle of the United States and a mission to rename all the states and state birds to overcome the banal names men have given them. Cliff's adventures take him through a whirlwind affair with a former student from his high school-teacher days twenty-some years before, to a snake farm in Arizona owned by an old classmate; and to the high-octane existence of his son, a big-time movie producer in San Francisco.The English Major is the map of a man's journey into--and out of--himself, and it is vintage Harrison--reflective, big-picture American, and replete with wicked wit.

    Yet when terrorist attack her entourage, a perilous pollitican plot is revealed. Al Qaeda henchman Aboud is hunting the statue to fulfill an ancient prophecy that would grant the extremists ultimate power over Islam. The CIA has gone undercover in Zeugma to prevent this coup. The safety of the free now hinges on the cooperation of Americans and Turks. With the help of native guide Asena. Dulcey navigates the power struggles and cultural clashes that arise as the dig progresses. But as tensions mount outside and inside the excavation camp, she struggles to distinguish friends from enemies. In a pulse-pounding race to secure the goddess, Dulcey learns the value of honor, family, and heritage as she risk her life to preserve her most precious treasures.