Book picks similar to
Happy Accidents by Tiffany Murray


fiction
humour
jess-home-catalogue
female-fiction

Cut to the Twisp: The Lost Parts of Youth in Revolt and Other Stories


C.D. Payne - 2001
    editions of "Youth in Revolt." Each passage is keyed to the page from which it was deleted for ease in reading. Now you can discover what happening to Lefty in Book II. Did Millie Filbert try to seduce Nick? Who ratted on Nick to the police to collect the reward? And more--a must read for Nick Twisp fans! Also collected here are a dozen short humor pieces by C.D. Payne.

Nobody Loves A Ginger Baby


Laura Marney - 2005
    Not being happy all the time makes them stressed out of their tights. Carol practises uninhibited sex which ends with her panty liner stuck to the bottom of someone's shoe. Donnie, after a mystery bite in a third world country, thinks he's incubating a nest of spiders up his bum. Daphne gets fat. She makes soup all the time and wonders if Woolworth's sell a hose pipe to fit a Vauxhall Vectra. Pierce is a poet; a fat balding womaniser who's only steady relationship is with a cup at the sperm bank. He's the only one not on anti-depressants, and he's the hero.

The Day After Yesterday


Kelly Cozy - 2012
    Overwhelmed by grief, unable to find solace in his music or accept comfort from his friends, he flees up the California coast. Daniel thinks he’s leaving everything behind, but his journey will take him to the places and people that will help him find his way back. The Day After Yesterday is a story of hope, friendship, and the redemptive power of music.

All Families are Psychotic


Douglas Coupland - 2001
    Against the Technicolor unreality of Florida's finest tourist attractions, the Drummonds stumble into every illicit activity under the tropical sun-kidnapping, blackmail, gunplay, and black market negotiations, to name a few. But even as the Drummonds' lives spin out of control, Coupland reminds us of their humanity at every turn, hammering out a hilarious masterpiece with the keen eye of a cultural critic and the heart and soul of a gifted storyteller. He tells not only the characters' stories but also the story of our times--thalidomide, AIDS, born-again Christianity, drugs, divorce, the Internet-all bound together with the familiar glue of family love and madness.

The Ladybird Book of the Sickie


Jason A. Hazeley - 2016
     The large clear script, the careful choice of words, the frequent repetition and the thoughtful matching of text with pictures all enable grown-ups to think they have taught themselves to cope. Featuring original Ladybird artwork alongside brilliantly funny, brand new text. Other new titles for Autumn 2016: How it Works: The Student How it Works: The Cat How it Works: The Dog How it Works: The Grandparent The Ladybird Book of the Meeting The Ladybird Book of Red Tape The Ladybird Book of the People Next DoorThe Ladybird Book of the Zombie Apocalypse Previous titles in the Ladybirds for Grown Ups series: How it Works: The Husband How it Works: The Wife How it Works: The Mum How it Works: The Dad The Ladybird Book of the Mid-Life Crisis The Ladybird Book of the Hangover The Ladybird Book of Mindfulness The Ladybird Book of the Shed The Ladybird Book of Dating The Ladybird Book of the Hipster

Driving Sideways


Jess Riley - 2008
    Seriously. Having spent the past five years on dialysis, she has one simple wish: to make it to her thirtieth birthday. Now, thanks to the generosity of the late Larry Resnick and his transplanted kidney, it looks like her wish may come true.With her newfound vitality (and Larry’s kidney) in tow, Leigh hits the road for an excursion that will carry her from Wisconsin to California, with a few stops in between: Mount Rushmore, the Badlands, the Rockies, Las Vegas–and a memorable visit to thank Larry’s family for the second chance.Yet Leigh’s itinerary takes a sudden detour when she picks up a seventeen-year-old hitchhiker, Denise, a runaway with a bunch of stories and a couple of secrets. Add a long-lost mother, a loaded gun, an RV full of swingers, and Hall and Oates’s Greatest Hits to the mix, and Driving Sideways becomes a hilarious and original journey of friendship, hope, and discovery. Praise for Driving Sideways: “Driving Sideways is a gorgeous novel . . . hugely entertaining and very touching. Jess Riley’s voice is irreverent and wonderful, and her writing is genius.”–Marian Keyes, author of Anybody Out There?"A hopeful and hilarious debut ... Jess Riley may well be my new favorite author." –Jen Lancaster, author of Bitter is the New Black“Brilliant . . . Jess Riley proves herself a huge new talent.”–Kristy Kiernan, author of Catching Genius

The Language of Trees


Ilie Ruby - 2010
    They are whispered in the rustling trees, in the lush scent of the lilacs, in the flurry of the mayflies batting against the screen door, and in the restless spirits that seem to clamor in the scant breezes on hot evenings. It is in summer that she returns home to Canandaigua, to confront these spirits, both living and not, and to share a secret with her first love, Grant Shongo—a secret that will forever change the lives of many people in the town and put to rest the mysterious disappearance of a little boy more than a decade earlier.Grant, a descendant of the Seneca Indians who call this place "The Chosen Spot," has also come back to face his past. After a broken marriage, he has moved into his childhood home, a lake house that has withstood happiness and tragedy. He knows the spirits of the past must be dealt with—that of the little boy who disappeared all those years ago; the boy's sister, who never overcame the loss; and the love Grant still has for Echo. But before the healing must come the forgiveness.

Good Girls


Joycey Ann Crutchley - 2006
    Good Girls is a feel good, fast paced, thought provoking novel about four heroines. Four best friends who epitomise the newly evolved 21st Century Woman. The woman who dares to be different, the woman who dares to rebel. Straight-laced Cat steps out of character when she secretly flies all the way to Sydney to 'boil her soul mate's rabbits ' Jules embraces single-dom and commitment phobia, so when she falls in love with an actor ten years her junior, in the space of twenty-four hours, a spanner is well and truly thrown into her perfect life. Kizzy also meets the man of her dreams and much to her mother's chagrin they plan to spend all summer together. Unfortunately unbeknownst to everyone the man is actually her father. There's only so much sexist behaviour a woman can take. So bitter and twisted, Em leaves Japan and her boyfriend behind and embarks upon a journey that will not only avenge the male race but hopefully put her back on her correct and spiritual path. "Absolutely disgusting." Grandma. "Funny as f*#%. If Jackie Collins and Helen Fielding got it on then Crutchley would be their love child." Emma Twigge, The CP Gazette.

She Had To Kill Him


Aviva Gat - 2021
    The first, an expensive lawyer. The second, suicide. Robert Derby used the first one. I’m using the second."Mara was celebrating her 21st birthday when her family was killed by a drunk driver. Two years later, Mara wants justice. She wants the drunk driver to understand how it feels to lose everything. She has a plan and a gun and she knows how to use it. But is she capable of murder?Garrett can’t help the family he was born into. His name puts a target on his back. Maybe that’s why he always dates women who need help. But can helping the wrong person lead to disaster?She Had to Kill Him is a gripping story about the things people do for their loved ones. Perfect for fans of Lisa Jewell, Colleen Hoover, and Paula Hawkins.

Everything Changes


Jonathan Tropper - 2005
    A steady, well-paying job; a rent-free Manhattan apartment; and Hope, his stunning, blue-blooded fiancée: smart, sexy, and completely out of his league. But as the wedding day looms, Zack finds himself haunted by the memory of his best friend, Rael, killed in a car wreck two years earlier, and by his increasingly complicated feelings for Tamara, the beautiful widow Rael left behind. Then Norm--Zack’s freewheeling, Viagra-popping father--resurfaces after a twenty-year absence, looking to make amends. Norm’s overbearing, often outrageous efforts to reestablish ties with his sons infuriate Zack, and yet, despite twenty years of bad blood, he finds something compelling in his father’s maniacal determination to transform his own life. Inspired by Norm, Zack boldly attempts to make some changes of his own, and the results are instantly calamitous. Soon fists are flying, his love life is a shambles, and his once carefully structured existence is spinning hopelessly out of control. Charged with intelligence and razor sharp wit, Everything Changes is at once hilarious, moving, sexy, and wise.

The Forced Redundancy Film Club


Brian Finnegan - 2012
    This is a novel about unlikely friendship, coping with unexpected change, coming to terms with your past and facing new beginnings.

A Part of Me


Karin Aharon - 2019
    It was all so unexpected.And now, she needs to fight the greatest battle of her life.Shirley is preoccupied with her non-stop daily routine: her demanding job at a law firm, raising her 18-month son and maintaining her loving relationship with her husband...Shirley’s busy life is turned upside down when her mother, who lives in Australia, comes over to visit and receives painful news – she has cancer.This terrible discovery is just the tip of the iceberg for Shirley, with many more struggles ahead, that she must face.Against all odds, and despite the challenges in her path, she goes on a long and courageous journey, with a single goal in mind – do everything it takes to be there for her children.

The Worst Day Of My Life, So Far


M.A. Harper - 2001
    ramble, Jeanne Roth reminds herself: Tomorrow will be here soon, and it’s going to be just like today was, like something out of Lewis Carroll on crystal meth.

The Dirty Parts of the Bible


Sam Torode - 2007
    Tobias is obsessed with two things: God and girls. Mostly girls, of course. But being a Baptist preacher's son, he can't escape God. When his father is blinded in a bizarre accident (involving hard cider and bird droppings), Tobias must ride the rails to Texas to recover a long-hidden stash of money. Along the way, he's initiated into the hobo brotherhood by Craw, a ribald vagabond-philosopher. Obstacles arise in the form of a saucy prostitute, a flaming boxcar, and a man-eating catfish. But when he meets Sarah, a tough farm girl under a dark curse, he finds out that the greatest challenge of all is love.

Above the Fog


Karen Lynn Nolan - 2018
    But, when Coreen Shell's abusive father makes a promise for her thirteenth birthday that could destroy what s left of her life, she resorts to a desperate prayer to a God she's not sure exists. The next day, a flood washes through the coal camp, like a backhanded answer to her prayer. Coreen, her mother, and her crippled grandmother next door must climb the mountain to find refuge in a nearby church. Then, news of a murder changes everything, in a way Coreen never imagined. Now the real question is: Will Coreen and her damaged, dysfunctional family conquer all the lies, secrets, hardship, and hatred ... or be destroyed by them? General Content (G) (I): Contains little or no; sexual dialogue or situations, violence, or strong language. May also contain content of an inspirational/religious nature.