If happiness had a flavor, could you describe it? If love had a price that you could afford to pay, would you? Michelle is back, and in this mind-blowing sequel to Baby Momma 2, she is by no means taking her losses lightly. She's been broken down, restored, and at the hands of Honey, practically demolished. The woman that has emerged is hell bent on revenge, until an unexpected twist of destiny turns her world completely inside out. Honey is preoccupied with her re-emergence into the world, embracing her new life as the "Queen of Miami." The only thing that might destroy her faster than Michelle's rage is her new Mafia family. She's slowly learning that all that glitters comes with hands attached to dimmer switches—and right now they're itching to hit the off button. When the only options are bad and worse, Honey does the unthinkable and reaches into her past for a favor that might end up costing her more than the Family can even afford to pay. Views: 7
On a dark and foggy night, charming amateur sleuth Ellie Haskell, her husband Ben, and her plucky sidekick Mrs. Malloy find themselves stranded at a grand estate on the Yorkshire moors. Lord Belfrey of Mucklesfeld Manor has decided to save his crumbling establishment by offering himself as the prize on a TV reality show titled 'Here Comes the Bride.' Thrilled at the prospect of marrying a lord, Mrs. Malloy eagerly joins the competition. After one of the potential brides is shot during an archery contest, Ellie begins to explore the dark passageways and hidden nooks of the delightfully Gothic estate – but she may not be prepared for the secrets lurking behind closed doors. Views: 7
Neither strictly a collection of stories nor a novel, the ten pieces that comprise My First Suicide straddle the line between intimate revelation and drunken confession. By turns nostalgic and poetic, these stories combine irony and humor, anecdote and gossip, love and desire with an irresistibly readable style that is vintage Pilch. Views: 7
Meriel Ingram was a tomboy growing up in England, and a talented artist, but pursued a career in accounting for her mother. But when her grandfather died, Meriel emigrated to Australia, where she met Ben Elless. Ben’s wife had been killed in an accident, but he tried to carry on. There was an attraction between Meriel and Ben, which they tried to deny. But what about fulfilling their dreams? Women’s Fiction/Contemporary Romance by Anna Jacobs; originally published by Severn House Views: 7
From The Washington Post Reviewed by Judy Budnitz Does government-sanctioned suicide offer the same potential for satire as, say, the consumption of children? Possibly. One need only look to Kurt Vonnegut's story "Welcome to the Monkey House," with its "Federal Ethical Suicide Parlors" staffed by Juno-esque hostesses in purple body stockings. Or the recent film "Children of Men," in which television commercials for a suicide drug mimic, to an unsettling degree, the sunsets-and-soothing-voices style of real pharmaceutical ads. Now, Christopher Buckley ventures into a not-too-distant future to engage the subject in his new novel, Boomsday. Here's the set-up: One generation is pitted against another in the shadow of a Social Security crisis. Our protagonist, Cassandra Devine, is a 29-year-old public relations maven by day, angry blogger by night. Incensed by the financial burden soon to be placed on her age bracket by baby boomers approaching retirement, she proposes on her blog that boomers be encouraged to commit suicide. Cassandra insists that her proposal is not meant to be taken literally; it is merely a "meta-issue" intended to spark discussion and a search for real solutions. But the idea is taken up by an attention-seeking senator, Randy Jepperson, and the political spinning begins. Soon Cassandra and her boss, Terry Tucker, are devising incentives for the plan (no estate tax, free Botox), an evangelical pro-life activist is grabbing the opposing position, the president is appointing a special commission to study the issue, the media is in a frenzy, and Cassandra is a hero. As a presidential election approaches, the political shenanigans escalate and the subplots multiply: There are nursing-home conspiracies, Russian prostitutes, Ivy League bribes, papal phone calls and more. Buckley orchestrates all these characters and complications with ease. He has a well-honed talent for quippy dialogue and an insider's familiarity with the way spin doctors manipulate language. It's queasily enjoyable to watch his characters concocting doublespeak to combat every turn of events. "Voluntary Transitioning" is Cassandra's euphemism for suicide; "Resource hogs" and "Wrinklies" are her labels for the soon-to-retire. The opposition dubs her "Joan of Dark." It's all extremely entertaining, if not exactly subtle. The president, Riley Peacham, is "haunted by the homophonic possibilities of his surname." Jokes are repeated and repeated; symbols stand up and identify themselves. Here's Cassandra on the original Cassandra: "Daughter of the king of Troy. She warned that the city would fall to the Greeks. They ignored her… Cassandra is sort of a metaphor for catastrophe prediction. This is me. It's what I do." By the time Cassandra asks Terry, "Did you ever read Jonathan Swift's 'A Modest Proposal'?" some readers may be crying, "O.K., O.K., I get it." Younger readers, meanwhile, may find themselves muttering, "He doesn't get it." The depiction of 20-somethings here often rings hollow, relying as it does on the most obvious signifiers: iPods, videogames, skateboards and an apathetic rallying cry of "whatever." But Buckley isn't singling out the younger generation. He's democratic in his derision: boomers, politicians, the media, the public relations business, the Christian right and the Catholic Church get equal treatment. Yet despite the abundance of targets and the considerable display of wit, the satire here is not angry enough – not Swiftian enough – to elicit shock or provoke reflection; it's simply funny. All the drama takes place in a bubble of elitism, open only to power players – software billionaires, politicians, lobbyists, religious leaders. The general population is kept discretely offstage. Even the two groups at the center of the debate are reduced to polling statistics. There are secondhand reports of them acting en masse: 20-somethings attacking retirement-community golf courses, boomers demanding tax deductions for Segways. But no individual faces emerge. Of course, broadness is a necessary aspect of satire, but here reductiveness drains any urgency from the proceedings. There's little sense that lives, or souls, are at stake. Even Cassandra, the nominal hero, fails to elicit much sympathy. Her motivations are more self-involved than idealistic: She's peeved that her father spent her college fund and kept her from going to Yale. And she's not entirely convincing as the leader and voice of her generation. Though her blog has won her millions of followers, we never see why she's so popular; we never see any samples of her blogging to understand why her writing inspires such devotion. What's even more curious is that, aside from her blog, she seems to have no contact with other people her own age. Her mentors, her lover and all of her associates are members of the "wrinklies" demographic. Though I was willing for the most part to sit back and enjoy the rollicking ride, one incident in particular strained my credulity to the breaking point: Cassandra advises Sen. Jepperson to use profanity in a televised debate as a way of wooing under-30 voters, and the tactic is a smashing success. If dropping an f-bomb were all it took to win over the young folks, Vice President Cheney would be a rock star by now. Views: 7
Murder in the rich atmosphere of London's Clubland – here is Dennis Wheatley at his thrilling best in this classic, meticulous whodunnit.The detective force, always a step ahead of the police force, brings together the connoisseur Duke de Richleau, a husky American millionaire and a young man-about-town on a charge of matricide. Views: 7
"Octavia has a unique way of approaching love and heartache." —APOOO Book ClubIn her award-winning novel His First Wife, Essence® bestselling author Grace Octavia introduced Jamison Jackson, a man on his way up. But in this explosive follow-up, he discovers the top isn't the safest place for a man with a past...A secret dark past and a string of messy affairs haven't stopped self-made millionaire Jamison Jackson from becoming mayor of Atlanta. But while he may have a gorgeous new wife and new alliances, he can't quite escape his past and those who want to see him fail. There's his jilted first wife, a lover he'd rather forget, and a ruthless faction of old guard politicians and power lords who have no problem getting blood on their hands. And the fact that Jamison's ambitious current wife, Val, schemed and blackmailed her way into his arms—despite his mother's not-so-subtle warnings—is far from the least of his problems. Because everyone's got... Views: 7
In a botched escape from Russia, MI5 spy Charlie Muffin is seized by the FSB, Russia's intelligence-service successor to the infamous KGB. Charlie is Russia’s long-term target in British counter-intelligence, and Moscow is determined to extract, by whatever means necessary, every secret of British---and Western---espionage over Charlie’s thirty-year career.Charlie’s determined not only to resist the interrogation but to learn from it if his Russian intelligence-officer wife and their daughter escaped the trap that snared him and have reached England. He embarks on a cat-and-mouse battle of deception to convince his interrogators that they’re learning what they want---or think they want---aware that one misspoken word could be fatal.That’s not Charlie’s only problem. He’s also trying to work out how his escape was foiled. It could not have been only due to the FSB, or his wife and daughter would have been caught as well. His MI5 boss doesn’t think it was, either, and suspects treachery by Britain’s external intelligence organization, MI6. To help discover the truth, Natalia, Charlie’s wife, uses all the Russian tradecraft she’s ever learned to help save her husband. Views: 7
