Family Humor

Jesse Few peddles lies. His boss and clients order a couple. His married girlfriend gets a few. His family buys several. But he saves the top-of-the-line dishonesty to sell to himself. The 49-year-old suburban rogue focuses on carousing with his golf buddies, chasing women much too young for him, and surviving the Great Recession that’s raging across the South like it's the Big Banks March to the Sea.

In this "bittersweet and utterly beguiling novel" (Publishers Weekly) each of the MacKenzie family tells their stories in nine, wildly opposed points of view. Starting at a family reunion, three generations of the MacKenzies face off against each other. They discover that terrorism is as intimate as one's own family. Selected as a New York Times "Notable Book of the Year", Duck and Cover is a "wicked black comedy" of a family who fights their wars "on the home front."

"Zugegeben, die meiste Zeit habe ich mich eher mit der Frage befasst, wie ich nicht Vater werde. Bis ich dieser Frau begegnete." Und nun heißt es plötzlich: Wie wird man eigentlich Vater, wenn man es möchte, aber es nicht auf Anhieb klappt? Und was macht der Prozess mit einem, das Auf und Ab des Hoffens und Bangens, neben und zusammen mit der Frau, die das alles am eigenen Leib erlebt? Ein schmerzvoll-tragisch-urkomischer Bericht aus Männersicht.

Nachdem er und seine Frau lange darum gerungen haben, endlich Eltern zu werden, ist die Schwangerschaft viel zu schnell vergangen. Schwups ist das Kind da – und mit ihm die Frage: "Was für ein Vater will ich eigentlich sein?" So stolpert er durch den Familienalltag mit ganz neuen Fallstricken und Fettnäpfchen – immer mit der Angst im Nacken, von einem Säugling als Versager enttarnt zu werden. Der zweite Band von Melanie Amélie Opalkas "Papa-Trilogie" erzählt den "unausgeschlafenen Imperfekt" seines ersten Jahres mit dem eigenen Nachwuchs.

Twenty-year-old Sibel thought she had concrete plans for the summer. She would care for her grandmother in Istanbul, visit her father's grave, and study for the MCAT. Instead, she finds herself watching Turkish soap operas and self-diagnosing her own possible chronic illness with the four humors theory of ancient medicine. Also on Sibel's mind: her blond American boyfriend who accompanies her to Turkey; her energetic but distraught younger sister; and her devoted grandmother, who, Sibel comes to learn, carries a harrowing secret.

A new species has jumped into the Sol system for a quick look, leading the Stryx to assign humans to the greeting mission. Dorothy and Kevin leave on a trading mission in his new ship, bringing the dog, and Samuel and Vivian start at the Open University.

Ein Date, das höllisch schiefläuft, der nie vergessene Ex taucht auf, und dann mischt sich noch die lästige Familie ein … Dumm gelaufen! Meddelin Chan bringt versehentlich ihr Blind Date um, das ihre übergriffige Mutter für sie organisiert hat. Um die Leiche loszuwerden, bleibt Meddy nichts anderes, als ihre ebenso übergriffigen Tanten zu Hilfe zu rufen. Blöd nur, dass der Tote ausgerechnet bei einer Mega-Hochzeit landet, organisiert von der Hochzeitsagentur ihrer Familie. Als dann noch Nathan auftaucht, Meddys große (EX-)Liebe, wird das Chaos infernalisch.

With a dissolving marriage, strained finances, and her life in flux, Ally Anderson longs for normal. Her greatest concerns, though, are the health problems of her young daughter, Kylie. Symptoms point to a compromised immune system, but every doctor they’ve seen has a different theory. Then comes hope for some clarity. It’s possible that Kylie’s illness is genetic, but Ally is adopted. A DNA test opens up an entirely new path.

In 1962 a pregnant girl staggers into a health clinic, gives birth, and flees. A foster family takes the baby in, and an unlikely couple, their lives unspooling from the recent death of their infant, adopts her. Forty years and many secrets and lies later, Cheri Matzner is all grown up and falling apart. Ironic and fierce, she's a former cop turned disgruntled academic, a frustrated wife trying to get pregnant, an iconoclastic daughter bearing war wounds from her dysfunctional family.

Fern Carlile has a lot on her plate. It's a good thing she loves her big, imperfectly perfect family, because she's the one who washes their pants, de-fleas the dog and runs her own business. A hearty meal is the one thing that brings the Carliles together - but over the course of a year, the various courses also pull them apart. Around the table sits an eight-year-old militant feminist, a pair of teenage accidental parents, and a cantankerous OAP. Fern's husband needs an extra seat for his spectacular midlife crisis.

Liz Millanova has stage four cancer, a grown daughter who doesn’t speak to her, and obsessive memories of a relationship that tore apart her marriage.

Was kann denn schon groß schief gehen, wenn man ein zweites Kind bekommen will – vor allem durch künstliche Befruchtung? Zweieinhalb Jahre liegt der erste Versuch zurück, als unser Papa sich erneut traut und zwar gleich doppelt: Denn mit einem weiteren Kind muss ein größeres Heim her und warum dann nicht auch gleich ein Eigenheim? Ob es nun ein, zwei oder vielleicht sogar drei Kinderzimmer sein werden, wie die Stelzen unter das Haus kommen und wie Mann das alles neben Job, Partnerschaft und einem strammen Kleinkind bewältigt … das lernt der Papa auf die harte Tour.

Mike Bittini ist ein Spieler und Streuner, er war es schon immer. Nach siebzehn Jahren on the road kehrt er in seinem alten Ford Escort und den weißen Lederboots zurück nach Wien. Sein Bruder, der erfolgreiche Immobilienanwalt, ist ins Koma gefallen. Nun schleicht sich Mike in Sandros Villa wie der Habicht in den Hühnerstall. Sandros Frau Gloria ist alles andere als erfreut, Mike wiederzusehen. Sie kennt ihn nur zu gut.

River Ryland is the girl everyone wants to be around. But this brave 13-year-old has a secret that's getting harder and harder to hide: she lives mostly alone in a ramshackle, single-wide trailer with a mom who drops in and out of her life.

It’s 2015 in New York City, and three women all known as Mrs. Tobias—Veronika, the matriarch, her daughter-in-law Mel, and Mel’s daughter-in-law Birdie—are trying to navigate personal difficulties, some of which are with one another. Veronika and Mel, despite having little in common, are both psychotherapists who are more skilled at helping other people than solving their own problems. Birdie, still dealing with the culture shock of moving to New York City and marrying into the Tobias clan, is pushed to her limit when her husband gets into trouble.

The Burgers Brothers' Family Funeral Home is dying, and Donnie Burgers wants out. When Donnie expresses his desire to sell the family business, he expects the passionate resistance he receives from his younger brother, Frank. What he didn't expect from his brother was the dirt-covered, bulky trash bag now hiding on his closet floor. Convincing Frank to close the home won't be as easy as Donnie imagined.

In WASPy Larkspur, New Jersey, social expectations and decorum rule, and Marjorie and Dunsfield Thornden are the envy of their neighbors. Their daughters Claire and Cat set the small town’s social calendar by throwing tastefully lavish family parties year round. Because it’s 1977, underage debauchery is to be expected - and Cat and Claire’s children, Bizzy and Choo, are at its very center. But secrets that should’ve never been kept - especially not from each other - are bubbling unattractively to the surface.

Just because a man cheats on his wife and makes Danny DeVito look tall, dark, and handsome, is that any reason to kill him? The reluctant and quirky PI, Lee Alvarez, doesn't think so. The 34-year old half-Latina, half-WASP and 100% detective has her work cut out for her when the man is murdered on her watch. Of all the nerve. For Lee, this has become personal. From San Francisco's famous Embarcadero to quaint Princeton-by-the-Sea, she is out to find the killer. And for the killer, this has become personal, too.

P.I. Sandi Webster's menopausal mother wants her to solve a century-old murder. Her mother's attitude causes armed and dangerous Sandi to feel like a gibbering child. Oblivious to her effect on her daughter, Livvie entices Sandi's cooperation with the story of a lost treasure.

Newly orphaned, recently divorced, and semiadrift, Nina Popkin is on a search for her birth mother. She's spent her life looking into strangers' faces, fantasizing they're related to her, and now, at thirty-five, she's ready for answers. Meanwhile, the last thing Lindy McIntyre wants is someone like Nina bursting into her life, announcing that they're sisters and campaigning to track down their mother. She's too busy with her successful salon, three children, beautiful home, and...oh yes, some pesky little anxiety attacks.