Family Humor

Ten years ago, Bruno Tannenbaum was a passionate food journalist with a respected newspaper column, a popular segment on the evening news, and a bestselling guide to relationships through food. These days, Bruno is a passionate "has-been" living on his mother's couch, separated from his wife and daughters, eating his way through an ever-dwindling bank account, faced with the gnawing doubt that he'll never be the writer he once was.

At thirty-nine, Leona Accorsi is broke, single, back in school, and living in her sister Carly's basement. She's perfectly content being quirky Auntie Lee to Carly's four children. That is, until Leona's doctor tells her that if she wants to have a child, she'd better do it now. Leona does want a baby. She always has, but the circumstances have never been right. Now she has a huge decision to make: face motherhood on her own or risk missing out on its rewards.

A small town girl from the Midwest is carried away by her "Prince Charming" to the super charged canyons of modern New York City. Warned by her uptight advertising executive husband to beware of strangers, the newlywed cannot repress her small town upbringing and instinctive innocence. She eventually befriends many of the offbeat and quirky tenants in her apartment building and enters into their complicated and sometimes tragic lives.

Florence Saint Claire is a loner. Albert Flowers is a social butterfly. Good friends who think they know each other. But, somewhere between who they are and who people think they are, lies The Best Kind of Beautiful. Award-winning journalist and author Frances Whiting brings her renowned warmth and empathy to this witty and gentle story about bringing out the best in each other.

What happens when the world’s greatest literary icon dies before she finishes the final book in her best-selling series? And what happens when she leaves that book in the hands of her unstable, neurotic daughter, who swears she’s not a real writer? Sara Grayson is a 32-year-old greeting card writer about to land the toughest assignment of her life. Three weeks after the death of her mother - a world-famous suspense novelist - Sara learns that her mother’s dying wish is for her to write the final book in her best-selling series.

For Sabrina Monroe, moving back home to the Wisconsin Dells - the self-described Waterpark Capital of the World - means returning to the Monroe family curse: The women in her family can see spirits who come to them for help with unfinished business. But Sabrina's always redirected the needy spirits to her mom, who's much better suited for the job. The one exception has always been Molly, a bubbly rom-com loving ghost, who stuck by Sabrina's side all through her lonely childhood.

The Core Four have been friends since college: four men, four women, four couples. They got married around the same time, had kids around the same time, and now, fifteen years later, they’ve started getting divorced around the same time, too. With three of the Core Four unions crumbling to dust around them, Jessica and Mitch Butler take a long, hard look at their own marriage. Can it be saved? Or is divorce, like some fortysomething zombie virus, simply inescapable?

After 20 years of teaching, steady, reliable Professor Sterling flips out in front of her literature class. Time for a change? Definitely! So when her dad starts cancer treatment, Alene has to brave-up to break out of her routine life. She flies to Colorado to buy cannabis where it is legal, and sneak it home to Texas, where it is not. Arriving at the height of the Green Rush, Alene discovers the glitzy world of pot dispensaries below the gritty streets of downtown Denver.

The holidays are coming, and a plan to build a mini-mall has some residents in a tizzy. It'll take some shrewd negotiating and a little help from the Big Guy upstairs for Dorothy to set this one right.

Jimmy Smith runs like the wind, sings like an angel, and wears a gas mask in his father's Valiant. He knows the winner of every Melbourne Cup, eats Choo Choo Bars and tends to his ant farm. Jimmy lives with his extended family in the country village of Point Henry. It's 1969. Neil Armstrong has just landed on the moon and the Vietnam War is raging on television sets across the world. But Jimmy is concerned with matters closer to home...the city people are coming, bringing their pole houses and cul-de-sacs with them.

Sammy Sullivan is working his way down the ladder of success. Divorced and pushing fifty, his relationships have the longevity of a fruit fly. But how many men can get themselves fired and have their only son expelled from prep school all in one day? Now, after almost eighteen years, he and Jake may finally get to know each other. (That's if his ex-wife - the super-achiever Sammy can only dream of being - doesn't find out.) Jake knows virtually nothing about his roots. So, Sammy shows him the old neighborhood in the far reaches of Queens.

Raj Bhatt is often unsure of where he belongs. Having moved to America from Bombay as a child, he knew few Indian kids. Now middle-aged, he lives mostly happily in California with a job at a university. Still, his white wife seems to fit in better than he does at times, especially at their tennis club, a place he's cautiously come to love. But it's there that, in one week, his life unravels. It begins at a meeting for potential new members: Raj thrills to find an African American couple on the list; he dreams of a more diverse club. But in an effort to connect, he makes a racist joke.

Jamal’s best friend, Q, doesn’t know that he died, and that he’s about to die...again. He doesn’t know that Jamal tried to save him. And that the reason they haven’t been friends for two years is because Jamal blames Q for the accident that killed his parents. But what if Jamal could have a second chance? A new technology allows Q to be reanimated for a few weeks before he dies...permanently. And Q’s mom is not about to let anyone ruin this miracle by telling Q about his impending death. So how can Jamal fix everything if he can’t tell Q the truth?

Digby and Zoe have been skirting around each other for so long that you might think they'd lose their magic if they ever actually hooked up. But never fear--there's all the acerbic wit, steamy chemistry, and sarcastic banter you could possibly hope for.Now that Digby's back in town with a new lead, he's plunged Zoe (and their Scooby Gang of wealthy frenemy Sloane, nerd-tastic genius Felix, and aw-shucks-handsome Henry) into the deep end on the hunt for his kidnapped sister.

Sheils is very pleased with her perfectly controlled life (controlling others while she's at it). She's smart, powerful, the student body chair, and she even has a loving boyfriend. What more could a girl ask for? But everything changes when the first-ever interspecies transfer student, a pterodactyl named Pyke, enrolls at her school. There's something about him - something primal - that causes the students to lose control whenever he's around.

Scott Hudson has somehow managed to survive Freshman year. But with a new baby brother in the house and a whole host of adventures awaiting him at school, Sophomore year promises to be anything but boring. An honest and funny follow-up to the popular Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie, award-winning author David Lubar pens a tale that perfectly captures the ridiculous, tumultuous, and sometimes heartbreaking truths about high school.

Stuart has been married to Tiffany for five years now, and though they have their issues, he is full of unconditional love for his family. Last time it was his outrageous relatives they had to deal with, and now they're headed on a trip to visit Tiffany's family for Christmas. His stepdaughter, Angel, has grown into a rebellious teenager. Tiffany's parents are divorced but still living together, and their tendency to say exactly what they're thinking leads to some dramatic arguments.

Eine Mutter, die mit verführerischer Sogwirkung schwarzsieht. Ein Vater, der mit Nebelkerzen wirft, wenn er von sich erzählen soll. Und ein vermeintliches Unglückshaus, das es endlich zu verlassen gilt. Miriam Böttgers aberwitziger, tragikomischer und abgründiger Roman für alle, die sich auch mit ihrer Familie herumschlagen. "Eigentlich ist jede Familie eine Sekte für sich, mit irgendeiner speziellen Idee oder Wahnvorstellung, um die alles kreist", grübelt die Ich-Erzählerin in Miriam Böttgers Roman.

In this “brilliant . . . and darkly funny” (Sarah Dunn) novel, Dolores O'Shea’s marriage collapsed when she discovers her husband’s AI sex doll in the garage—but after moving “Zoey” into the house, they become oddly bonded, opening the door to a lifetime of repressed feelings and...

A dynamic, honest, and beautifully written novel about a young mother who returns to her small-town Wisconsin home after living in a cult-like “Mommune,” and what happens with the other women in her family as they each navigate the constraints, complexities, and joys of modern motherhood.