by Lisa Lutz (2009)
Private investigator Isabel Spellman is back on the case and back on the couch - in court-ordered therapy after getting a little too close to her previous subject. Izzy is on hiatus from Spellman Inc. But when her boss, Milo, simultaneously cuts her bartending hours and introduces her to a friend looking for a private eye, Izzy reluctantly finds herself with a new client. She assures herself that the case - a suspicious husband who wants his wife tailed - will be short and sweet. But with each passing hour, Izzy finds herself with more questions than hard evidence. Meanwhile Izzy's brother, David, the family's most upright member, has adopted an uncharacteristically unkempt appearance and attitude toward work, life, and Izzy. And their wayward youngest sister, Rae, a historic academic underachiever, aces the PSATs and subsequently offends her study partner and object of obsession, Detective Henry Stone, to the point of excommunication. As the case of the wayward wife continues to vex her, Izzy's personal life - and mental health - seem to be disintegrating. Facing a housing crisis, she can't sleep, she can't remember where she parked her car, and, despite her shrinks' persistence, she can't seem to break through in her appointments. Nor can she explain exactly how she feels about Detective Henry Stone and his plans to move in with his new Assistant DA girlfriend ...
Manu Joseph
Three years after 17-year-old Unni Chacko, a budding cartoonist, plunged from his third-floor terrace, his father, Ousep, resumes his obsessive search for the truth behind his death, using his son's funny and contemplative comics as guides in his quest through modern-day India.
Gary Smalley & Karen Kingsbury
Kari Baxter Jacobs is furious, hurt, and confused. Her husband Tim, a respected professor of journalism, is having an affair with a student. Stunned, Kari returns home to the Baxter family to sort things out. But when an old flame shows up, she is more confused than ever. How can Kari forgive her husband? What remedy could possibly ease the pain? A betrayal. A broken marriage. Will Kari ever love again? The gifted writing team of Gary Smalley and Karen Kingsbury brings us a profound story of redemption.
Leah McLaren
"Every couple has a wish list. Maya wants Nick to come home earlier To engage with their children To engage with her Nick wants. A divorce Having decided that their marriage is over, Nick is determined to leave quickly and with dignity. But when he looks into the financial realities of splitting up, he realizes that more of his hard-earned income than he can handle will go to Maya. Then a mutual friend proposes that Nick improve the marriage in order to end it amicably, because the better father and husband he is, the more self-sufficient Maya becomes and the cheaper his pay-out will be at the end. But as Nick sets out to be a better man, he starts to feel like one. Time with his kids, dinners with his wife, fewer hours in the office has the strange effect of making him happier. As Maya starts to feel appreciated by her husband again, she starts to blossom, to unclench her fists from the parenting reins and start to do things for herself. Nick and Maya feel like they are falling back in love. How odd, how funny, how serendipitous. But if Maya knew what had promoted this marital metamorphosis? Then it would be war. A BETTER MAN is the story of a modern marriage on the rocks, how we constantly change in and out of relationships, and the price of love."--
Abigail Tabby
After moving to their new house, the literal-minded NitWits, a family of knitted dolls, host a housewarming party by wrapping blankets around the chimney and serving drinks using a racket.