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  Pass the Pierogies

  Mike Breslin

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  A gut-busting, only slightly exaggerated memoir of growing up in Pennsylvania’s Anthracite Coal Region in the 1950s and 1960s.   From flattop haircuts to football fanaticism, block parties to balsa wood models, beer to . . . more beer, this is a rollicking, nostalgic account of life in a Pennsylvania coal town. In a region where downtrodden immigrants from Italy, Ireland, and Eastern Europe poured in during the nineteenth century to find work in the mines—except for the ones who got tired and just stopped in New Jersey—a unique culture was passed down from generation to generation, and this book provides a vivid and humorous picture of what it was like to experience childhood there in the mid-twentieth century. Mike Breslin enthusiastically shares his many stories with readers, because his family is sick of hearing them.   And as for the pierogies of the title, no one actually passes them. When the plate comes out, it’s every man for himself.

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  The Constable Mavis Upton...

  Gina Kirkham

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  An ebook collection of three novels that follow the hilarious misadventures of a woman who takes no prisoners—which is never ideal for a police officer.   Mavis Upton tackles everything life can throw at her in this humorous, poignant, and moving series of an everyday girl who one day followed a law enforcement dream . . .  Handcuffs, Truncheon and a Polyester Thong   Single mom Mavis Upton decides to pursue her lifelong ambition to become a police officer. Using her newly discovered investigative skills, she reluctantly embarks on a search to find her errant dad who was last seen years before, making off with her mum’s much needed coupon for a fabulous foam cup bra all the way from America.  Whiskey Tango Foxtrot   Our hapless heroine Constable Mavis Upton is preparing to step down the aisle with her fiancé Joe, but has to deal with her temperamental teen daughter, as well as investigate a serial flasher on a push bike. Throw a diva drag queen into the mix and readers can expect the usual hilarious Mavis mishaps that made the first book such a hit.  Blues, Twos and Baby Shoes   Mavis and her daughter Ella are both pregnant. But now Mavis has to deal with a mysterious case involving a blackmailer sending poison pen letters. Can Mavis juggle impending motherhood and her career, maintain a loving relationship with her other half Joe and deal with being a grandmother, all while solving the case?  Series praise   “Laugh out loud brilliance, so witty and cleverly written.” —Samantha Magson   “Hilarious! It’s true, everyone needs Mavis in their life.” —Sherrie Hewson   “Such a terrific read!” —Lorraine Kelly

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  Family of Noblemen

  Mikhail Saltykov Shchedrin

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  Meet the Golovliovs, the ultimate dysfunctional family. In the difficult transition years before and after the liberation of Russia’s serfs, the Golovliovs are a gentry family ill-equipped to face the adaptations necessary in the new social order. Petty, back-biting, greedy, rigid, ignorant, and cruel, their personalities are captured in the array of nicknames they themselves give each other: The Hag, Little Judas, Simple Simon, Pavel the Sneak, the Orphans, the Blood-Sucker. They hate each other ferociously and utterly despise the peasants around them, who are gradually awakening to the potentialities of their new freedoms. In this most famous of Saltykov-Shchedrin’s novels, there is a keen sympathy toward the plight of women caught in the complexities of social change: Anninka and Lubinka, the aristocratic orphans who, seeking independence, recklessly cast themselves into the bohemian life; the matriarch Arina Petrovna, whose desperately vigorous administration of the estate leads to an exhilarating but only temporary stability; the peasant girl Yevpraksia, who is resistlessly taken by the loathsome Porfiry Vladimirych as his mistress. Far from a piece of social propaganda, A Family of Noblemen shows a subtle portraiture of the complex characters and convoluted circumstances of the time. (Expatriate)

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  Dagger in the Dahlias

  Dale Mayer

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  Book 4: Lovely Lethal GardensRiches to rags. … Chaos quiets. … Crime is circling. … And cold cases never cease …After almost a month in picturesque Kelowna, Doreen Montgomery still can’t keep her notoriety to a minimum or her nose out of other people’s business. Now those suffering from the loss of a loved one seek her out, wanting her help. While the last thing Doreen wants is to have the media discover she’s involved in another cold case, she is already hooked on the details …But even more is going on. News has gotten out that Nan’s old house is brimming over with valuable antiques, antiques Nan collected and left for Doreen, and the seedier elements of their lovely town are circling like vultures. With her animals in full assistant mode, Doreen must investigate the cold case, right the wrongs of the past, and keep her home safe, all while evading the media—and Corporal Mack Moreau.

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  Melting Miss McCool

  Ellie Lynn

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  Nicknamed ‘McCool’ by her colleagues, Kerry-Lee McKenzie has had her fill of men and bad relationships until she runs across Benjamin Grant, the one man who crawls firmly under her skin and refuses to let go. Ben is determined to find the woman smoldering under the cool, calm exterior and isn’t above using a little unfair carnal persuasion.With Kerry doing her best to keep Ben at arm’s length and Ben working hard to close the distance, love is always a step or two away. It isn’t until her hormonally charged best friend interferes that Kerry finally realizes that first impressions aren’t always accurate, and absence really does make the heart grow fonder.

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  The Dissertation

  R. M. Koster

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  This novel posing as a dissertation on León Fuertes, the fictional president of a made-up Banana Republic is “still fresh, funny, and disturbingly relevant” (Publishers Weekly, starred review).   To fulfill his PhD requirement, Camilo Fuertes decides to write about his father León, the martyred president of Tinieblas, a small country in Latin America. As Camilo traces his family’s roots, we follow León along his twisted path through delinquency, learning, lust, and bravery to his historic position of leadership.   At once a powerful vision of Latin American history and a brilliant parody of the academic form—complete with endnotes—The Dissertation is the second novel in Koster’s acclaimed Tinieblas trilogy, and an essential postmodern novel in the tradition of Vonnegut, Barth, and Nabokov.  “One of the few books of the past 20 years that deserves to be called astonishing. It is a brilliant novel, structurally a marvel and, in all, a demonstration of elan as that quality seldom is experienced in a work of fiction.” —The Des Moines Register  “Longtime Panama resident Koster portrays Latin America with a comedian’s sense of timing, a scholar’s sense of history, and a native’s fond despair.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)  “Koster is that rare thing: a writer from the heart, passionate and uncompromising.” —John le Carré

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