Other books that might interest you

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  Model Home - A Novel

  Eric Puchner

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  Warren Ziller moved his family to California in search of a charmed life, and to all appearances, he found it: a gated community not far from the beach, amid the affluent splendor of Southern California in the 1980s. But his American dream has been rudely interrupted. Despite their affection for one another—the "slow, jokey, unrehearsed vaudeville" they share at home—Warren; his wife, Camille; and their three children have veered into separate lives, as distant as satellites. Worst of all, Warren has squandered the family's money on a failing real estate venture.As Warren desperately tries to conceal his mistake, his family begins to sow deceptions of their own. Camille attributes Warren's erratic behavior to an affair and plots her secret revenge; seventeen-year-old Dustin falls for his girlfriend's troubled younger sister; teen misanthrope Lyle begins sleeping with a security guard who works at the gatehouse; and eleven-year-old Jonas becomes strangely obsessed with a kidnapped girl.When tragedy strikes, the Zillers are forced to move into one of the houses in Warren's abandoned development in the middle of the desert. Marooned in a less-than-model home, each must reckon with what's led them there and who's to blame—and whether they can summon the forgiveness needed to hold the family together. Subtly ambitious, brimming with the humor and unpredictability of life, Model Home delivers penetrating insights into the American family and into the imperfect ways we try to connect, from a writer "uncannily in tune with the heartbreak and absurdity of domestic life" (Los Angeles Times).

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  The Toys of Peace

  Saki Saki

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  This is the fifth collection of short stories by Saki (H.H. Munro), and was published posthumously in 1923. Even so, many of the stories are quite up to the standard of those collected earlier. (Summary by Graham Redman)

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  A Cornish Odyssey

  Axel Forrester

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  "Funny, poignant, each chapter a surprise, as this young man not only discovers the magic of Cornwall, but the magic inherently in him." - Deidre Gainor 
  A humorous, fish out of water story, this page-turner is a delight, a romp through Cornwall that will make you laugh out loud and leave you wanting more. If you like Bill Bryson you’ll enjoy this writing. It entertains while taking you on a journey. This novella is a love letter to Cornwall and its quirky characters. 
  Grant Decker is a disgruntled California art teacher turned 40, who has lost his way in life. A random stab on the map means he’s going to Penzance to spend his school holiday, hiking around the coast of Cornwall. Everything about Cornwall is strange to this American–the accents, the food, the changing weather. Determined to show Graeme, his trip planner, he’s not a lazy American, he avoids the bus and crashes through the scenery with comic effect. Walking on the coastal path he has visions of pirates, saints, mermaids, and chocolate cake, but it's through his encounters with the people of Cornwall that he learns how to be his authentic self. This is a journey of self-discovery.

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  Seven Kinds of People You Find...

  Shaun Bythell

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  From the author of Confessions of a Bookseller, a cankerous and darkly funny field guide to bookstore customers.  
   
  It does take all kinds and through the misanthropic eyes of a very grumpy bookseller, we see them all. There’s the Expert (with subspecies from the Bore to the Helpful Person), the Young Family (ranging from the Exhausted to the Aspirational), Occultists (from Conspiracy Theorist to Craft Woman). 
   
  Then there’s the Loiterer (including the Erotica Browser and the Self-Published Author), the Bearded Pensioner (including the Lyrca Clad), the The Not-So-Silent Traveller (the Whistler, Sniffer, Hummer, Farter, and Tutter), and the Family Historian (generally Americans who come to Shaun’s shop in Wigtown, Scotland).Don’t forget the Person Who Doesn’t Know What They Want (But Thinks It Might Have a Blue Cover) and the harried Parents Secretly After Free Childcare. Two bonus sections include Staff and, finally, Perfect Customer—all add up to one of the funniest books about books you’ll ever find. 
   
  Shaun Bythell and his mordantly unique observational eye make this perfect for anyone who loves books and bookshops. 
   
  Praise for Seven Kinds of People You Find in Bookshops 
   
  “Bythell continues his seriocomic take on his profession . . . he spares no one.” —Michael Dirda, The Washington Post 
   
  “Cheers to Shaun Blythell for this delightful taxonomy of bookstore customers and visitors.” —Pamela Pescosolido, bookseller, The Bookloft 
   
  “Bythell is having fun and it’s infectious.” —The Scotsman (UK) 
   
  “Virtuosic venting . . . pantomime misanthropy is tempered with bursts of sweetness in the secondhand bookseller’s latest dispatches from Wigtown [Scotland].” —The Guardian 
   
  “Seven Kinds of People You Find in Bookshops (a parody of the sort of self-help titles Bythell absolutely loathes), is a series of Orwellian-incisive character sketches.” —The Critic (UK) 
   
  “Bythell distills the essence of his experience into a warm, witty and quirky taxonomy of the book-loving public.” —The Week (UK)

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  Damsels in Distress

  Laura Kenyon

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  After watching her fairy tale go up in flames, Belle is finally starting over. With a baby on the way, a business to run, and a new love interest she just can't shake, things are finally looking up. That is, until she learns her independence might revive broken curses the world over. Could "happily ever after" really mean staying with her unfaithful husband? Or will Belle and her steadfast friends find another way?Meanwhile, Dawn still longs for the life she had three centuries earlier—before her sleeping curse ended in two kids, an unfamiliar era, and a husband she barely knows. So when the childhood sweetheart she believed to be dead resurfaces, she must suddenly choose between the past she once wanted and the present she never knew she did.As both women struggle between love and obligation—between what's right for the world and what's right for the heart—they fail to see a great danger brewing in the capital. One that could change everything forever.With the wit of authors like Jennifer Weiner, the vision of ABC's Once Upon a Time, and the imagination of Gregory Maguire's Wicked, Damsels in Distress picks up where the original tales left off—and twists them every "witch" way.

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  Molly in Milwaukee

  Chastity Veldt

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  Molly Moser owns a small bookstore in downtown Milwaukee. 
  All she wants to do is sit inside and read, even as Aunt Prudie Judy wants her to get out and meet new people, especially the nice young men she keeps trying to fix her up with. 
  But Molly sees things a little differently when she meets Jake Nilsen, a standup comic and former college swimmer, who's in town to perform at a local comedy club. 
  Can Jake bring shy Molly out of her shell and help her see that there's more to life than just books?

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